On New Years, my resolution was to at least release a public demo of Paper-Soul Theater before the first official day of Autumn this year, which is the 22nd. At the time, I made a promise that, if we could not make that goal, I would reassess whether the project should be cancelled. If you're reading this, then we've decided to keep working on Paper-Soul Theater, but I wouldn't celebrate just yet...
I want everyone to know that I had very nearly cancelled this project and here are some reasons why. Clearly, we did not reach our goal, and if I was to play by the rules I laid out in January, we should have cancelled and worked on something more appropriate. Even though I no longer take that resolution seriously, I think it was wise to try to make a certain amount of progress in a certain amount of time, and the fact that we didn't even get close to that goal is telling. The point of the goal was to see whether or not we would find ourselves in development hell, and it worked, because now I have something to point to and say "this isn't going where we need to fast enough." There was a point to choosing the first day of Autumn; this is the time I get busy again with classes (so I thought) so naturally, things will slow down right around this time, and if things slow down again, then surely that is nothing good for the project.
Aside from the main reason, I can look at the details of our situation and see red flags. Our team is smaller to accommodate what we can handle and what we need momentarily. Everyone is less productive, despite being just as passionate as ever. There is a kernel of good news there, in that all three of us are still mentally engaged with the goal of competing this despite all the insanity and time that has eroded us.
Despite several red flags, and our failure to our promise with everyone, the reasons, at least in my mind and for each of us, the reasons for outweigh the reasons against continuing. To start, we have made progress across winter, spring, and summer. So long as the To Do list doesn't grow faster than the progress, the game will be released one day. A big problem has always been curving our ambition, so as long as we keep ourselves in check, there is no where to go but the right direction. That leads me to my next point which is that nothing has yet to stop this train: anything we need we can get, and any hit we take can be recovered from. Not even having an unusually busy summer slowed us down, so I don't see why college would either.
I shouldn't understate how passionate we still are about Paper-Soul Theater, regardless of whether the initial fans care anymore. I'm so excited about the game, that I had official artwork made and completely rewrote out Game Design Document from scratch with fellow members, reassessing our goals with the game in the process and making key planning decisions previously left undecided! No matter how slow, I can feel the game world still coming together and arranging into place in ways that gives me confidence in what we have as very special. It's also a treat to see how my growth as a game designer is being reflected in our vision with each milestone.
Each day is a new day, and since the team has vowed to work harder again, I'm celebrating by bringing back blog posts on our website.
Goodbye for now, but remember, good things come to those who wait. ;)
Aside from the main reason, I can look at the details of our situation and see red flags. Our team is smaller to accommodate what we can handle and what we need momentarily. Everyone is less productive, despite being just as passionate as ever. There is a kernel of good news there, in that all three of us are still mentally engaged with the goal of competing this despite all the insanity and time that has eroded us.
Despite several red flags, and our failure to our promise with everyone, the reasons, at least in my mind and for each of us, the reasons for outweigh the reasons against continuing. To start, we have made progress across winter, spring, and summer. So long as the To Do list doesn't grow faster than the progress, the game will be released one day. A big problem has always been curving our ambition, so as long as we keep ourselves in check, there is no where to go but the right direction. That leads me to my next point which is that nothing has yet to stop this train: anything we need we can get, and any hit we take can be recovered from. Not even having an unusually busy summer slowed us down, so I don't see why college would either.
I shouldn't understate how passionate we still are about Paper-Soul Theater, regardless of whether the initial fans care anymore. I'm so excited about the game, that I had official artwork made and completely rewrote out Game Design Document from scratch with fellow members, reassessing our goals with the game in the process and making key planning decisions previously left undecided! No matter how slow, I can feel the game world still coming together and arranging into place in ways that gives me confidence in what we have as very special. It's also a treat to see how my growth as a game designer is being reflected in our vision with each milestone.
Each day is a new day, and since the team has vowed to work harder again, I'm celebrating by bringing back blog posts on our website.
Goodbye for now, but remember, good things come to those who wait. ;)