Hey Folks!
In true Halloween fashion, I've raised a seemingly dead topic back from the grave!
Narcissus got Greenlit a while back (LIKE MARCH THIS YEAR A WHILE BACK) and that was awesome, but despite being Greenlit and the game done, I still haven't found the time to do that last batch of paperwork/press to finish the game and get it fully released.
This is down to a couple of things:
1. Despite getting the game Greenlit, it took nearly A YEAR to happen and before which I'd given up actually trying to get the game on Steam. Instead, I had set myself a specific deadline to launch by as I'd reached a point where I was spending vast amounts of time nitpicking on the project and needed to ship and move onto something new.
2. I made a lot of exciting plans for the Valentines Day release, but dedications to my job and a bunch of other issues caused things to go wrong (Work hours quadrupling / Website Hosting Company shutting down a week before launch and not telling me / miscommunications with Humble / bad advice from people). It was very disappointing end for the project, but I needed to release the project and doing so created a massive relief that I'd managed to release it after such a long time in development.
3. Along with work and development, I was also running electronics workshops, organising the local developer network, mentoring, hosting game jams and doing talks/expos alongside.
4. I'd been working on the game for over 4 years and the project had just become exhausting to work on. There was expectations in my mind for how successful the Steam launch needed to go and I just didn't have the time/resources to make that happen. I needed a break to work on some other stuff.
I decided to put the project on ice. Between then and now, I taught abroad doing programming classes and controller workshops, built several games installations, worked with Tyler again (This time on a physical puppet boxing game) and developed/finished a variety of other projects (Heliplopters, Space Ragers, Paper Trail, Deathlection, Corporate Salmon, Morse).
A lot of people look at their game launches as commercial disasters, but despite the Valentines Day launch going badly I still have a roof over my head, food to eat, the project didn't financially ruin me and I'm still working in the area that I love, so it's not that much of a commercial disaster. To add, Narcissus was the project that launched me into games development, taught me so many things, allowed me to make a lot of contacts and took me to some awesome places/expos/events. I've learnt a lot from the experience above and feel a lot less pressured for the game to do well, as I appreciate now that it's just one game in a long line of projects to come. When comparing the development cycle of Narcissus to my current project Morse, I've managed to accomplish things a lot quicker and with a lot more certainty this time around.
Despite the hiatus on Narcissus, I managed to get a tablet version functional on a modern iPad at the place I was working. This was awesome to see since I was only ever able to access a 1st gen iPad (So the apps would always crash/run badly). Seeing the game run super smooth was massively motivating and since returning from the states, I've recently managed to get a hold of the devices I need for testing, and thus development has re-ignited.
From recent testing, I've managed to get a phone functional build of Narcissus. For this, I've gone for a vertical format that feels pretty good to play (And I can't wait to test with others).
As for the desktop version, I'm going to go back through the old game code and see if there's anything else that needs fixing/any updates I can add. From there, I'm going to export the latest desktop builds and sit down with some folks who are going to help me get the last of the procedures/paperwork done for getting Narcissus on Steam.
I'll be posting updates as often as possible, so keep an eye on Narcissus, it ain't done yet!
Community
