I’ve been away for 2 days, on holiday. Yippee. First time I’ve been away this year, and indeed, since I moved house. It takes me about 24 hours to switch off from work, even once I’m 100% away from a PC, so that gives me 24 hours of relaxation proper before I’m back in code mode. I still occasionally find myself thinking ahead though.
I actually started thinking post-GSB very briefly. I’m still a little way off from that, but I need to set a date for when I ‘move on’ and pack away the star wars and star trek DVDs and sound-tracks and dig out the <********* spoiler ***> which will get me in the mood for my top secret next game. With a new race expansion pack under way right now, and the campaign add-on in full development, it feels a bit weird to already be planning ahead.
However, I know that it takes me roughly a year to make a new game. That means having to start on the next one at the point where I think I can finish it before you I out of cash. If I plot a graph of Gratuitous Space Income, it tapers down pretty steadily to about now, and bumbles along at a livable rate. In a years time, that will (if it follows my other games) be just below that. Luckily I’m a bit paranoid and always stick some money aside when things go well. My plans stupidly assume that the next game is at least as good selling as Democracy 2 / GSB. If it sells like Rock Legend instead, I’m probably eating from Asda rather than Sainsburys. If it sells like Kudos 2, I’m eating from bins :D.
So my current business plan (not as exciting as my game design plan) is that the 3rd (likely final) race expansion pack comes out next month, and hopefully the Campaign turns up in June. Those should bump up sales of the main game a bit, and hopefully pay for themselves over the next year. I have a feeling the campaign may slip a bit due to feature creep, but I’ll assess the likely interest in that after the next expansion goes on sale.