Wow! It is already May! I hope everyone is having a good year so far! Apologies for having such a long period between announcements. I have intended to post something for over two months but am only now managing to force myself to do so. In this post I want to give an update on Crea and as well as details on why this current Crea update is still in development.
Crea Development
Just to get it out there: yes, the Crea 1.6 update is still being worked on. I am still figuring out exactly what it will have and when it will be released. I will tease that a big new feature has been completed for it which will delight those who like to build. There are many other things I would love to do in 1.6 so I ask for your patience for a bit longer. It is also worth noting that I am once again the sole developer on Crea. The artist, Jonatan, did great work for Crea but after wetting his appetite for indie gamedev he wanted to work on his own projects for awhile. I hope to work with him again in the future!
Development Delays
So why is this update taking so long? Well, to be honest, it is because I have hardly worked on it. I started last year working as hard as I could go and kept at it for a solid 7 months working incredibly hard. Kelley (former Crea artist and wife) and I decided to travel to Stockholm for 6 weeks (August-September) with our daughter. Here is a picture of us taking a day trip to Skansen, an open-air museum.
Afterwards we decided to move back to California and once there I found myself in a not so great place. In the past I have kept up the facade that everything is great even when they're not. I decided to stop that and instead share the struggles in hopes that it may help others and maybe in the future it will help me too.
After the 5+ years of working on Crea I was extremely burned out. I had suffered from minor burnout during development but nothing close to this. My desire to do any game development entirely dissipated. With my productivity gone I felt aimless and empty which resulted in me becoming depressed. Occasionally, I would struggle in an attempt to be productive but my motivation was at an all time low and my attempts where fruitless. I retreated into an old MMO with my brothers which lasted until the end of February when my brothers' grew bored of the game. At that point I was forced out of my routine and fortunately I discovered my motivation was renewed and productivity slowly returned. This is certainly not the best way to handle this situation but I think talking about it is a good step in the right direction.
Since the end of February I have been very busy with Crea and several side projects. For awhile I was juggling them and then I decided to finish these side projects first. That way they can be completed finally and I would be able to focus 100% on Crea once more. Another week or two and I should be back on Crea fulltime.
Hexachain
One of these projects is Hexachain, a mobile zen puzzle game about connecting hexes together and then destroying the hex chain. I started this project a few years ago with a friend and we have really wanted to finish it. It is now in beta testing and if you are interested you can sign up with the link associated to your device OS:
Android: https://rink.hockeyapp.net/recruit/33fdb08c98aa47188f4adf20d1117f31
iOS: https://rink.hockeyapp.net/recruit/609d47a79dec40b7b0f66759c071fd9a
House
Another project I have been working on for awhile now is becoming a homeowner. We decided to buy a new construction home which we have been working on getting since coming back from Sweden. It is finally nearing completion and we should be moved in by the end of May. Here is a sneak peak at the future home of Siege Games!
Loves
Thank you everyone for your amazing support and patience. The last half year has been tough for me but things are looking up and I'm exited for the second half of this year!