I Just Got Another Version Out To Playtesters And I'm Feeling Good About The Progress I'm Making. Skyjackers

I just got another version out to playtesters and I'm feeling good about the progress I'm making. Skyjackers a.2 has a bunch of new stuff and some necessary refinements as well. It's just been really encouraging to see things coming together.

We're a long way from any kind of finish line, but by the end of the year the last of the big questions should be answered, and it just becomes about cranking out the game itself.

What's the last question?

Should Skyjackers be a fully co-op/singleplayer game? Or should it be elevated to the absurd height of becoming a sandboxy MMO?

Both have their costs, and both have their great benefits. Amazingly, both seem entirely possible, which is a great testament to the state of available technology. It's just a matter of figuring out which is best.

Public Game Development is Hard, Public Political Storytelling is Harder

I’ve been silent here for a while, but I just wanted to say that I’m very much alive! I’ve been working out how I want to do the netcode and general multiplayer setup. Now that I’ve got that going, I’m getting back towards being more public in my progress.

As much as my instinct is to be totally open with my process, my process involves rapid iteration, which is to say throwing some cubes together and making them do a game mechanic in a sloppy way in order to see if it’s actually worth doing right. By working like this, I save a lot of time trying things, as I try to reject most of my own ideas and only keep that which really works well with the game as a whole. I’m happy with that process, but I feel like posting pictures of that both undersells the look of the game and overpromises the gameplay by showing lots of mechanics that wont ever be finished or published. It’s tricky that way.

Additionally, while the game isn’t propaganda by any means, there is a significant political dimension, and the politics at play are both very strange and very familiar. The game is set in the future of Earth, and while it does not directly represent the struggles of today, it does echo them. The ideologies at play are not those of today, they are the descendants of today’s ideologies, which means that if I portray them clumsily, they could very reasonably be read as caricatures of the beliefs of today. All this means that I’m hesitant to reveal them until I’ve had a chance to make sure that they won’t be reasonably misread. Some miscommunication is inevitable, and so is valid criticism of my own assumptions and understanding as a creator, I accept that. I just want to welcome people into the world when the time is right.

So I’m not going to get deep into the lore early on, but that’ll shift over time, and I am very excited to show more and more of what’s happening in this strange future.

Hey all, work is progressing on A.9, and I just wanted to let you know that you can expect it to include:

A server browser, to make joining multiplayer games with friends easier.

Rendering Enhancements, making a lot of things prettier

New Mission types

Mission Giver NPCs

All this new stuff is at least two weeks, maybe more like a month away from a playtest, but I'm looking forward to the next playtest and I'll keep you in the loop as we get closer!

In the meantime, you can try out the game for free now on itch!

It’s 4am, my pump up song is on loop, and I’m tearing increasingly intricate space stations apart with a debug gun and watching them collapse with increasing accuracy. Every hour makes things a bit more beautiful, and a bit more sophisticated.

And tomorrow, I don’t even need to get up early.

(And yes, I take time off and take care of myself, don’t worry. I’m just a night owl.)

Hubris

Supreme Hubris Games is one rando trying to break free of corporate work. I'm sick of working for rich people, so I quit my job a few weeks ago after saving money for years. Game dev is often a team sport, but I think I can at least build a strong foundation on my own. There are things that can only be done by one person, and it's not like I can afford to hire anyone anyway, I barely have enough savings to pay my own way.

I've got about 18 to 30 months before my savings run out, depending on how cheaply I can live. No matter what happens, that time will be a blessing that I cannot take for granted...but I don't want this to end with that. I'm not taking a vacation. This is at least the third time I've made a blog like this. The game will be somewhere around my 12th finished game. Even with my accumulated advantages, the odds don't feel like they are in my favor, but now I will have no excuses and all the time I need, so I think that might be enough.

I hate that I need to pay for freedom like this, and I hate that it took so much to build up these savings. I hate that so many people are happy to take six figure salaries and just live on a 40 hour a week luxury treadmill instead of breaking free and doing something worthwhile.

Future posts will be more about game dev and robbing the aforementioned rich people blind, but I just wanted to make a note of where I am now, for posterities sake. I dunno what'll happen next, but I'm still happy to be taking these steps.

Next Week: I post bad art (that will slowly and unsteadily become good)