Tomorrow my wife and I are moving, so I anticipate a couple of (or a few) days of hectic activity. At the moment, I am frantically updating things online, as we will be without internet for about a week.
Meanwhile, Bit Beast is moving along beautifully. You can train your pet with a little mini-game, and most other interactions are working now, too. I still need to add a few more mini-games that you can play to earn “bits,” which are the currency in the game. There are a few more art assets and animations needed. Then, that leaves sorting out the menus (adding options, credits, making the status window look like not-crap, etc.) and polishing. And the battle system. That’s the one thing I’m really unsure on, as far as time-to-complete. The plan is for battles to take place via Bluetooth, which I’m hoping is simple enough to implement.
In an earlier post, I mentioned some of the other projects I have on the back burner(s). I’d like to elaborate on that, and attempt to set up an imaginary schedule that I will not stick to:
Now-May 15: The plan is still to finish and release Bit Beast, as soon as possible. I hope to manage that by the end of April/beginning of May. Let’s say May 15 to be safe.
May 16-23: Then, I have a number of tasks regarding the company/website that I want to clear out. I’ll give this stuff a week.
May 24-June 7: Then I’d like to put some serious effort into promoting both Hubert’s Island and Bit Beast, as well as kicking off the Kickstarter (haha) for Project Hestia. Let’s say this takes about 2 weeks.
June 8-???: At this point, it really depends on how things have gone. If Bit Beast sells decently, I want to make another pet (something other than a dinosaur, perhaps some different games, etc.) and get that on the Market. If Bit Beast sells really well, I also have an idea for a sequel (which I would make after the second pet), which moves your pet from a small yard into a randomly generated RPG-esque world that he can explore.
If the Kickstarter is successful, I will obviously be pouring all available resources into that for a while.
Once I am either done or still waiting on the above items, I have a few options for what game to make next:
I have been wanting to make a small roguelike for the computer, although that is more of a “for fun” project. If I do make time for that, I want to port my engine over to Android, and then gussy up (probably just rewrite) the interface code to work on Android. I’ve really been wanting to try my hand at an Android roguelike.
I’ve also got an idea for another Android game, this time not involving virtual pets or roguelikes! It’s a fairly simple action game, and so it would take very little time to make (theoretically).
Finally, I have been considering updating/expanding on my Ludum Dare entry from last year, Cosmic Heist. I think I could build it up into a decent little computer game that I would sell for 5 bucks or so. If I go this route, it is very possible I might try my hand at an Android port when the computer version is finished. I think it might actually work ok on Android.
That sums up my current thinking for the future. I’ve got about a million other game ideas, of course, but these are the ones I am seriously considering spending time on soon. If a particular game sounds more interesting to you than the others, please let me know in the comments!
Oh, and stay tuned for the next post, in which I show Bit Beast for the very first time!