Spring Cleaning and a Post-mortem

Lack of social media presence
This should have been obvious. I had been managing many different Facebook pages with my day job and volunteer work, and also paranoid about my ex-colleagues linking up my gamedev identity with my day job’s identity. Circumstances aside, a dedicated Facebook page would have been a great feedback platform and a community builder. No amount of posting on TIGSource would allow for that kind of undivided attention.

Unpolished marketing assets
Despite sending out personal emails to some targeted journalists (stuff like noticing which game they’ve covered before and themes that they would be interested in is pretty standard practice in cold emails and PR), only Warp Door picked it up and featured it during For Emery’s Early Access phase. December is a pretty bad time to try and get eyes on a small piece of work, and it’s especially so when I have relied on my writing prowess rather than letting visual elements speak. Attention spans are precious resources.

An uninteresting title screen
Another project killer that I didn’t realise until it was too late. Initially, I thought that a minimalist title screen would pique interest and create a solemn mood immediately. But as marketing material, it is seen as an insignificant piece of work amidst GIFs of game mechanics at work.

Giving the game away early on early access (?)
While opting for a transparent approach in giving updates to hold myself accountable, announcing that the game was available on early access may have killed off the game’s publicity early. But it seems that it’s a 50/50 chance here. Some developers have opted to not announce anything until they are ready with a launch date, whereas some have opted to announce and gather feedback early to incorporate improvements as they go along. My best guess would be that early access works best for games with constant content updates or a social/multiplayer functionality.

Setting the core mechanics early
The point and click mechanic, in addition to the visual novel dialogue elements, gelled really well to create a Machinarium/Tim Burton-esque interactive novel. Prizing the mechanics above the original script has kept the workflow pretty smooth, and it made me willing to bend the script in more interesting ways. Nevertheless it has resulted in a cutscene that didn’t explain the fact that Death could shapeshift into a snake.

Preparing art assets on the go
Keeping a to-do list of art assets should only serve as an overview rather than a huge tasklist to be wrangled immediately. This has helped me not feel overwhelmed by the scope of the project, and helped with the playtesting too. Another perk from this was that there were moments that felt like I had cut days out from the development grind when I realised I could reuse some art assets on a different level.

Taking a coding class prior to development
Getting taught in C# in that class was a happy coincidence since I planned on using Unity, but the basics of knowing how to create functions and piecing logic together into something coherent has helped in bug-busting and problem solving during development.

Knowing my upper limit/skill ceiling
Notwithstanding that I ended up not knowing where my strengths are after the project was completed, I knew where my upper limits were during the game development process, and took necessary breaks when needed. For skilled designers, they may have been able to churn out a VN/point-and-click adventure game with 15–20 minutes of gameplay in less than 6 months. But I had a day job, external projects, and other hobbies. While the flow of game development can be something addictive, I have set aside some time to be able to pursue other interests so that I don’t burnout and ensure that at least I’ve shipped a game.