Debut Title

Post date: 20-Oct-2010 14:33:49

For as long as I've dabbled in game development -- and even done some freelance programming for small teams -- I've never completed a game of my own. So for the last month (since about the 24th of September) I've been working on v0.1 of a game with one objective: to have a polished, playable version as fast as possible. This means that while I certainly will spend some time on art and sound assets and making it nice and presentable, this version will rely on as few assets as possible and will be very low on features.

The ultimate goal is to have a fun game out there that people enjoy and a forum through which users can report problems, make suggestions, and have an influence on the priority I place on upcoming features.

The game is written with multiplayer in mind: you almost certainly won't enjoy playing the game on your own, as there's no story or campaign. In the interests of busting out a playable game as soon as possible, v0.1 will not have online multiplayer. This may sound dumb on paper, but the design of the game and the simplicity of the controls is such that up to four players can enjoy competing with each other on one keyboard; and my first priority for v0.2 is getting online multiplayer working.

Perhaps you're wondering: how much will this cost?

It will be free. As the development of this game largely depends on the feedback (for providing direction) and participation (for motivation) of its users, I can neither expect you to pay for v0.1 in all its simplicity, nor to suddenly have to pay in a future update for the features you've always had.

Down the road, however, I do hope to make some money, so here's my (tentative) plan: some features of the game will benefit from having online accounts, and perhaps I'll add some larger features that require a premium account. This wouldn't cost much, but with enough users it'd hopefully be enough that I can pour more of my time into improving this game, as well as other games later on. Like I said, I cannot expect you to pay for features you already have, so if a free update comes with certain features, you can be sure you won't be expected to pay for those in the future. Whether you've got a premium account or not, you'll still be playing the same game (using the same executable), so even if at some point some features rely on a paid-for account, the free version of the game will continue to be updated and have new features put in.

And when will you get to play v0.1?

Hopefully by the end of next week, on Friday the 29th of October, 2010. This isn't a guarantee or anything, but development has been going well. I'm hoping to get a little bit of sound recording equipment in this week, so everything in this game will have been made by me. More info on the tools and engine I'm using will come later.

Finally, what's the game called?

I don't know. I haven't thought of anything yet. It's a car game, so I was considering "Car Game lol" for a little while, but decided against it.

Here's a screenshot of the game in its current state: