Yep, it’s just as the title says. I’m taking a break from Life’s Impetus… but I’m still going to be working on a game. Not just any game though; it’s a game for the 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest. In this post I’ll mainly explain my reasons for entering the contest and talk a bit about my idea.

Why A Contest

Prizes and Exposure

I suppose I’m not only who participating partly because he/she’s interested in the (potential) prizes :P. In case you’re wondering, there’s 1st 2nd and 3rd place prizes for each of the two categories (RPG and Non-RPG) with the respective prizes of $2.500, $1000 and $500, one grand $10,000 prize for the best game and a lot of other little prizes.  Besides the monetary part though (which would mainly go into funding Life’s Impetus), this is a great chance for exposure, something as useful as cash.

Shortness

I didn’t really mention it before, but this is a short contest (1 month long) where you have to make a short game (ideally 1 hour at most), so it’s not like I’m going to lose much development time for Life’s Impetus. Either way, any deadline I have set for LI is self-imposed, so in theory it won’t really matter if I delay them.

Friendly Rivalry

I can’t say I have many friends who are into gamedev in real life, but I managed to convince one of them to try entering this contest. The first “true” game I made was for a competition organized by Square-Enix, and really, I don’t think I would’ve have managed to do all the work I did in that time if there hadn’t been a deadline to push me forward. I honestly thank the person who introduced me to that contest, because if I had never entered it I probably wouldn’t be making games today. In a way, I hope something similar might happen to my friend (who I hope is not reading this…), but at the moment it’s nice to have someone to “compete” and talk with.

Experience

There’s this saying that goes along the line of “Your first 10 games will suck, so get them outta of the way quickly”. While it’s not entirely true, there’s still some truth to it. There’s a lot you can learn by starting games and finishing them, so making a lot of small games is usually the best way to go if you’re new to gamedev. I’m pretty much going against this advice with Life’s Impetus, but eh, that’s for reasona I might explain in another blog. That said though, this contest is a good chance to follow the advice and finish a short game. I’m going to experiment with techniques and ideas I might use in Life’s Impetus, so in the long run I hope that doing this will help make Life’s Impetus a better game.

The Game

Well, I can’t say I’ve gotten very far in the project so far (still struggling with getting decent controls), but I have a good idea of what it’s going to be about. Basically, in takes place in a world of floating islands where everyone lives on their individual island. But, when monsters start to attack, it’s up to you to “save the world”.  At your disposition you have not only your trusty bow and arrow, but also a hot air balloon to travel between islands. The game will be a mix between a platformer and a shooter, and for the art style I hope to achieve something similar in feel to Fez  (although I know that I won’t achieve anything half as good). I’ll try to keep you posted on my progress, so I hope you look forward to it!