New Series?##

I’ve decided that since I’ve enjoyed writing more blog posts and that I want a soft way to keep myself accountable. In the past, this has led to immense shame and has been a cause, in part to me dropping some projects, however I think now that I’ve had a mindset shift, I’ve come up with a way to do this without causing any negative effects. After all, I know that no one is coming to punish me if I miss a goal or don’t get as much done as I’d like (even if I was, I’d be behind a very long list of people who failed their New Years resolutions). I know that reading posts like these from others has been fun and really inspiring. So at the very least, I can imagine another dev feeling the urge to pick something back up due to this hypothetical series of posts and that makes them worth trying.

Updates on /now##

I had a few big projects that I update on the now page of my blog so I’ll talk about those:

• The secret horror game now has more concept art and the player’s sprite (and my test dummy for how I want things to look) is in progress. It will be staying in the wings for a while longer as I’ve decided to switch up my strategy a bit, which I’ll talk about later.
• The DS RPG is probably no longer for the DS. I’m admitting that this was a bit too much for me to chew, however that doesn’t mean I’m completely giving up. I think I’m going to instead make the game for the Playdate! I can still have some level of 3D graphics (eventually), use C++, and get low level experience, but I’ll be able to do so in a more approachable way. I also will be putting more limits on myself since the console has a small screen, 1-bit graphics, etc. This means I can take pressure off of myself. Also, depending on how I utilize the crank: I’ll have a shorter average play session which means I can make content in smaller chunks. 
• In January, I actually got very little done for the comic attempt. I mostly just got some more lore down for one character and fleshed out the world a bit more. I have been reading comics more though so I’m going to call that research.
• The Dress-up Mystery Game was a bit of a sticking point since I wanted to give myself proper separation from my day job. However, that too will most likely be pushed to the side due to the change in strategy I mentioned earlier.

Games on the Brain##

January has been very game dev focused. I attempted and failed my first game jam of the year with a SRPG, however I learned more about making games in that genre and got more time in Godot which is always welcome. I also will be applying that knowledge to something new. I attempted jam #2 with a classic survival horror game. I tried a new approach where instead of trying to get the narrative done first, I stuck to a hook (in this case a strong theme) and then worked on things that would be expected of the genre (hiding, shooting, etc.). I may stick to this in cases where it makes sense. That game will be picked back up when Josei Jam happens.

The Power of Friendship##

January has also been very people focused. I met some online friends for the first time this month, visited an old college friend, and went to in person events. It’s one of the busiest months socially I’ve had in a while and surprisingly one of the most fun considering how much of a homebody I am. I’ve learned more about the people and places around me, which when the internet is filled with bots, people trying to create discourse, or bots trying to create discourse has been a healing practice.  Also, people coming together is a great way to protect each other.

The Mysterious Strategy##

So if the month went so well, why are so many projects going on ice? Because I’m changing strategy. One of my long term goals has been to establish a name for myself and my games in the indie dev scene. I want to eventually be known for good work and at some point make some money off of it. I have no intention of making it my full time job, especially not yet, but having enough to put into savings and being able to fund more games with money from previous games will be helpful. Currently I’m more likely to be known in my communities for being friendly than for anything I’ve made. The previous paragraph should make it clear I love that I’m making connections, I would just also love to have my games and experiences known as well. I would like to be the friendly face that also made that cool thing, ya know? So towards that goal, I have made/ will be making a few changes:

1.  Make what I already have look better. By this I do not mean actually touching any game files or doing remakes of any of them. I gave all of my games images, screenshots, and banners. I also added ten tags for most of them. I’ll have to play around with reordering tags, but for all of my super old games that’ll be all the sprucing up they get. For Dungeon Generator I’ll redo the description as well but the biggest thing will be sprucing up my main developer page. But for that, I’ll have to get CSS access and do some reference collecting to see what I want my page to look like.
2. Spend some time on smaller prototypes. My projects were on the longer side and I think having them out and expecting money for them alongside a page that used to not have a picture would be ludicrous. In general I’ve been wanting to have more games out anyway. It definitely gives a developer some legitimacy to have a longer game out, but having many smaller, but still solid games is a valid strategy as well. I’ve also been getting more exposure to small, short games thanks to PICO-8 and the Playdate so I have some better reference for myself.
3. Spend time on my site. It seems only fair that I give my personal site some love as well. Another way to get my stories and worlds out there is to have something about them here. Plus it means there’s a place for stories I love but are taking longer or have things I have to wait on before getting them done. It also means that I have a way to lower the scope of my comic project and maybe get some more headway on it. Also, I’ve been meaning to make these blog posts look nice for a while now because looking at my old ones bothers me.

Anyway, that’s how January went. Here’s hoping February has some good things ahead :)