October 2013
October 24, 2013
Month 37 Report
PROJECT ZERO NINE
As the current main project builds toward what could be called a “playable alpha”, similar to the level of interactivity & demonstrable gameplay of say an Overgrowth or early Minecraft, so rises the temptation to begin pre-selling.
Patience is so important at this stage of development. While it becomes increasingly commonplace in this post-crowdfunding world to attemp to wring dollars out of unfinished promises, it’s not a light decision.
The only motivators for pre-selling are either the need for development capital or a desire to receive early cash compensation for work already done. The first is a genuine concern if the project absolutely cannot go forward without funding. If not, then it can be lumped in with the former as either shortsightedness or plain greed.
Project Zero Nine has a very clear roadmap, one that is revised & iterated upon just as often as the game design itself. There won’t be any money asked for until there’s a product worth paying for, & that’s a promise. It will also be “pay once, play forever”, though how much is paid will depend a lot on when & your generosity.
RADIO GA-GA
One month ago I recorded 49 meandering minutes of talk, unscripted & unedited, & uploaded it to the Internet.
Rewinding further back in time to October, 2010, at the start of the “salad days”, it had seemed a good idea to offer regular (read: weekly) updates to keep the growing fanbase appraised of developments on the Dark Acre. That seemed to work for a shocking 17 weeks before deciding to pull the plug, deeming the scrambling to show work each week more detrimental than positive. There are certainly arenas where regular WIP (work-in-progress) reports are valued & even interesting, especially in visual art production, but for overall game development it can cause more harm than good as artificial progress is produced to make it seem like something’s happening. Rather than fall victim to that trap the decision was made to focus on the work & offer monthly/yearly blurbs instead.
It’s worked out pretty OK so far.
So we arrive at today, with 5 full episodes of Dark Acre Radio in the can & on the ‘net, & a growing list of questions both dev-related & non- to address. It’s a relaxing break from the weekly toil in the pixel & byte mines, & if it happens to offer some entertainment value for you, the listener, then all the better.
2013.10.01 – 2013.10.31