Space is Safer

Scope and Scale

A while back we released a prototype game page on itch,  with a devlog from a project we'd been working on,  under the working title "Pandora's Vault". This was based around the idea of the group working together on a dungeon crawler with a 90's aesthetic, a sort of Wolfenstein with Swords style game. Something that, technically speaking, we were able to produce a 2D engine for (see our post here for the hurdles this had), but design and art wise was beyond achievable for us currently. 

There were 3 main things that were holding us back:

1. Inability to scope the project small enough to be able to iterate on core gameplay loops fast enough to have a blind-test worthy gameplay prototype for friends to try. 
2. A distinct lack of detailed dungeon style level design experience within the team. 
3. No artist onboard the team to help setting an artistic vision for the world building and assets. 

This inevitably meant that progress was slow, bugs were rife, and artistically we were all over the place. With the "idealistic" schedule for the game being that it would take 1-1.5 years to develop, we began to notice we lacked the ability to carry it through right now. The team had only ever released 1 thing together (One Hit Wonder, check it out here) and that had taken all our efforts to produce a small game. Even then it still lacked an artist so reused free assets, and lacked a UI framework so made use of ImGui to do its main menu. It's safe to say we knew we weren't ready, and that our tools probably weren't either. So, rather than hammer our heads at certain failure we decided to pause, take stock, and run through making a game at the scale of a game jam title, but update it after an initial release to get it to a polished standard we could be happy with. 

Trail Behind & Planets Ahead

And so we wound up designing and implementing an idea for a golf game that is much smaller in scope than our previous two projects, but much easier to scale to the team and our work times. We all work jobs, and we all have lives and hobbies. Making games is a labour of love and enjoyment, and balancing those factors together is what allows us to keep working as a  team without burning out. Pausing "Pandora's Vault" was the right choice for us to be able to release something, hone our craft, sharpen our tools, and keep proving to ourselves that a release is within reach if the collective strives to make it.

Thanks for reading! Bambo out!