[Developer Musings] Deadlines, Social Lives, and Satisfaction – RCMADIAX, Eden Industries, Frozenbyte talk about the stress of making games
We’ve brought in three more developers for the next entry in our new feature series, “Developer Musings”. This week, we have a few words from RCMADIAX, Eden Industries, and Frozenbyte as they share some thoughts about the stress of making games. Head past the break for their comments.
Unsure as to what Developer Musings is about? Check out our first entry here for an explanation.
Michael Aschenbrenner – RCMADIAX
Previous Works: RCMADIAX recently put out BLOK DROP U on the Wii U eShop.
Upcoming Games: RCMADIAX has a few projects in the works. Next in line is SUPER ROBO MOUSE, scheduled to hit the Wii U eShop by year’s end.
Meeting a deadline
One of most stressful moments for me is when I am preparing to launch a title and must hit a particular deadline. Even though I am an independent developer, and don’t have to answer to a publisher, I still set deadlines for myself and do my best to keep them. One title is particular that has been recently stressful is SUPER ROBO MOUSE. When I started on this title back in December 2013, it was my intention to finish it up in April for a May 2014 launch. It was around the time that my first title BLOK DROP U got approved for release, and I realized that with all the work going on promoting the title, the May release just wouldn’t be feasible. Even now, I work on the title a little bit every day, but am finding myself stressed out about when I may be able to finally launch SUPER ROBO MOUSE. It is currently scheduled for a Fall 2014 release and I feel comfortable with how it is progressing and should be able to hit that deadline.
Dealing with Feedback
Another stressful moment of making games is when feedback starts coming in from the press and the players. This is an up and down moment for me. I love to see when players are having fun or even setting goals within the game to add replay value for themselves. When I was launching BLOK DROP U, I was going into it with no experience whatsoever. Some independent developers come from a background working with a major publisher but I had none and didn’t know what to expect. There have been moments where I wanted to pull my hair out because I felt as though some of the things people would complain about were petty and “not that big of a deal”. I did however decide to go forward and fix some of the issues with the game as requested by the user, and I am happy I did. The reception seems to be much better now and as a result, I am finding myself less stressed out about new players buying into it.
Having a work/life balance
This is a difficult subject for me. I am not at the point in my game development career that I can support myself on the games revenues alone, and I continue to hold onto my full time job in the meantime. This leaves me with very little time to work on my games and promotions for current titles. I have, if I’m lucky, about 1-2 hours per week day to work on any game-related projects and promotions. This leaves very little time during the week for any family or social activities, or even the opportunities to play new game releases by other companies. I can only hope that by 2015 I am able to resign from my day job and commit myself full-time to creating games.
Continue on for thoughts from Eden Industries…
