One year away from the industry that I almost hated
Last year I was browsing reddit’s gamedev community, teared eye, typing the question I never, ever, expected to type. I was burned out by making games, commercial games for other people with questionable sale tactics and kpi driven mechanic balancing. I felt no love and a lack of passion for the medium and I desperately wanted out before I even had a chance to hate the industry I always dreamed of working in.
I thought that by separating my day job from my passion would get me back on track. I would be so bored writing software that I’d spend my free time pursuing game development at home, in the dark with only a screen as my light source, fingers pushing furiously against a mechanical keyboard. It’s been a year since I posted that question and I was half right: I did get bored of writing software. At least in my current field. It’s simple with virtually no complex challenges thrown my way. No complex AI algorithm, no clever hacks or behind-the-scene fakes to make a mechanic seem clever. No design challenges, no clever workarounds on limited input or screen real estate.
It’s been a boring year where the only joy came from learning about a new medium and great coworkers who kept laughing through my corny jokes. But once the novelty of the medium washed away I was left doing exactly what I was doing before, but with less fun and creativity. I thought the grass was greener on the other side. I was wrong, so very wrong.
It’s been one hell of a year for me though. I bought an apartment, my first ever piece of property. I bought furniture, I setup a work space and even a big-enough patio to work in during the summer. And now that the whole moving in business is taken care of it’s time to do what I’m really after: Get back to making games.
But I’m not going to do it for someone else. No small-to-medium indie studio, no big AAA company and no one else in charge of the creative process besides me. No in-app purchases, no clever marketing tactics, no chasing the whales and tuning mechanics to optimize cash spending. Just bare-bones, old-school, premium, “quality” titles that I always wanted to make — with some freelancing on the side to pay the bills.
My plan is simple: I have two titles that were put on hiatus: Rogue Sweeper, the roguelike/minesweeper mashup for Mobile and PC and Ebony Spire: Heresy — a first person dungeon-crawler completely playable with only a keyboard. It’s time to take them out of limbo.
Rogue Sweeper was my game jam darling. I developed it during Global Game Jam 2015 and polished it the following weekend. Placed it up for sale and brought me more money than I expected from a 96h project.
Ebony Spire: Heresy is the game I always wanted to make, mechanics wise. It’s an all-goes first person dungeon crawler where you can throw coins, desks, weapons, armors and even the kitchen sink at the enemies. It’s as old school as my beard and more quirky than my cat’s personality. Everything you can use can be used against you. There’s an Eye ball monster that picks up items and places them inside it’s eye-sockets. Throws coins at you or potions to cause blindness. There’s a fairy that teleports you everywhere and really screws your progression just because she can. And sometimes she’ll teleport the monster you want to kill so badly. There are knights that can one hit you and there’s always a chance a Grue can eat you in the darkness. In short, it’s a weird roguelike/rpg/tbs/first person mashup that I love dearly.
Starting October 3rd I’ll have enough money put aside to sustain myself for 3 months. Everything is saved so I can pay my mortgage and do what I love: Make games or Crash and Burn trying.
I can’t go back to software development and I don’t want to work in an industry where Metrics and KPI’s dictate game design and mechanics. I despise the industry that transitioned from paid DLC’s to loot-boxes for DLC content. I feel like I’m designing games for gambling addicts. “If it doesn’t bring in the whales, there’s no need to add it” are words that I heard quite a few times since I got my first industry-powered paycheck back in 2010.
I’ve been paid to make games for more than 7 years now. I’ve been paid to make games for other people, in order to bring more money into their pockets. I’ve been paid to go over my principles and I justified this through pure enthusiasm and passion for the medium. Well, it’s time I pay myself for the privilege of working in this industry. And if I am to fail, so be it. I’ll keep on trying until I can make it. Even in f2p games there’s a chance to pass a given challenge without having to pay. And if there’s anything I’m good at, is grinding the hell out of a challenge.
If you want to support me in this endeavour you can check out my two in-development games: Rogue Sweeper and Ebony Spire: Heresy. If you are looking for a technical writer hit me up with an e-mail or send me a message on twitter. I need to find a way to keep the lights on and writing tech-focused articles is a good way of doing it. Browse my medium profile for samples of my writing.
Remember to give me a clap (or more) if you like this article. Or check out my paypal.me link if you want to send me a complimentary beer.
