As an extra post before restarting development on Particular Reality, I thought it could be interesting to write about why I decided to work on this game and not another.
Everybody is different, but I think some rationale could be valid for many other indie developers (or wanna-be developers). That said, this is just my thought process: I'm not suggesting to do the same, claiming it's a generally valid approach etc etc.
Game project selection in three bits
I think it's reasonable to ask at least these three yes/no questions about a potential game project:
Would I be able to make it?
Do I want to make it?
Does it have potential to sell?
Depending on the answers, you can put any game project in this Venn diagram:
Ideally, one should pick from the middle intersection, containing the "YES YES YES" game projects.
The "Would I be able to make it" is a mandatory YES question. If you don't think you'll be able to complete the project, don't start. It's already hard enough when you are confident you will manage it. Start with something less ambitious and come back to the other project later on (maybe). It's probably the most common advice to game developers at their first project: start small. Of course, this is not only about personal skills, but also about available budget and composition of the development team.
What about the other two questions? Things become a little more debatable.
If you are able to make a game, and you think it has good potential to sell, you could decide to suck it up and do it anyway, even if it's not a game you really want to make it. It could be a step towards the possibility to make a game you want next time, providing you with some experience and money. But I really suggest against this scenario. If it's not a game you want to make, you could probably avoid some stress and gain similar experience working on somebody else's game, or even applying your skills outside of game development (spoiler alert: you will probably earn more, or at least with less uncertainty). I might be biased by my view as a programmer, but after all I think programmers are the main audience of this DevLog.
If you won the lottery or inherited a fortune, you can forget about the "potential to sell" part, but careful with that: that question can also be read as "does it have an audience?", and even if you don't need to make money from selling a game, you probably want some people playing it (maybe a small niche, but still...). If you think "I will just do a game for myself", sorry to be that guy, but you won't be able to enjoy a game you made as a normal player. Maybe if you come back to it after 10 years from the end of the project. But just maybe.
Long story short: I suggest to find a "three YES" project. Maybe you can turn a "two YES" into a "three YES" with some changes.
Still thinking to embark into a "two YES" project? Well, remember that developing games takes time, usually measured in years. Successful commercial games made in months are probably a rare exception to the rule. Do you really want to spend 2-3 years on a project that doesn't tick all three boxes from day one?
Because yes, the worst thing is that, even if you start with a "three YES" project, they can all flip during development:
You might have overestimated your capabilities to complete the project (at least in the form that you imagined)
You might end up hating the game you wanted (emphasis on past tense) to make
The game might sell much less than what estimated (misjudged potential, or the market changed during development)
So, to have less insignificant chances of success in an oversaturated, hyper-competitive market, I think one should at least start with a "three YES" project.
What about Particular Reality?
Let's now discuss how I feel about answering the three questions myself, in the context of the Particular Reality project. Of course, the process wasn't this linear, and it was more about a series of thoughts and experiences that I have now tried to organize to fit the schema.
Would I be able to make it?
What makes me confident I can develop Particular Reality?
Well, I've been doing game and VR development for many years. It's not like I've already done exactly everything that I'm going to need for the game (development would be pretty boring, in that case!), but the amount of unknown on the technical side is not something that ruins my sleep. I could still fail on many other fronts, but that's more about making the game better and more appealing, not about being able to complete it.
I'm the core developer and the main expense will be my time. All other expenses are going to be covered with money earnt by doing contract work for third parties and from sales from past Binary Charm projects (like “Shadows on the Vatican: Nightingale” and my Unity Assets).
So, it's not like I have somebody else giving me a fixed budget and a deadline to complete the game. I really don't need that kind of stress, honestly!
Sure, the need to do other development work for third parties implies having less development hours available every day, and it's going to make development longer.
But there are also upsides to being busy with other things for part of the day. Burnout is a real thing, and working full days on a single project, for months (and years), can become hard.
I hope, at a later stage of development, to hire as freelancers amazing 3D artists and musicians. But if things don't go as planned, the game concept itself makes me able to potentially complete it by myself: in that worst case scenario, the particles VFX will be a bit lame, the color palette won't be perfect, and the music and sound effects will be bought off the shelf and not custom made. But I will still be able to complete the game.
This also applies to gameplay mechanics and level design: I hope to some get help on that side, but I can do something myself.
I'm going to repeat the core idea because I want to make sure it's clear: I don't want to complete the game solo, I just want to have creative direction and take care of all programming. But I've also thought hard about a game that, in the absolute worst case scenario, I could complete all by myself, at least in some basic form (which might be a first step towards a better version).
Do I want to make it?
Oh, absolutely yes.
First, this is going to be the first "real" game where I call the shots, without having to discuss or compromise with anybody, or follow third party directions even when I disagree with them.
I'm just going to do what I feel is right. I'm the author.
This, by itself, makes me want to do the project.
Do I think that I'm the only smart guy around and that by taking all core creative decisions the game will be successful?
Of course not. Shipping a game is already some kind of miracle, shipping a successful one is like winning a lottery.
But the possible (likely?) failure will at least be my failure.
I won't be able to think "Damn, the game was a failure, but maybe if we did that thing like I wanted, it could have been successful!"
So, real authorship and ownership of a game, the will to put something which I really feel mine into the world, and to fully own it, is the primary driving force.
This is also why I'm not even trying to get a publisher. At least once, and it must be now (remember? time passing, games taking years etc?), I won't accept any creative compromise because somebody says something about when the game should be published, how should it be changed to be more appealing to a wider audience, how should it be presented to sell better to teenagers etc etc.
That said, these are valid reasons to want to make any game, but why this game? Well, I have piled up many ideas about VR interaction, during years of non-gaming work, and I want to implement them and see how players react to them. I feel there's some potential in them. Additionally, I'd like to experiment a bit with particle systems on the graphics programming and VFX side of things, and hopefully that will help in making the game have a distinctive look (being recognizable is crucial).
Some other ideas that will go in the game are probably nothing special or original, but I feel I can mix them into something interesting. We'll see what I manage to do as the project goes forward.
Does it have potential to sell?
Does it? Maybe!
This is definitely where I'm more hopeful than confident.
I feel that VR is getting more popular, but it's still at a niche stage where an indie developer can be noticed if they ship something good (something that can't be said in the space of mobile games, for example).
Sticking to standalone VR should also help: users accept non-AAA graphics (impossible to achieve on the hardware), valuing gameplay more than production values.
Of course, everything can happen in the (long) time I will need to ship the game.
Meta might stop pushing on VR (I would be very surprised), Valve could start selling an amazing standalone headset based on the Steam Deck hardware and software (that's my guess about what the Valve Deckard project is going to be, and I love the idea), or some study about health concerns related to VR will be published, and headsets will become illegal, generating a black market a la Strange Days. Which would suck, but would not even be something to complain that much, between wars and pandemics, you know.
I discussed things outside of my control, but obviously the game might also fail to sell because I don't manage to make it good. I'm going to do my best, but I can't be sure it's going to be enough.
What I'm sure, is that for once I want to make a game with creative freedom and little stress, which is why I'm not relying on it selling well to ensure my livelihood. It's not a "make it or break it" project, which makes me more inclined to take risks with the game itself and make bold, personal decisions about it. Remember that for every success story where somebody went full-indie using all their savings or selling their house, and ended up with a hugely successful game, there are many other untold stories where that kind of thing didn't end well at all.
Call me a coward, but I prefer to play it safe.
If the game ends up selling well, it's going to be great, and I will have funds for another game, maybe more ambitious.
If it doesn't, too bad, I'm going to be a bit sad for a while, but I will still be able to pay the bills and, if I feel like it, start some other project.
And it doesn't end there: I engineered a certainty of partial success. Because the saddest thing, which hopefully I will never be forced to accept again in my lifetime, are projects taking months (sometimes years) of work and getting canceled without leaving any trace. Games get killed all the time, and it's horrible for all the people that passionately work on them.
So what's the ace up my sleeve? This DevLog, of course: if anything happens that prevents me from completing the project, at least some traces of it will survive in some form. That's not much, but it's still a lot better that some things I've experienced in the last 10 years.
So, thanks for reading!