A Shift in Focus

[Xienen]

Dayle and I recently attended SEIGE in Atlanta. During our trip, we met some really cool people, and attended some really cool talks. Overall, it was a great time and it was really fun to be in a room with so many other developers.

One particular discussion panel stood out to me. We attended a talk about making your second game (appropriate enough for us!) where the panelists discussed common pitfalls in making your second game, namely what I'll call the magnum opus syndrome. Carlos Quinones from The Secret Library mentioned a very cool project they'd come up with that, upon reflection, seemed to be beyond the scope of their team. So, rather than pouring excessive man-hours down the proverbial drain, they just backed away from it (even though it was a cool idea!). Their current goal is to create a new game every few months, namely to build their brand and contacts (I believe he actually said a new game each month...wow).

"Brilliant!," I thought. The idea of creating some short form games using an existing engine (Unity, I think) that would be small in scope, low in asset count, and high in fun really resonated with me. So, that's what we're going to be doing over the next few months! "Project SLUP" is still our ultimate goal, and Dayle is still working hard on Paper Engine 2, but meanwhile we'll have some really fun stuff that we've created and put out in the world.

I set a few criteria for design (namely keeping it simple, stupid), and came up with four possible ideas. After we discussed it, we're moving forward with a one button game tentatively titled, "It Hungers..." I'll be posting an update on that shortly!