It's been quite the year finishing up Deity Quest. I posted that Deity Quest was feature-complete Feb 28 of this year, and since then while the game was "done" and playable, there was so much to do. Polishing, debugging, balancing, the BETA test, marketing and tying up loose ends. I've been on that final stretch for months, and it's been rough, but the end is finally in sight! Last year, when I posted the IndieDB page for Deity Quest, I made an estimate that the release would be May 1st - which was my expected date of completion plus two months padding. It turns out I needed those two months padding, but the good news is that we're on schedule to release the game to the public on May 1st!
Whatever happens after the release date, Deity Quest has been a great experience. As my first commercial game, I had to do a lot of research and figure out things like payment processing and even entered the game for Steam Greenlight, which you can view (and vote for) here:
I also created a much improved trailer for the game, using Adobe After Effects instead of Windows Movie Maker, so I had a lot of new options to make it much better than the old trailer (like zoom, pan, etc):
Right now, I'm finishing up multiplayer battles, which was something I had contemplated adding for a while. This has really been a great learning experience for me, and should help a lot with my future commercial games, like Havencall!
Speaking of Havencall, those who have been hoping for news about Havencall for a while will be glad to hear that we are only about a month away from finishing the first world of the game. Havencall is broken up into three worlds, so that means we'll be 100% done with the first third of the game, and we already have a lot of assets for the second and third world. The expected release date for Havencall (with padding) is now October of this year - over a year beyond our initial release date, but at least we're getting there!
As for other projects I have planned to start this year, I have one pretty epic first person, 3D space game. I already have a team on board for it, but because of the scope, I'll probably end up trying to run a Kickstarter for it. It'll have great graphics, so look forward to that!
I also have plans for a sequel to I Can't Escape - so those of you who like horror and the style of I Can't Escape should look forward to that! While the game will have a similar atmosphere and mood, it will have a bunch new features, and of course many new twists & tricks. Those of you who played the original I Can't Escape should still be quite surprised!
I'll keep you posted on updates of all my projects, and get ready for the release of Deity Quest! It's been a crazy road finishing Deity Quest, and there were times I wanted to hit myself for trying a project so ambitious after only a few One Game a Months, but now that it's almost over, I feel quite satisfied, and am ready for new projects - perhaps even more ambitious in scale, more awesome and more of a challenge!