Well lots has been going on recently and I’ll be making a big post about it soon.

I’ve been having lots of thoughts about what to do in 2007.  It’s an exciting time right now because Oz is done and is out there and so is Holiday Bonus, and I’m not working on any projects at the moment (except for “me”, the biggest project of all ;-)).  So I’m able to relax and let inspiration come to me and also think about my options.  I’m weighing up how I can a) immediately  make money to pay my bills, b) do the fun creative things that I *really* want to do and c) become very rich quickly.  More on all this soon…

The Holiday Bonus musician emailed me recently asking what next and I replied and he said “How much work is it to make a new match-3 game, now that most or all of the vital components are ready?” and he also said “While you could just output a new match-3 for the cash (‘only’ need to insert gfx/music), meanwhile you could make a new engine instead. By the way, what about those Simcity-clones or <insert>-Tycoon? Are these a casual buyer’s choice?”, and I wrote him this reply:

Oz took well over 200 hours (of my time only) to convert into Holiday Bonus (there wasn’t really much new code, most of the time was directing the artist and plugging in the new art). Oh also it cost > £1000 too (and future ones will cost more), plus lots of extra time to market.  So any new Match-3 will take maybe 1 month full-time minimum (assuming that my skills have increased now).  However, to stand out I need to some new elements, which I listed in my last email (to the musician).  If I made a 5th match-3 I believe I could make it my best one yet and also a market leader – should I do it?

Meanwhile, converting the Blitz Max Game Framework to Mac is an unknown quantity, it should be possible but I know nothing about Macs and will need to do a lot of research – perhaps it will be easy.  Once it’s done though, it’s can be reused for many games.  There are less competitors in the Mac market (by a long way) so a good game will do well – and I believe that I can supply that game.

As for sim games, well the Diner Dash-type games are big (not really Sim games as such, but the nearest thing in the casual market).  In March I made a plan for a game called Flower Shop but never got time to do it due to developing the game framework and my other games (Oz/HB etc) – this is my own fault though.  Now take a look at this game, which is the no. 2 game on BFG!  I hate missing the boat – but my boat will come again, and perhaps it will be bigger…

Right now another match-3 is easier as the engine is there and I can improve it each time thus making the game more saleable (it won’t gain me much respect amongst forum programmers, but who cares if I’m the one making money and contacts).  As for a new engine, I imagine that I’ll have to make a first game that will be OK and then my second game with that engine will be the really good one (I’m pretty up to date with particles effects and smooth programming now, although there is still more that I could do looking at some current top notch games).  A new engine needs lots of new code/thought and testing even if it’s copying a tried and tested formula.  Of course a brand new idea needs *even more* thought and testing….risky but with potential huge payouts.  To be honest I need secure income first, then maybe I’ll aim for that – however, I’m not sure that’s how millionaires think…

This entry was posted on Monday, December 25th, 2006 at 8:23 pm and is filed under Plans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.