Sep 02 2011

ROADMAP

Well, work on Vigilance is completed. I’ve spent this week on a contract project that leapt out at me from nowhere, which should be good money. Some time next week, though, I need to move on to other things…

Here’s an old shot of the main thing I’m considering.

Yup. FIGHT BACK is back on the radar, and I’m plotting a course to take it from “cool prototype” up to “finished product”.

My main problem with this project now is that Flash game sponsorship doesn’t really look that attractive any more. So, I’m wondering: how about making it a much bigger project, hiring an artist and turning it into an excellent single player and networked multiplayer hi-def fighter/shmup with lovely backgrounds, lots of explosions and so on? Priced somewhere around $5-10. I’m considering a few other things too, like a “freemium” version, or an iOS port. In short, I think I’m going to make this funky little genre-bender my first mid-sized project, as well as being the first one I’ll charge money for.

Decisions like this are pretty scary! What happens if the game fails to take off? I’d be committing a lot of time and money to making it awesome – maybe as much as a year, maybe even more. On the flipside, if I don’t take risks with bigger projects like this, am I going to be able to make a living as an indie at all?

Fortunately, I don’t need to make those decisions just yet. I can keep developing the prototype in cool ways for now, trust that I’ll be able to make something from it when it’s done and ignore the money side until the game matures! So my main project for the next few months is probably going to be making Fight Back bigger, better and funner.

If that works out well, maybe it’ll make the transition from Flash game to C++ and high resolution. Let’s see how it goes. 😀

4 Comments on “ROADMAP

  1. I am not personally a fan of the genre so I would be sad about that! I sooo much enjoyed Vigilance, but even way more Beacon though!

    If only you could make a full sized exploration game like beacon, I think you would kick ass in terms of steam sales!

  2. This is good news! Seems like Vigilance accumulated some buzz, which is awesome, and hopefully means there are enough people watching you make the next step not *too* much of a risk 🙂 But of course I say this with a bias — I’d get to play the finished game 😉 An upscaled version of Fight Back sounds pretty amazing!

  3. I personally loved beacon. I will probably try something like that the next time i try to deving.

  4. Cheers owen 🙂 Good luck. It’s a fun formula and really relies on world-building, I think.

    Cai: yeah, I hope it would be! I just like the idea of it being slick and fullscreen. It could be pretty crazy…

    david: you might be right, but those things take a long time to make! Maybe I’ll work up to one after a few more projects.

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