Happy Labor Day!
I can’t believe it has been a whole month already… As they say, time flies when you are having fun! Speaking of that, I delayed starting this company for so many years because I wasn’t sure I would enjoy building games as much as I enjoy playing them. Making games, at least solo, is about whether you like writing, composing music, doing graphics, coding/debugging (in whatever language is best for the job), iterating on game design, reacting to feedback, etc.
At the end of the first month, I can say: yes, I like it all (some more than others)! But it’s all hard stuff; at the end of most days, I’m exhausted from 8 hours of “deep”, challenging work. Nonetheless, seeing things start to take shape is great, and I enjoy learning and using so many tools. But let’s see how I will feel about everything after 6-12 months… I’ll let y’all know! :)
I got a lot done this month. If the project started with a lot of “pre-work”, that is, planning X, getting ready for Y, and learning, now I can say that most of my time is spent building the actual game. My goal for the first month was to deliver real game “artifacts”, particularly story, music and graphics. I also did a good deal of coding, but most of it was tech demos that won’t be featured in the actual game; I’ll talk about code some other day.
Music, specifically playing the piano, is one of my lifelong hobbies, perhaps the only thing I’ve been doing as long as playing games (I started both when I was 7). I expected music-making to be one of my favorite areas during this project, and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve accumulated all of these software and hardware instruments over the years, and I honestly didn’t know how to use them very well due to my historical time shortage. So I took the time to really learn my instruments and got to compose the first song from the official game soundtrack, Blue.
It is a rough mix, but I’d say it’s 90% there. This is the first time in years, if not decades, that I have had time to sit down with my sequencer and write music without rushing. The song is simple (despite the very long chord sequence), but it matches my chosen genre for the soundtrack. It will play in the background, so it’s meant to get out of the way and let you focus on the game; this will also be the case for other tracks I’ll create and select from our (yet unannounced) guest artists.
I also spent a good deal of time working on the adaptation and gameplay integration of my 2015 Outsider novella. This was much harder than I thought, and I got stuck in it for a few days. Thankfully, nothing that a lot of coffee and green tea couldn’t solve, and I have a very clear path forward. In that process, I must have written close to 15K words, most of it in outlines and base lore for the entire Outsider cycle (which includes future games, if I ever release them). Now, I can focus on the writing for Outsider Zero, and if all goes well, I’ll have enough for the demo version to be released later in the year.
Lastly, I did enough graphics work to create the first official Outsider screenshot. Graphics will likely be the hardest part of development because of my absolute lack of talent in the area. I can’t even draw stick figures, for God’s sake! Whatever I can achieve in this will be through 3D modeling and shading, something I can “kind of” do because it is a lot more about reimagining the world through Math and Geometry than having proper hand-eye coordination for drawing.
You might be wondering why I didn’t hire a professional artist for the game. The reason is simple: I want the challenge, and I want to learn about every facet of game development so I can understand the process better. In my future games, if the time ever comes, I will certainly hire contract artists.
That’s it for today, folks! Just remember, you can check my weekly updates for more anecdotes and up-to-date project status.