Happy New Year!
In 2018 I’ve continued to focus on my Twine games development. I’ve produced some new work, and also done a lot of work on a major project that hasn’t seen the light of day yet. I’ve also been practicing my skills and I’m definitely a better writer and game developer than I was this time last year.
2018 Retrospective
My first release of 2018 was the iOS version of Seedship in January. For whatever reason, the iOS version has had far fewer downloads than the Android version (1,300 as opposed to 800,000). I think the Android version must have tripped something in the Google Play Store algorithms that meant it started getting promoted to people, whereas the iOS version didn’t trip a similar algorithm in the App Store. Making and updating the iOS version is also kind of a pain because I don’t own a Mac, whereas the Android version is comparatively simple, and if I’d known how few downloads it would get I’m not sure I’d have bothered…but now it’s there I’m going to keep it up to date.)
Besides the mobile version, I also released two content updates for Seedship: version 1.2 in March and version 1.3 in December. When I first released Seedship I hadn’t intended it to be a perpetual work in progress, but its unexpected popularity gave me an audience I wanted to keep satisfied. The updates seem to have been well received, and I think they’ve improved the game.
Also in 2018, Microsoft licensed Seedship for their chatbot Zo.
The only other game I released in 2018 was They Will Not Return, a CYOA-type game about lonely post-apocalyptic robots. This was my IFComp entry for the year, and came 22nd out of 77 entries, just slightly below where last year’s game scored. I’m fairly pleased with the game, although the IFComp deadline meant that parts of it were kind of rushed, and if I’m honest I like my previous entry better.
Most of my work in 2018 was on Beyond the Chiron Gate, my first real large-scale game. I’d never worked on a solo project that big before (with the possible exception of my novel, although a novel and a game are very different beasts), and it took a lot of experimentation before I figured out the right approach. I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out the right approach now, though, and I’m happy with how development is proceeding.
2019 Plans
Beyond the Chiron Gate remains my main priority for this year. Last year most of my work was on false starts and prototypes that helped me develop skills and clarify what I wanted to do, but now I have a clear design and I’m writing code that will be part of the finished game. I’m hoping to get the first preview version out for $10+ patrons within the next few weeks, and I’ll release more preview versions as I continue development. (The reason this post is a little late is that I wanted to do more work on Chiron Gate before I could confidently say that I’d have a preview version out soon, but I think I can.)
I still want to take periodic breaks from Beyond the Chiron Gate in order to release smaller, free games. I have several ideas, and I’m kind of disappointed in myself for only releasing one new game last year, even though I also did a lot of work on Seedship and Chiron Gate. So I’m hoping to release at least two new games this year, and hopefully more. I’ll aim for one of these to be an IFComp game, but I don’t want to enter a rushed game again, so I’ll hold back the game and release it as a non-IFComp game if I don’t think it’s as good as it can be.
I’m also not going to forget the demand for Seedship updates. I think the two updates I released last year was a good number to balance against my other projects, so I’m going to aim to release two more this year. If I get onto a six-month schedule, that would put the updates in June and December (although hopefully not late December like last year, as fixing bugs while away over Christmas wasn’t ideal).
Thank you all
Many thanks to everyone who’s pledged on my Patreon or told me you like my games. Without that support I would likely have given up by now, and I certainly wouldn’t be attempting a major project.
Wishing you all a very happy 2019,
John