(Final?) Project Update

Well, it's the start of November. I thought I would quickly get this update in. I think it's pretty big, at least for myself.

I am abandoning the project, at least in the way I've been planning it.

What happened is simple: I've taken a look at the costs to develop the game I want to make, and they would stretch into the hundreds of thousands of US dollars, and years' worth of time. (Case in point: Grim Dawn was crowdfunded at 0.5 million USD, while Path of Exile was crowdfunded at 2.2 million USD. This does not include any cash the developers or sponsors may have invested themselves, which would not be publicly known.)

My father might be a multimillionaire, but that doesn't mean I'm free to casually drop six digits into a hobby. Not to mention, given the years it takes, nobody knows what's going to happen by then. What if Diablo IV comes out in 2023 / 2024 and it's the amazing game I've always been wanting? Controlled by a notoriously scummy corporation, perhaps, but I can't deny that my dream would be answered for less. Not to mention, if I tried to release an ARPG in an environment where everyone is already playing Diablo IV or some other game, that would be financial suicide.

 

After I realized how absurd the costs were going to be, I sat down and asked myself what my aims with this project were:

• To make some contribution to society, however small: I don't need to make a video game to do this. Hell, a lot of people would argue video games aren't good for society (although I firmly believe they can be).
• To make something that my friends and I can play together (preferably for hundreds or even thousands of hours): This goal is actually impossible and I was naïve to believe otherwise. The simple reason is that, aside from Warframe (which can't bring us together anymore), our tastes in video games are all extremely different. I'll talk about this in more detail some other time but that's the short of it.
• To innovate upon the ARPG genre: Just because something is innovative doesn't necessarily mean people will enjoy it. In my research/polling I've found there's many factors, graphics and etc., that can make or break someone's enjoyment, not just my design ideas. And looking at those millions in development costs, I am certain a majority of it is on models and animations. And, okay, even if people do enjoy my game despite some ugly graphics, so what? I've entertained some toxic gamers for a few hours. Applause.

Given these conditions, I've decided that abandonment is not really abandonment - it is not only the reasonable thing to do, but also the reasonable thing to do in terms of actually achieving my goals, or at least, the first one (which is the only one that didn't stink).

I've created an action plan.

• Take the two months until the end of the year to organize the absolute jumble of project documents that I have
• Start looking into picking up reading and writing short fantasy stories and making some fantasy-based visual art (I will start this parallel to my cleanup).
• If I get time, maybe I'll take a look at Unity and make some tiny games, Pong or Tic Tac Toe or something
• Starting January, I'll also start my next job and start putting a lot more effort into my career. I'll continue to make time for the other stuff, but my goal is to prioritize work for the first 12-18 months until I can get my first raise.

The idea now is to keep my options open, work on more traditional skills and perhaps get the works of a novel or some art pieces going. In the tiny chance that game development does work out, then those characters can go into the game, so nothing is wasted. And if it doesn't, it may very well be a blessing, as more traditional media may have been a better option all along.