I MADE A GAME
For the first time in years, I actually released a new (small) game called MINAN! It's a 4 level challenge game that's playable in ya browser. The streak of incomplete prototypes has been broken. ADHD meds def helped with that.
I guess this is kind of a gamedev post mortem. Let's break down the good and the "bad"
Good:
- I actually committed to a project
- I ENJOYED making it. Building levels with different objectives was a ton of fun
- Short dev time of ~2 weeks
"Bad":
- It has reminded me how much I hate promoting my stuff.
- Related to the above, it's hard to make people care about a free game
- The workload felt heavy. For a short game, making something releasable was still challenging
I don't wanna sound like a doomer or entitled to anything. It's just hard having a creative drive but feeling like you're yelling into the void - it makes it feel pointless to a degree. The nice thing about the game being free is that there's no expectation of money or real "success" though. I like that a lot. I'm not really sure what I wanna do from here. Making commercial games does have perks when Steam can do the heavy lifting on marketing (if the game looks good / hits the right notes). That being said, man it was a ton of work! 21 scenes / scripts in Godot.
I also feel like it's worth noting that genre / niche has so much to do with game success. (Which sucks, I hate feeling pidgeonholed) - my most most successful game is an insanely niche simulation game that I don't even like playing.
It was a good use of free time too. I didn't work insane hours on it, just when I felt like it which was really nice. In the past I've forced myself to put in time on projects, and while that DOES work, the burnout is real. All my energy goes to creating and I don't wanna promote nothin' - I just wanna release it and CHILL.
Anyways thanks for reading and if you decide to check it out I hope you enjoy it :)