So its finally happening. After a very long time in development, which I sometimes say is three years, or sometimes two years, and TBH its just not important enough for me to look it up…I am about to release my new game to the universe. I’ve done multiple blog posts about why this is different, but I’ll quickly summarise it in one paragraph…
I am semi-retired. Thats what happens when you *could* retire, but are not sure what to do. I started messing around with the idea of updating Gratuitous Space Battles (released 17 years ago tomorrow!), and then I couldn’t find the very latest code for it…and then I decided even if I did, that code was OLD, and I could basically write it from scratch, and then I decided to do a similar-ish game, with the same art assets, and then that morphed into buying assets for NEW graphics, and then that became a whole re-design and re-code from nothing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. And this time its just me, nobody else involved!
So what that means is… 1) I am not reliant on this game making a lot of money to live on 2) If this game bombs, its fine and 3) This is being done for FUN, so any aspect of the game release, promotion and support etc that is not fun, I will not be doing. Now all of this probably really sounds like ‘living the dream’, to some indies, but its really not as simple as that, because there is basically no way to signal all this to people who buy the game.
Gamers assume every title is made by a ‘team’ (the amount of messages I get that reference my team is silly…), that every title is a full-on desperate attempt to get as many sales as humanly possible, and that every game is a commercial enterprise. Now to be clear, the game is $25. Its not free. I DELIBERATELY made it cost that (with no launch discount), because this is a game for people who really like games like this. If you think its ‘overpriced’, then don’t buy it. If you are going to wait for 50% off, feel free, but don’t expect that to happen soon (if ever). So what I kind of dread is all the loud, brash “The lazy dev better implement X,Y and Z and reduce the price by 95% or no sale!” bullshit. I really hate it…
And sure, I am in the VERY enviable position of being able to happily reply to such comments with “Don’t buy it then.” The trouble is, even THAT is seen as provocative by such people. Apparently it is the LAW, that all gamedevs must be on their knees desperately begging a thirteen year old gamer to buy their title in a bundle at 90% off. Any suggestion otherwise is basically sacrilege.
I know…I am whining. I am probably very nervous and stressed, even though I shouldn’t be. I just wish there was a way to intercept people before they leave snarky messages and angry reviews, just to tell them that the dev is not crying himself to sleep over their comments. Feedback on how to make a better game is awesome, ideas for balance tweaks are awesome, ideas for new content or improvements are awesome bad framerate reports are awesome. I LOVED the Gratuitous Space Battles community. I just wish there was a way to ONLY sell the game to those people :D.
Anyway, this is just pre-release angst, and a sight nod to the absolute despair anybody trying to make a living from indie games must be in right now. I don’t think my game is even the most wish-listed auto-battler being released ON THAT DAY. Its ludicrous to think making and selling games via steam is going to be a viable business for the bottom 99%. Sadly I have no solutions, except to say “Retrain as an electrician, preferably a high-voltage expert”. I am serious.