Well Rimebeard is finally “done”. Took me a while didn’t it? Either way, here’s some kind of post-mortem.
Spaghetti
What do you get when you just randomly start coding without putting too much thought into it? Spaghetti-Code! Yeah I’m not gonna repeat that mistake (I hope).
Delta-time
I was aware from the beginning that I need to keep delta-time in consideration. However, thanks to aforementioned Spaghetti-Code there was a particularely important (and BIG) part of the code that was entirely resistant to any attempt of making it framerate-independent. My options were to either rebuild it from ground up (this could honestly have taken months!) or find a solution that sort of works.
Considering the code was already al dente, I just tossed in another cup of Fusilli for good measure and called it a day. So… it sort of works now :V
Art is hard
Especially if you start out without having much experience on how to animate things. It’s tedious, and the project-burnout wasn’t helping.
Also all art assets were just kinda made on the go. Overall the entire process from making the asset to implementing it in-engine was just not well thought out. It was severely lacking efficiency.
Meta-Puzzle
Given the nature of a level-based puzzle game, I needed to make puzzles. Damn I really underestimated this task. The early levels were quite easy, they obviously had to be simple, didn’t use many elements and as such didn’t require any crazy stuff. But the later levels started hitting hard. I’ve spend several hours per level just tweaking and testing over and over. At times I didn’t even know if a level is possible, but it looked possible and I banged my head against it until I was certain it either is or isn’t.
Who would have guessed making a puzzle level for a puzzle game is a puzzle in itself.
Cut content & feature creep
I start to understand why games have cut content. Even though I wasn’t working on a deadline, I ended up cutting content. Oh the things I had planned… Well, if the game garners any kind of community I might patch them in later, AAA-style. Or maybe even add a little DLC?
It’s a good thing I ended up cutting back, otherwise I would still be looking at a grueling mountain of work rather than looking forward to press “Release” on Steamworks.
Money talk
Overall I’d say I have spend ~500$ on the development of Rimebeard in terms of hard earned cash. Buying sounds, buying music, Engine/Photoshop subscriptions, steam-fee and whatever else there was.
My financial goal would be reached if I sell about 2000 copies. That… does not seem too unrealistic? I dunno, I hope I do sell ANY at all.
While I do not depend on the game selling well at all (I have a job aswell as freelance on the side), if I reach my goal I could start thinking about full-time gamedev seriously. That would be cool.
Top or Flop?
Quite honestly, I don’t really care too much. Of course I’d love if people play my game and like it (spaghetti-code or not) but even if it flops, it’s not that I haven’t gained an absolute truckload.
- I can now say: See this game on steam? I made it. It’s trash but it’s my trash.
- I learned the whole process from A to Z
- I pushed through an enormous project, all by myself, which is an achivement in itself
- I learned animating
- I learned (more) programming
- I learned what works and what doesn’t.
- Huge dopamine rush when I finished it
- [insert thing here I probably learned but just forgot]
Now what?
New game of course! Do it all over again! Pain!
No but really, I already started. Can’t stop won’t stop. And now, equipped with the experience gained, it shall be glorious. This time I decided to go with Pixelart and Aseprite and man… Aseprite is SO FUCKING GOOD!
Will this project ever reach maturity? Well, I’ll tell you in a year or two :V