I'm normally such a chill guy and I've had other game releases in my career in the industry, but this is the first time I'm releasing an indie game that I fully designed and funded. I'm freaking out.
I went through a ton of firsts in the past year which all felt like cool miletones. First steam page, first incorporated company, first time designing everything about a game instead of just a feature here and there, first time hiring people to work for me, first gaming convention, etc. Those were fine, but this release day has me losing some serious sleep.
I can't express how much this means to me. While I've always been a gamer, I can trace back exactly when I decided to become a game dev. Back in the very early 2000s when newsgrounds.com was at its peak, there was a demo for a tactics game called Tactics Arena Online. Very simple, played against AI. I got hooked so hard, I joined the servers for the main game. It led me to take chess far more seriously and had me play TAO for a few years.
Then the game got kind of inactive and I always thought it'd be cool to make my own version of that game. I entered the industry always with the goal of eventually being able to do that and so last year I quit my job. This is despite how awful it is to find a job in this industry lately with all the layoffs. I used all my savings and I got started on the project. A modern version of TAO. I had to learn everything. Designing intuitive UX, storytelling, balancing, character design, animations, etc. I think I learned more in the past year than I did in the last 10 years in the industry.
Fast forward to today. My game Athelan Battlegrounds releases a free demo at 4:30PM EST. I haven't slept more than 1 hour straight since Wednesday and I'm suppose to stay awake all day to make sure nothing catches fire.
I know I'm a drop in the bucket when it comes to indie devs and I don't deserve fame, fortune or any attention at all, but I just wanted to share this exciting moment in my life and some perspective on what solo/small indie devs go through. This has been by far the most instructive, stressful, joyful, fulfilling and financially risky year of my life.
I'm sincerely excited to share this with the world and if you are a fan of turn-based tactics or chess, I hope you'll give it a fair shot.
Thank you to this awesome gaming community!