Well, we finally did it. We put out our first game and I couldn’t be prouder. I know this might sound like hubris, but I still think The Chaser’s Voyage is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. I hope that everyone else who is willing to give our little passion project a try will feel the same way. Now that we’ve launched, I wanted to share some closing thoughts on the development process for the game.

 

1) Our biggest hurdle was always the art. Neither of us are artists by training. I mean, I doodle a whole bunch, but I always used to think that if we could have a trained artist on hand or by commission, then that would be better. Now, I don’t necessarily think that’s the case. I mean, if you are an artist or have an artist on your team, then that’s probably best. (And I use artist to mean someone who can draw and compose images, because game design and programming are an art form as well.) But if not, it’s probably better to just teach yourself. It seems daunting, but I was surprised by how quickly one can learn how to compose some kind of image that looks good with just time and practice. I personally think that I’ve improved quite a lot over the course of The Chaser’s Voyage’s development and I think in the future it will be best to just hone my skills and do it all myself… even if it’s not going to look like the people who have millions of dollars to commission the best artist. Of course, there will always be something where it would better to hire a professional.

 

2) Game design is an ever evolving process. The best decision we made was making combo encounters, and that was a really late addition to the game that only came about when we were thinking of how to do implement the flight simulator. I know of some indie devs who kind of wing the whole project and run out of steam very quickly because they don’t have a road map. I also know of some who are very rigidly attached to their designs at all stages of development that they miss out on some good opportunities. There’s a time for both improvisation and a time for executing a well-thought out plan, but the real trick is planning enough ahead of time to know where you’re going and being open enough to recognize when things need to deviate.

 

3) You really need a thick skin to survive in this industry. At the time of this writing, The Chaser’s Voyage is new and we don’t have a long line of people eager to play our game (yet), but we have at least one review copy handed out and a showcase lined up and, to be honest, I’m so nervous about both. I’m sure that over the course of our lifetime, there will be people who like The Chaser’s Voyage and people who don’t like The Chaser’s Voyage, and that’s fine. But I think the worst feelings I’ve ever had when developing this game were around some of the negative feedback we had gotten.

Obviously at times we’d get negative feedback, which is pretty normal and mostly welcomed. Some of the earliest feedback we got led to some of our best ideas. If you unlock and play Ace Mode in our game, then you will no doubt note its difficulty. That was more or less the only difficulty early on, but negative feedback on this challenging mode led to the creation of our Voyager and Captain modes, which are Cameron’s and my favorite modes, respectively. More than a few times however, we’ve had people who just didn’t like our game, sometimes without even offering any real criticism. Something didn’t click with them or they were perhaps not the right audience, but regardless, it feels awful when people write off your art before they even give it a chance.

But, then there’s those times when you see people really engage with your game and you see things click for them. You see their eyes light up and you know that everything just works. I live for those moments. Seeing people enjoy The Chaser’s Voyage powers me up to move right past any nonconstructive negative feedback (while still keeping an open ear to the constructive kind).

 

3.5) The experience of wrapping up The Chaser’s Voyage, submitting it to others for judgement, and hearing both constructive and nonconstructive feedback has caused me to significantly reevaluate not only how I engage with games, but also how I engage with games media. I used to be (and still kinda am) snobbish when it comes to video games. Very much a “I love games. If I don’t love it, I don’t play it.” type. But knowing that some people took my game, didn’t play it, but decided to pass judgement anyway, made me realize that that’s a shitty way to engage with games. Over the last year, I’ve tried, played, and beaten more games I would consider “bad” than ever before, but also found games that have become some of my favorites of all time even though they didn’t click at the beginning. Yes, there are still some real stinkers (even popular games can be bad still), but there are some real hidden gems out there if you just give them a chance.

I’ve also really stopped engaging with too much of the negative media surrounding video games. No more “Top 10 Worst Games of All Time” type videos for me, especially if they’re about indie games, because that’s a really toxic way to engage with a medium that I love. A genuine fear I had was ever ending up on some popular YouTuber’s “Worst Games” list, where they use my art as content while probably misrepresenting it. It’s just not something I wish to engage with anymore, especially now that I’ve, officially, finished and launched my own video game.

 

I guess what I’ m saying is, the development of The Chaser’s Voyage has changed me, as would anything that takes 10 years to make, and they’re all changes for the better. I’m a better artist, a better game designer, and a better person thanks to this long, LONG voyage. Of course, it helped that I wasn’t on it alone. Cameron, thanks for the adventure. Let’s take a short rest and then head out on another one.

Hopefully a shorter one this time though.