A relatively small but significant milestone. Well two years and a month to be exact. Yea, this post comes almost a month late because I forgot about it. The anniversary I mean, not the post. Thing is I've been too busy recently to actually pay any attention to such details, not that it matters anyway. Details in my work tho, not so much. I believe attention to details is what makes a good game and give it character and soul.
Anyway, it's been another year. I wouldn't say it's an extremely productive year. Well looking back I might have took too much time off and slacking too much. I would blame the many happening of life events related to family and friends but honestly, it's an excuse. Also, it doesn't help that I have been in a string of bad luck finding myself in other people project that doesn't really go anywhere. cough *the fraud TD project* cough. I spent at least 3-4 months on that. But it was a good experience though. I wont complain, the money is good, but would I do that again? hell no!
But I must say again it's really is a very good experience. It's the first time I have the chance to really go on and develop a game with minimum compromise. Also it has put me in an interesting position. It sure make me question myself about the dilemma of professionalism, ethic, and money. I'm glad to say I kept my integrity rejecting further offers. Yes I was offered to carry on on two ocassion when the company in question some how manage to secure more budget from more investor. To this day, I'm still not sure what exactly happen, but the whole thing just seems too dodgy and I decide it's better not to get myself involve any further. If you have no idea what I've been mumbling about in the few sentences, dont bother yourself with it. It's nothing really. :)
So, it's not the best year in term of productivity. But I've been extremely lucky. My stuff on AssetStore has been doing well and I'm not exactly short of work. I was offered freelance job from time to time. So financially I'm in a far better position than I was same time last year. I've certainly feel like I'm slowly starting to reap the reward of all the hard work I've put in to make this work. But in this volatile career, nothing is certain. I do wonder all the time is this all a bubble that will collapse at any moment. The pressure is always there, you can be sure of that.
I'm certainly very glad and grateful that I'm still here, manage to survive and make a living out of this little career I carved for myself. It's really great being able to do things you are passionate about. It can be tough at time but honestly I wouldn't have it other way. My recent part-time job which require me to work 16-hours a week in a research lab has just reinforce my view on this subject. I guess it's all thanks to the people who supported my product by purchasing them. As well as a few clients of mine who kind enough to give me a chance to work with them. It's your support and positive feedback keeps me going.
Contary, I've also made a very interesting discovery. It's complimenting and discouraging at the same time. Turns out TDTK and possibly InputTouches has been pirated. I tried not to talk about this. It's a touchy subject and I don't want to give people's idea (but I'm giving people idea am I not?). It feels good that my work is recognised but it's depressing at the same time many people can just take my hard work for granted. This is not surprising at all consider many of the popular packages on AssetStore has been pirated.
Despite that, I'm still going to keep on working on improving TDTK. The current plan is to make a demo worthy of full game. So I'll be adding a lot of art-asset to it. So far I've added lots of icon for perk and ability, and all the towers had been updated as well. The creeps will be updated pretty soon. I'm working on it but I'm extremely busy these few days (no I didn't spend a lot of time writing this, most of this has been sitting in my unpublished post). Anyway I've made a post about the sci-fi freighter, so take that as a sneak peak. After finishing the creep I will try to work on the environment props. Still a long way to go it seems. I imagine this long process will take a few months going at current rate. I might as well use all these assets to make a mini game or two while I'm at it. It should be fun.
Speaking of art asset, I'm extremely thrilled that now I can finally make my own 3D model and 2D art. I have said this many time on this many earlier post I know. I'm still pretty limited in this department though. For a start, I still don't know how to rig and animate a model. Also I imagine UV map and texturing a more complicated model than my current work will be a tough challenge for me. But it's a decent start and frankly, I never thought I would see the coming of this day! Honest!
I sincerely hope that this time next year I could finally write about a finished game of my own vision that worthy of a retail release. A tall order from any point of view that's for sure, but I'm going for it if the circumstance is right. This is after all, why I'm doing all these in the first place.
Excellent, now I can conclude this anniversary post with a goal for the next 12 months. No I wouldn't hold my breath for this one. :) It's funny, I started out trying to make an end user game. Not to be a freelancer, or middle-ware developer. It does feels like the further I'm in it, the further away I'm from that ultimate goal. I guess the more I learn about game developing, the more I know how far I'm actually from being able to pull that goal off successfully. I'm not giving up of course, I'm just buying my time, getting the resources I need and wait for the right time and that big idea. It will come, I'm sure. Maybe after a few more post like this. If you are still reading at this point, sorry for the wall of text that isnt really that informative.
Btw this is the 103th post I made. Yay!
