This should be a short post, it's really more of a general update on the states of things than anything else, but there have been some odd changes as of late, so this may be worth a read.

First of all, the next game is done! It's a small 2D slash-em-up game heavily inspired by the Evil Dead and other splatter films. Right now we're still receiving and implementing art, so it won't be available until early December at the soonest. We still haven't decided 100% on a name, but rest assured once we do we'll be spamming it everywhere.

Having completed almost all the code for the hack&slash game so quickly, I decided to start work on a few more prototypes for a bunch of different games. In the end, I've effectively axed all of them for now, save for a weird west themed hardcore roguelike centering around a wild west world populated with skeletons. I've been working on the prototype for just under a week now and have already implemented a number of the most basic systems that're needed for an RPG. I don't know when this one will be done, or what it will be by the end, but I'm very excited to take a chance on constructing a living and weird world for players to explore. 

In other news, SiC was a huge flop. As of writing this, tomorrow will be exactly a month since SiC was released. Of the people who played it, most seemed to enjoy it, and a tweet from ItchIo was helpful in getting a small second wind of views and downloads, but in the end SiC's store page has been viewed only 413 times and downloaded exactly 80 times. I've done a lot of reflecting in the last month about the scale of SiC and have come to the conclusion that it can't matter. I'm not a businessman, I'm not making games to turn a profit, I'm here to express myself and create experiences for others to enjoy. It's a disappointment when you spend so long working on something, just to have very few people play it, but in the end I didn't necessarily make it for everyone else, I made it for me. So that's what I'm gonna keep doing. I'm gonna make games that appeal to me and that I think are fun or interesting, and if there's a market for them, then great, if not, then fuck-it.

Anyway, if you want to help support us making these games, I've got a patreon you're welcome to contribute to, or, ya know, just check out our games. 


Thanks,

Wyatt White
Welcoming everyone, once again, to the Inevitable after

It's been over a month since the last blog update, and what a busy damn month it's been. We've managed to finish and release SiC, produce a patch, and start on our next game. Today I just wanted to take a quick second to get out some thoughts and comments on where things are and where they're going.

Fist off, SiC's release. If I had to describe the release in one word, I'd probably use 'Quiet'. Thankfully I have as many words as I like.
Any indies that aren't established in the industry already know that the biggest issue with growing as an indie nowdays is exposure. All the tools that make game development easier and more accessible also bring in more and more people. Now, I really don't think this is bad, I think more people making more games helps spread ideas and grow the community, which are good things. Though it does mean that it's very hard to get anyone to pay attention to your game, especially if you don't have incredible graphics or some inherently sell-able gimmick. SiC Had neither of these. After a few artists fell through, I did the graphics myself, and the game-play is a pretty standard old school shooter.

I thought if I could just get people to try it, if they'd just play it or see it played, people would see that it was worth their time and at least download it, if not play it. After emailing over 50 YouTuber's of most every size, I only got one response and did not get a single shred of extra publicity from it. I don't know why not a single youtuber cared, and at this point that's out of my control.
The people who did play the game seem to have liked it. I've gotten a few messages through email and twitter expressing that players really liked the game, which was really encouraging. If it werent for the people who hit me back about liking the game, I'd have considered it an abject failure. 

In closing, I really messed up SiC. I stand by the quality of the game, I think it's a damn solid shooter, but I messed up in getting it in front of people. I spent 14 months working insane hours on SiC, I really cared about this game, all to have it come out to a chorus of crickets. I spent a week or so moping around, I ate copious amounts of pizza, drank Mountain Dew till my eyes bled. It was a little rough, not gonna lie. BUT, I've picked myself back up, and am in the process of finishing my B game, which we'll be talking about in a sec here. Before we do that though I just wanna say a big thanks to the people that played SiC, and an even bigger thanks to the people who bought it. You guys keep me going.

NOW! Time for the more interesting part. THE NEXT GAME! I've been in love with the idea of doing A and B games. A large project, followed by a small project, followed by a large project, and so on. SiC was the A game, and while it certainly under-performed, I was already working on a B game before SiC was released. RLL is that B game.

RLL is a short, small-arena slasher about a lone pirate beating up a shit-ton of undead pirate ghouls before summoning and destroying their Ghostly King. It's not meant to be anything profound, just a small comically bloody way to spend a few minutes of your time. 

Note: Most of this is still my prototype art. We've got a dude sprucing it up as we speak.

While we don't have a date set in stone, RLL is aiming to be dropped onto the internet sometime in early December and will be available for free.

I know this was a metric ton of text, but thanks to those that read through and to those that actually care about what we're trying to do here.


Thanks,

Wyatt White
Human Lump extraordinaire