2021 was a year of high expectations and lofty goals. Plans shifted as I learned more about myself and about game development. Starting out, I had no idea what I was doing… and I still don’t, but at least I have focus and direction now!
Take my mistakes in the following paragraphs and learn to avoid them!
I’m going to break things down by quarters so there is some chronology to my journey.
Releasing Pixel Pub (Q1)
During the first 3 months of 2021 I was able to release my first game, Pixel Pub! A simple and quick memory matching game. The main goal of this project was just to publish. Here are my key take-aways from that project.
Mobile game development is not something that lights a fire within me for a few reasons
Freemium seems to be the best model for mobile games and that forces the entire game to be designed around with barriers to get players to pay money or watch ads.
On top of that, I don’t play mobile game, so why would I try and make them!? I know this one is obvious, but I fell for the trap of thinking a mobile game would be small enough and quick to publish. Games take forever no matter what, so don’t lie to yourself thinking it will be a quick in and out adventure.
Playtest Early!
This would have saved me so much time. Playtesting showed me that the game lacked stickiness and was too cognitively taxing throughout a session. By the time I had people testing it, there was no time to iterate on the design flaws.
It's ok to move on
I published and didn’t get much traction so I moved on. The majority of the games I make will not be massive hits making me $$. Take the lessons learned and move on. The first 10 games are supposed to suck anyways.
Spinning Wheels and Lost (Q2)
During this quarter I had lost direction entirely. I knew I didn’t want to do mobile and wanted to produce something more personally gratifying.
Trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do, I was inspired by Slay the Spire. I tried to begin prototyping a deck-building dungeon crawler with heavy influence from Lovecraftian lore. It took two months of chipping away at this idea and progress still remained stagnant.
Deciding to table it, I tried a game jam to see if that would get the creative gears flowing.
Ludum Dare 48
Theme: Deeper and Deeper
Participating in this game jam is exactly what I needed to wake up and get moving creatively. With only 16 hours to work on it, I was able to slap together a very ok speedrun game. The controls were terrible, but I exposed myself to development ideas that I would have never played with otherwise. Procedural generation, pixel art, particle effects and sound integration all done within hours.
It was a fast paced approach to development and cannot think of a better way of leveling up game development skills in such a short amount of time.
You can try this game out here
Game Jams and A New Focus (Q3)
Finally I found what I was looking for. I always wanted to push out games quickly to learn and game jams were the key.
Coming off the high of Ludum Dare 48, I hopped into two more game jams right away.
Unity create with code jam
Theme: Modernizing a Classic
This jam I decided to create more of a narrative game that worked as a satirical piece on how crappy games can be when bloated with ads and DLC. I called it Payment Optimized Net Game (P.O.N.G.).
My voice started to come through in my work. It helped continue this journey of making me more confident and it ended up getting a great reception when others played my corporate hellscape version of Pong.
If you wish to torture yourself, here it is.
Rhythm Jam
Theme: Every _______
This ended up be my most challenging jam yet. Getting inputs to work on cue while coordinating with a song is no small task. It gave me a huge appreciation for all rhythm games. It also helped build a stronger understanding of input lag time and how crucial that can be in a players experience.
I ended up ranking #13 in fun out of 91 entries. The top 10 would have been great, but my confidence and experience were continuing to grow with each game jam I did.
Focus, clarity and VR
After doing numerous game jams, I was blindsided when I acquired an Oculus Quest2 for my birthday. It was affordable, great quality and exactly what I wanted to develop for since trying a Vive in 2017. Having the opportunity to develop for VR in my hands and with game jams as a tool, I knew exactly what I needed to do for the fourth quarter of the year.
VR Learning Blitzkrieg (Q4)
This quarter was full of tutorials, reading books and of course, game jams. I had no clue how to do 3D games, but it didn’t matter. This was the way forward.
Scream Jam 2021
Theme: It’s just a Halloween jam. No real theme outside of that.
I did not have enough experience to take this challenge on. In the end, I still ended up with a great entry. It was buggy and I couldn’t get the sound working sometimes, but I developed a VR game in a short amount of time.
The only drawback was doing a VR game for a none VR focus game jam. Many players couldn’t play it and I was left without any useful feedback.
Regardless, I had done it. I completed my first VR game.
It can be found here.
Seattle Indies Slow Jam 2021
Theme: Cozy
Another step forward and I ended up getting something out of this jam that extended past game development. I was exposed to a community of game developers who are talented and supportive.
Check out Seattle Indies here if you’re interested in joining a helpful and welcoming community.
This game jam ended with an entry that had working sound, locomotion and interactive objects. A great leap forward from the previous months jam.
Try out Yarn Barn here.
The End of 2021
So there it is. A year of failure, wheel spinning, discovery and direction. The number one thing to take away from this year is that you should always keep pushing forward. Keep trying new things when you don’t know where you’re going.
Push forward and the path you’ve been looking for will become clear with time and work.