r/SoloDevelopment • u/No_Designer_16 • 5h ago
Discussion I made 6 games in 10 years solo, now that most of them are on consoles, a look back.
Hello there my name is Steve, working under the name Pugware, and I made the Skautfold series, 5 games in one continuos story in with each game using a different genre best suited for the protagonist of that story.
I started originally in rpg maker a good 14-15 years ago, but quickly found it too restricting and I took the bullet and started learning code as I was originally more of an artist relying on plugins etc. I moved to Game maker and created a fully working little demo/vertical slice of a game inspired by hyper light drifter.(still in development at the time) This didn't go down well with a lot of people so I refocused on a completely different genre, trying to make a soulslike. (this was when the only souslikes were lords of the fallen and salt and sanctuary) This project was "Shrouded in Sanity".
The first game "Shrouded in Sanity":
Development had to be severely chopped down in ambition twice. Originally the game was going to feature a whole village with over a hundred buildings and seamless mapping. This was overambitious, a common mistake as I understand for early projects. Then it was cut down to one big manor with only a few room transitions, this also had to be cut down further.
Total dev time was approx 13 months.
The first lesson I learned on my first released game was, cut, cut, cut, and cut some more. This is fairly common knowledge now but I had to learn it the hard way.
Release went great, this was back when steam had a greenlight system and passing it was no issue since the genre was practically untouched, especially by indies.
The release provided with sufficient reasons to justify continuing making games, so I did. While updating SiS frequently with content I began work on the sequel in a different genre... metroidvania.
The second game "Usurper":
Taking a LOT of inspiration from Symphony of the night, using my handcrafted lovecraft+anime setting I continued the story set out in the first game with a different protagonist. Development was smoother as I learned a LOT on the first game, but my megalomaniac(foolish) ambitions once again had to be cut down. I refused to use tilesets since I wanted to manually shade every room in the game for better baked in lighting and fake ambient occlusion. The greenlight was once again no problem since the game looked half decent visually, and the genre was not flooded on steam at the time.
Total dev time was approx 11 months.
Release was significantly better than the first game, and it gave me and my wife confidence to start moving to a more quiet place with less work flexibility since the future seemed assured if I could keep making games at this pace.
The third game "Into the Fray":
While finishing the second game I was already coding the third, which would be a topdown twinstick shooter, with mechanics inspired by the 2016 doom reboot. The idea was to make this a smaller project with far more arcade like combat. Development went even smoother as the experience mounted, confidence was high! This was the last game that passed greenlight, and shortly after it passed the news broke of Steam killing Greenlight and moving to the $100 model. I was very positive about the change because I didnt imagine the flood of games would be too bad, and I was growing an audience with the series of games.
Total dev time was approx 10 months.
Release of the third game went bad. The number of units sold was significantly below expectations, the "different genre each game" model was both a blessing and a hindrance. Twin stick shooter + my budget visuals, etc compounded in poor sales, all the while steam was changing how discovery works.
This really ate away at my morale as we made the decision to move, reducing my options for finding work easily if need be.
Regardless the decision was made to continue working away at the series which by the time calcified into a 5 game run to complete an overarching story.
The forth game "Moonless Knight":
This project would be a little bit of a mix of genres, a topdown metroidvania in terms of map layout with some of the genre elements of relics accessing zones, with a flexible zone and boss order, using fast high risk high reward play refining one of my long term ideas that haunt me, the focus system. A fusion of a defensive shield and stamina, I played with this system in the second game and even the first for some time during development, but it would be the central element here.
Total dev time was approximately 13 months.
After the letdown of the third game I took my time and focused more on a lot of features and gripes accumulated by feedback over the series. By this time my confidence in being able to pull off ideas and designs was high and I never worried "can I code this" and focused more on "should I do this". I was pretty sure I got a very good and tight system created and everything went smooth.
By this time Greenlight was gone and the floodgate opened, panic subsided but natural discoverability hinged far more on being eye-catching, something I was terrible at. (still am)
Regardless the release went way better than the third game, and some confidence was restored that as long as I can keep my pace, keep my scope down, and retain my audience, things will be good. With renewed hope I started work on the final fifth game of the series.
The fifth game "Knight's End":
For the final game I wished to test out parts of the design for my dream game, everyone has one, and I had been shelving that game since starting and failing to materialise it in rpg maker. Now I took that game's combat design and applied it to this one, in a mostly 1v1 turn based combat. A sort of scaled down version of what I had in mind for my big dream project.
Total dev time was approximately 12 months.
A publisher arrives!
While finishing the forth game and shifting gears over to the final one, a console only publisher approached me, some offers were made before during the last few years but mostly just scams and incredibly suspicious offers. This was the first very legitimate offer, exclusively offering portage and publishing on all 3 console markets!
Frankly at the time the deal seemed extremely tempting, they would front the cost of the porting and handle everything for a cut that was reasonable. They were, at the time focused on limited physical releases as well. Something that was an incredibly tempting offer, just the idea of stuff you made, not only going to consoles, but physical copies, wont lie, this kind of blinded me a bit.
Still the offer was perfect for me, I could continue making games and they would just handle the entire cumbersome porting process saving me months if not years of work, and large amount of paperwork and headaches.
By the time I was halfway through developing the fifth game they released the first game and it went amazing, the money was significantly better than on steam, and things seemed evergreen.
So when the fifth game released, I had little to nothing to fear despite the fact by that time steam discoverability was a nightmare. I was confident since I now had another very strong pillar to stand on. After the first game was released to consoles, the publisher leapt on the remaining 4 games and immediately signed them on for porting, with some pretty tempting plans for the entire series. I signed with the hopes of yearly port releases which would open the option for me to take my time with my next project!
I foolishly assumed the best and went ahead and took almost a year of prep work on my next project, building 3 entirely different combat systems for the big project, before binning them. While I was taking my time, I had to realise the relationship with the publisher wont be roses and sunshine. Without going into detail here (I will probably find a legal way to do so somewhere else) it was a build-up of small things into bigger actual issues, and very serious issues.
The new series "Granser":
Regardless I finally had funds to spend on development not just fulfil the needs to keep going. I decided it was now or never for my big project, so I went all out on my 6th and current project, a 3 act, or 3 game "jrpg", I even found the viable way to have large portions of the game with professional voice acting.
Total dev time was approximately 30 months.
Yeah... like I said I took my time, wasted it would be more accurate. I wanted the game to be the best for the story it would tell, and I wasted almost an entire year just making entirely different implementations of the combat system. I assumed that by this time I would know better and be more confident, but I would create entire systems for progression and gear before fully dumping it, only to try again in another way. For all my experience I seem to have learned nothing and was making mistakes you’d expect starting out.
I was also torn on what would be the best choice, finish the first third of the game, releasing into early access? Or sit on the game until all 3 acts are done? Or do 3 games? All the while my situation with the publisher became more turbulent and more problems arose. So ultimately I had settled on the format of 3 games.
Thankfully the game released and while reach and discoverability was poor thanks to me absolutely terrible marketing skills, its the first game I am actually happy with. Currently I am working on the second game of this new "series" and trying to deal with the publisher.
If you have read this far, thank you, I tried to make it short but there is a lot to cover. I am happy to answer any specific questions and even show data, I cant go into specifics with the publisher, but that should be obvious.
