It's amazing what Unity has made possible

I'm a solo developer with no real budget. On Saturday night I finally posted on ...


(click and check the trailer!)

The development process has taken me around eight months and has been one of the most grueling experiences of my life. The constant challenges, the hat switching and perhaps most difficult the self doubt. But I'm finally taking a shot at Steam. STEAM! The platform that I've used for years to play great games, I might get on that! It's pretty crazy.

The production value of Blood, Sweat and Gold isn't going to rival next gen AAA titles, but they're solid. I've been trying to talk to more game developers, seasoned industry vets, and at first, most just don't believe that my game was a one man effort on a "rice and beans" budget.

I'm a good developer, I've been writing software for 20 years. But the reality is, there is no way that a game like mine would have been possible to make on my budget even a few years ago. The production values are way beyond "one man in his basement".

But the reality isn't really "omg my game is amazing" (although I'm really proud). The reality is that we're at a really incredible moment in the history of Game Development where something like this is even possible. Unity's press talks about "democratizing game development" and for once a press tag line is an actual reality. It's not just the engine being accessible. It's really also about the asset store and the community at large.

The asset store is really a tremendous innovation, maybe even a revolution in game development. Both acting as a way to work with content immediately, but also as a way to find and contact extremely talented people who often times are working at extremely reasonable rates. All of my art and sound came either from the asset store, or from freelancing asset store publishers.

Anyway, my road isn't over. I might not even get through Greenlight, and my game still has work left. But I wanted to share my experience: that it's really possible today for a "one guy with a dream" to punch way above his or her weight class.

 

Congrats.

 

I agree that we're at a really cool point in game development history. It really is astounding when you think back even 10 - 20 years ago. I mean they're giving out fairly full featured game engines for free now. I didn't even think that would be possible 2+ years ago. It's like we're all on Oprah: "You get a free game engine, and you get a free game engine, ...... and you get a free game engine, everyone gets a free game engine!".

 

The problem is if it's not profitable none of them will be around much longer. There's no place else to go once you make it free. It's not like they can suddenly start charging again. Maybe they should have just made it $200 flat fee and no free versions? Although it's great that it's free!

 

First of all, congratulations on completing your game!

Second, congratulations on completing a game to put on Steam that actually looks good. No, it's not AAA shiney, but you do not need AAA shiney if the gameplay is fun.