Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Post release philosophy

With all the twittering and Facebooking I do, it's hard to come up with interesting things to write about.  Puzzle Bots came out a few weeks ago.  And in case you haven't heard, it's awesome and stuff.  So you should check it out.

And as I often do after a release, I tend to get a little philosophical.  This is the sixth game that we've completed since we started this studio in 2006, and man have things changed.  And by "changed" I don't mean myself.  When I started, there were very few people doing this kind of thing.  But now?  The entire indie gaming scene has taken off like a howitzer blitz.  Everyone's talking about it.  Mainstream gaming websites and media outlets now dedicate a good chunk of their time to indie games.  The IGF has become a force to be reckoned with.  Game conventions normally reserved for the biggest high-budget console titles (like E3 and PAX) now have indie game booths and they are packed to the gills and swarmed with press.  There are major websites and web TV programs (including the fabulous Bytejacker) dedicated to the subject.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  I could go on, but you get the idea.  It's pretty darn amazing.

As for me?  I'm still that guy in the cafe.  Drinking coffee, plinking away at a laptop keyboard, and somehow ending up with a game at the end of it.  The way I work hasn't changed all that much.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

So what's next for us?  Janet and I are working on a new project, but there's very little to show so we're keeping mum about it for now.  It's very much a "back to our roots" kind of thing, but it's also something very new.  I DO have some truly epic programmer art, done by me, which you can see right here:


I wonder if the game would sell more if it looked like this.

3 comments:

  1. OMG, you're making Loom 2!

    BTW, your link in the first paragraph points to your old blog.

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  2. Wow that was my first thought too when I saw it.

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  3. Oops! Dutifully fixed!

    You do cast spells with a staff, so there's a bit of Loom in there. I knew the comparison would be made, so I thought of giving him something else like a wand or an instrument... but dang it they don't look quite as "cool" as a staff.

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