Hi everyone!
Hope your new year is going off to a great start! I personally haven’t made any resolutions for 2024 since I have a ton on my plate :D.
Like, look at this insanity of a to-do list:
- Release 2 new games (Baldr’s Squid Isekai, That Which Rises) by year’s end
- Continue development of Vampire Syndicate
- Secret project related to Vampire Syndicate
- Content update for Memoirs of a Battle Brothel
I’m used to working on multiple things at the same time (Tactics Arena and Memoirs shared overlapping dev time and I also wrote a 175-page lore book). But even for me, this is ambitious. But don’t worry, I’m not overworking myself, even though my future games are going to be on a hyper-accelerated schedule.
Some of the most time-consuming parts of gamedev is caused by lack of experience, whether it’s technical issues, mechanical balancing or content/writing. Being an inexperienced developer is a lot like being blindfolded. You’re groping in the dark, hoping you’re going in the right direction.
Now that I’m reasonably experienced, it’s like the blindfold has been removed. And there’s also one large benefit of being mostly solodev: you have a complete picture of what you need. Combine these two things, and you get an incredible amount of clarity. It feels like I’m playing Tetris, but I intuitively know the blocks that are coming and how to place them.
I understand that I am in a unique position compared to most other gamedevs, and that I’m lucky to be here. That being said, the training wheels are coming off, and I’m looking very much forward to what I’ll be calling the “Main phase” (or maybe “Make it or Break it phase”) of my gamedev career.
I’m especially excited for Baldr’s Squid Isekai, which will introduce my completely overhauled RPG system. For my future games, I want mechanics to be more thoughtful and elegant, and also stray a little closer to the cRPGs that motivated me to enter gamedev. This also means expanded dialogue and character mechanics!
I might be really busy, but I kinda feel like this doggo:
Baldr’s Squid Isekai is approaching Early Access launch, likely sometime in February (yes, that soon). Wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2610440/Baldrs_Squid_Isekai_A_Parody/