So a month ago (around the start of September) I hit a milestone with Samphi; I've now been developing the game for three years! Here's a breakdown of that time:
- 1st year I was at college and it was just a casual project that I worked on when I was bored.
- 2nd year I was still at college but it development got more serious and the goal of creating a full game was born.
- 3rd year I was working full time and developing Samphi on an evening. It's only this past year that Samphi has really had a lot of my attention and effort. I also made my first set of releases this year up to version 0.5.
Now we're entering the fourth year, I'm at University full time studying games programming and development has stepped up another notch. I have much more time to devote to development and I think its showing.
For a long time I've been uncertain as to what Samphi was about and my intentions for the game have shifted dramatically. I finally feel like I've found the correct identity for the game and I'm on the right track.
When I first decided I wanted to create a full game my intention was to create a very ‘vanilla' game that lots of people would play; popularity was my main goal. Over time my intentions have moved SO far away from this due to me growing older, gaining greater appreciation of games and what it is to be an indie developer.
My goal now is to create something that I'M proud of and tells the story I want to tell. I don't care if that means that only 10 people will play it. I'd be much more proud of them 10 plays on a game I really put my heart into than 1,000,000 on some ‘commercial' shit I tried to make. The core if the Samphi remains the same but the purpose is now worlds apart. Before the game was going to be a casual, no story or goal game. Now I'm using Samphi to tell the story of a breakup and what I've learned from it because I feel it's important and I want to share it.
I started Samphi when I was fresh out of high school and have been developing all the way through college, work and now university. I've grown up a lot during this time and as I have so has the game; I hope to encapsulate that.
Views and downloads is no longer my goal, it's to tell the story I want to tell and produce something I'm proud of. I think this is the reason why all of a sudden I've ‘found' the games identity and where I'm going with it. It should be FUN!!
Right, that's my blog for this year. See you in 2014! (hopefully before then really)
