Where have you been??
If you remember the Harry Potter films, I typed that line in Mrs. Weasley’s voice. I owe y’all an update!
Let’s Go back…
2021
- My wife got a promotion and transfer.
- We moved from Seattle back home (ish) to the South.
- I left my career and decided to pursue GameDev full time.
2022
- Everyone and their cousin publishes a Farm Game.
- I pivot from the Farm RPG to Barn Brawl, a party battler.
- Our savings starts to run out.
- I got a job as an Instructional Designer.
2024
- We move to East TN.
- My build of Barn Brawl runs on PUN, but isn’t responsive enough for the fast-paced physics required. I begin to rewrite the game in Unity Multiplay.
- Unity Multiplay (or my understanding of it) doesn’t work for the game. I finally settle on Photon Fusion as a multiplayer solution.
2025
- We bought a house!
- I spend all my free time fixing things and settling into our permanent home.
- REALLY let the game development slide…. 🙁
2026
- I realize this game isn’t going to make itself.
- Spend a month reviewing and relearning my codebase; rewrite a few things to match Fusion 2.1 SDK.
- Set a goal of debuting Barn Brawl at the Southeast Game Exchange’s Indie Game Circuit (Sponsored by Fake Portal)…assuming we get selected!
Fine…so what now?
I’m still working full-time as an instructional designer to pay the bills – I actually work two jobs to help get ahead of debt.
Since February, I’ve spent at least 4 hours most days working on Barn Brawl.
- I’ve cleaned up and optimized (mostly) the codebase.
- Player count is 8, but there’s possibly room to go as high as 12 if it works for the game.
- I coded my very own “network multitap” so that up to 4 local players can go online together.
- Fine-tuned physics, implemented lag compensation, used Fusion’s new “physics predictions” to maximize network performance.
- Redesigned the characters
So…when can we PLAY it?!?!?
I’m more of a programmer than anything else, so what I have now is a working prototype with all of the features implemented. The problem is, people don’t buy prototypes – obviously, because they look like this:
Jump testing blocks, crop fields that display data instead of graphics – and if you look WAY in the back, you’ll see a lined field with basketball hopps where I test dash distance, throwing mechanics, and basic game physics.
Now compare it to this one – this is a more rendered playfield. Everything isn’t wired up yet, so it doesn’t WORK as well as the prototype, but you’re also not running around as a grey capsule.
So far, Charlotte is the only playable model, but she has basic animations and fits perfectly into the game world.
I have A LOT of work to do on the shaders and color of the world – it’s a bit TOO saturated and bright, and I have some edits and texturing to make on the tiles around the lake. All polish type stuff that I’ll get to as we get closer to the show date in July (if we get invited, anyway).
So here’s where I’m headed:
I’m really hoping we get accepted into the Indie Game Circuit. It’ll give me a chance to watch strangers play my game and give me honest reactions and opinions. While I (of course) hope it’s a hit, I also hope to get some great suggestions, feedback, and ideas on how I can change Barn Brawl to make it more fun.
When friends and family play your game, their opinions and reactions are tempered by their relationship with you – they admire what you’ve done even if it’s not “great,” or they inadvertently try not to hurt your feelings. It’s human nature. Going to a show like this would give me a chance to see hundreds of people of all ages play and react. When we took Sellsword to PAX, I made changes to the game from day to day based on feedback – people who came back to play again (a compliment in itself) noticed: “Hey…you added my idea – cool!”
OK – but what if you don’t get into the show?
Not going to lie…a lot of my motivation lately has been getting ready for the show. Having a tangible deadline and expectations makes a difference. I’ll be crushed if we don’t get in, as we’ll miss a HUGE opportunity for feedback, exposure, and word-of-mouth – but I’ll also have a playable game that can easily be added to Steam’s NextFest in the fall (something I’m planning on anyway).
So I have websites to update and build, a demo to prep, and an application to submit. Off I go!
