Hello Underflowers,
How do you know when you are satisfied?
This is the question I wrestle with now and from several angles. How do I know when I’ve found the right Idea Jam prototype to move forward with? How do I know if the player will be satisfied with it? Will I be satisfied with it? In this world there is no way of knowing you are on the correct path to success. These questions can’t ever be accurately answered until you are looking back. Simply put, you pick the thing you want to do most with the considerations that mean the most to you. You are creating the experience, create one you want to create.
This quickly follows the next question, when do you stop looking for something else? When do you settle down knowing maybe the idea you are going with isn’t going to be perfect? If you eventually want to release a game, you must demand you pick a path and stick with it until release. It’s really that simple. Force yourself to cut, polish and release.
So, satisfaction is only achieved by looking back on what you have done, it’s not something you can know you will be in the future. Prototypes only tell you so much and with the amount of people making prototypes daily, yours is unlikely to be unique to people.
Going forward.
Going forward with the idea jam I’ve sat down and decided to work to make a full release of Tachyon. While I am still fully exploring what Tachyon is, this is true of any developer I know in their games. I can not be afraid to move forward with a prototype because all of my questions don’t have exact science answers because I won’t ever have those answers. I will never be satisfied with a prototype but Tachyon speaks to me more than others.
What is Tachyon
Right now I don’t know how to sum up Tachyon. While I know the experience I am delivering to players, I don’t exactly know the verbiage I want to go with to explain the game and dig into it. The prototype is more akin to a first-person adventure but the 3 pillars I am trying to hit with Tachyon are. 1-Block style exploration, narrative puzzles (like you see in Pulp Fiction or Sherlock Holmes), and action-based choices. I’ll dive deeper what Tachyon is and fully announcing it as I dig more into it.
Development Schedule
So what sort of development schedule is there for Tachyon? I expect to spend no more than 1 year on it including post-release updates. Although that means releasing in some month’s time, likely into an early access program, then releasing into a final state, then one last patch to make sure I can step away from the game for a bit without things exploding.
Thanks,
Michael Brune