Solo Game Dev Fails Deadlines

The deadlines I failed

These past two months I was working on the same game trying to get it finished for March. As time went by I wasn't getting enough of the systems in place and spent two months on the game. I still wasn't finished with the systems. So then I moved over to my other game for April and tried to simplify the game play, but it still wasn't enough time. So I put those two games back on the shelf to program another time.

March - LoRain

LoRain is an adventure game about a guy named Stan whose girlfriend just broke up with him because of his obsessions of playing adventure games. You have to make your way in the cold rain back to your apartment.

Status

Failed

What I learned

• Text Parser
• Interactions
• Saving Game Data
• An adventure games has more logic than I thought.
• I need to focus on creating systems then I can make harder to develop games.
• Feature creep and planning better. I need to plan out what I can actually get done in a hard deadline.

April - A Nightingales Dream

A Nightingales Dream is an adventure game about two kids that are into photography in the spring time in Japan. You take picture of trees to put in a picture book.

Status

Failed

What I Learned

• I moved over all the core systems I made in LoRain and got a prototype up in a few days. Make systems modular.
• I learned how to take screenshots in game and save them to a picture book.
• Same things I learned above is feature creep and make deadlines.

How to recover

Just remember that you may not meet the deadlines you set for yourself. Being a solo game dev is up to you. You have to find some kind of self motiviation. Trying to find things that are fun in your games is a way to gauge if others will find it fun. It's ok to fail, and take a loss, but it's also a step towards changing direction from the data we have learned.

May - Ant Battle

So I basically scrapped the two games for March and April, well put on the shelf, maybe next year. Now for May I went very simple in a game called Ant battle is a top down AI driven battle system. You spawn in ants in the game and they can battle, explore, find treasure and go on an adventure. Place your ants strategically in order to find the hidden treasure.

Playtesters can go here to my Itch page:

Status

In Development

Thanks for your support

Everyone, thanks for all your support in my attempt to make and release 12 game demos this year for 2025. It might be a steep learning curve, but that is what I want in order to make fun games for people to play.

Thanks again, have a wonderful day!