New Years Resolution

With VVVVVV’s release imminent, this blog is probably going to be all VVVVVV, all the time for a while. So I thought I’d take this chance to write about something else – 2010! I have no idea right now what I’m going to be able to do this year – a LOT rests on how VVVVVV gets on. But I’m feeling optimistic right now that things will work out – at least well enough to allow me to keep making games for another couple of months 🙂

I’ve actually known for months what I’d like to work on this year, if I’m able: Petri Purho and Gregory Weir and several other designers keep a monthly release schedule, and it seems like a lot of fun! I wanna try it! This year, I’m going to try making a new game each month.

I make no guarantees that I’ll be able to do this, and I’m not putting any real rules or restrictions around it – my “March” game may not necessarily be finished in March, for example, but I will at least attempt to keep moving onto new projects each month.

So, first question – what’s my January game? I haven’t a clue yet! My focus is going to be on finishing and releasing VVVVVV for a while, so I haven’t given it that much thought. However, I’m going to TIGJam UK2 on the 14th, so I’m hoping something grows out of that. Chances are I’ll be doing something pretty simple this month.

As for the rest of the year – well, I already have a pretty good idea what some of them are going to be…

Some more ambitious shooters

I tend to make shooters when I’m taking a break from more serious projects; they’re usually short weekend things for me (like Bullet Time, pictured above), which is a good timeframe for this sort of thing. There’s something about constructing a set of shooter mechanics that I really enjoy – it’s very different from the way I usually approach level design.

I don’t feel like I’ve really explored this interest of mine very much at all, so this year I’ll probably make several shooters.

Detonate

This prototype’s been knocking around for ages now (since the end of 2008), so I’m hoping to find a month to finally finish it up sometime early this year.

Big Hero

This was one of my favourite unfinished games from last year! I started this just after VVVVVV, and since at the time I was thinking about VVVVVV as a smaller project I thought I’d leave it until that was finished. I’m still hoping to come back to it as soon as I can, possibly as my February project.

I probably didn’t really get far enough with the prototype to demonstrate why I like this one so much, but I’m really quite keen to develop it further.

A Puzzle Game

I LOVE designing puzzles. I am totally making a puzzle game this year.