Bumpity bump kiddos. Time to resurrect this two year old thread from the darkness of the grave.
So I finished
Vacuous about a month ago and I am now ramping up to a release in December. For the past two years development has happened off and on, mostly with other large projects getting in the way. Some (but not much!) planned content was cut and many hours were spent. But now it is done and I am almost free!
Check out the website at:
http://www.jmstark.net/games/vacuous/vacuousWebsite.htmlSoon there will be a final trailer dropping that really gives a good look at the game. If you follow my twitter I talk about
Vacuous a bit as well.
With a quick look at this thread you might notice that when I was actively blogging with slight regularity I was completely unable to drum up any interest. Fair enough really. This is not the most interesting project nor is it one that invites much conversation. My marketing/pitching skills currently need a lot of work.
Unlike many successful devlogs, this one seemed to keep too many secrets. While as the creator I did not want to spoil the experience of the game, I might have shown too little to get people wanting to experience it in the first place. It is a difficult balance to match. This reserved approach to devlogging resulted in me focusing my posts on the wrong things.
I also experienced, and I don't know if other devs experience this, an internal conflict between going commercial or going freeware. A commercial release comes with money for your hard work and respect, but it also plagues you with the nightmare of business, marketing, law, taxes, etc. Some people thrive on that stuff, but for me, it is absolutely insufferable. That is not a good character trait, but it is how it is at the moment.
Going freeware has the benefit of being an easier release and giving the community something without cost. It is sometimes hard to judge if it is even fair to charge for the thing you have made. It might not actually be worth anything. But freeware is even more likely to fade into obscurity, for better or worse.
When I started making this game, the saturation of games on the market was already an issue. Two years later, it has probably gotten worse. This isn't a bad thing necessarily. Creators have to find ways to adapt, to imagine new ways of finding an audience. They have to create projects that carry more weight.
Vacuous is a game made with the indie marketplace of 2009 in mind, releasing in 2016. It wasn't made for any particular audience. The only guide in its creation was intuition. Sometimes, when your vision isn't very forward looking, you can fall behind like this.
But I cannot be upset. I made Vacuous for myself, first and foremost, simply because I wanted the game to exist. I wanted to learn from it. And all of that happened. Others enjoying it would just be a bonus. I have a job on the side of making games, so success or failure isn't too big a deal. At the moment, I am still a hobbyist. I have so much more to learn.
Anyways, enough of my feelings about this project. I have some integrated GPU issues to sort out, a trailer to make, and a game to launch! This is the final stretch!
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