Looking behind #
Is it December already? This year has flown by. This time of year always makes me more introspective and reflective, and 2023 is no different. I’ve been reflecting on my relationship with game development, and I’ve begun to realize that I’m ready for a change.
I’ve been making games for longer than you might realize. I started by learning to program when I was thirteen. My first steps were with a programming book about Java, where each chapter was built on the last, and the goal of each chapter was to make a small little game. Since then, I’ve grown a lot both as a full-time software engineer and as a hobbyist game developer.
I started development on what became my first published game, SPEEDCAT, in the summer of 2020. I worked for a couple of months, then set the project down until 2021, when I picked up SPEEDCAT again to finish it off. Shortly after, I started streaming on Twitch, which helped a lot with accountability in finishing the project. In April 2022, SPEEDCAT was released and was received far better than I ever could have hoped.
My confidence soared, and since then, I’ve published more than 20 games, tools, proof-of-concepts, and other projects across itch.io and GitHub. For many of them, I got to work with friends I met online, and that collaborative environment filled me with joy. To all of you who’ve worked with me in the past: a huge, genuine thank you. I love what we made together.
We’re nearing the end of 2023, and with all of that progress behind me, I’ve begun to realize that I want more. I’ve built a really wide and strong foundation of game development fundamentals across five game engines over the past two and a half years, and I’m ready to start going deeper. I find that I am longing for a challenge. I want to create something bigger.
Looking ahead #
To this end, I’m going to be much more selective with the game jams that I choose to participate in. While game jams are incredibly fun, I simply don’t have unlimited time or energy and I’d like to be able to focus on a longer-term project.
To assist with this, I’ll be adding a third stream to my weekly schedule which I’ll dedicate to working on the longer project! This extra stream will be more chill and focused (think, Pomodoro co-working streams without redeems), but we’ll still keep the other two streams each week goofy and fun.
Here are my goals for 2024:
- create a game that is scoped for approx. one year of development
- publish the game somewhere (itch.io is fine, but Steam would be amazing)
- keep the community updated with monthly dev diaries
- weekly planning sessions to keep me accountable to short-term goals
- prioritize Ko-Fi as a platform for sharing updates
- host another epic FletchFest for the community to share their talents and creativity
For the rest of the year, and for the first couple weeks of January, my goal is to generate and refine a few game concepts so that by the end of the month, I can select one to start development on and stay committed to! The hardest part about all of this will be staying focused. Experience has proven to me that I am a butterfly flitting from one idea to the next. Despite that, I think it will be very healthy and fun for me to grow in my determination and endurance!
I am looking forward to trying something new in 2024 and I hope that you’re excited too! For now, have a safe and wonderful holiday season. I can’t wait to see what 2024 brings us!
