much development that pays for, worst case. Then that is my time estimate to guide development. I have done both - a budgeted small version of a passion project and an unbudgeted sprawling epic version of a passion project and the intrinsic satisfaction was the same whether it was six months or six years. It came from completion, not size or duration. That cool feature? Put it in the sequel. Third, community building is so
important. Bringing gamers with you on the next project. I’m terrible at it. I have no answers really. I have almost zero patience for it and it feels fake and forced to me.
science fiction. 1980s Judge Dredd is so pure and dark and satirical. I love it. Finally, perhaps the defining feature of that era is
how theatrical it is. It’s got drama. The actors especially elevate the material a lot. It’s got a lot to like!
Visibility is a perennial issue for indie games. What’s the solution? Make a game that people want. Visibility is so much easier when people want the game. So it starts with “who am I making this game for?”. A rabbit-collecting- carrots platformer is so broad it ends up not being for anyone. “Girls who love ponies”, “gays who love brunch”, “New Zealanders who like drugs” ... know who it’s for, make it for someone. Get a grip on budget. It hurts but it’s worth it. Before
a game (after a bit of prototyping) I sit down and work out a realistic sales estimate and then calculate how
How long have you been developing Liberation and what has the process been like? Liberation took six months to make. In the last 18 months I have completely changed my process. It’s almost like I went back to school. I know I can make a good game so the goal for me on Liberation was to make a good game in a timely, predictable manner. I was lucky in that I could see the game in my mind’s eye and it was very smooth. I use open source software such as Linux and Godot and it’s a really clean pipeline now.
What’s been the biggest challenge? Space games are hard! Not in a technical sense but in a genre sense. People have very specific expectations for them. I find modern space sims very serious, very realistic, and with too many details and options. In most endeavours I believe you should keep removing things until there’s nothing left to remove and my
46 | MCV/DEVELOP December/January 2024
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