@jestercraft.bsky.social

@jestercraft.bsky.social

39 Followers 14 Following

Making 24 (Steam & Itchio) Games in 24 Months. https://www.patreon.com/Jestercraft

I made a game about my burnout. It's a horror visual novel and it's coming out tomorrow on Steam.
Indie Game Developers Handbook - Is now open for Pre-Orders! It's the first book I've ever written from start to finish but also: It's the first time I'm sharing my career experiences so transparently. I would even call that some sort of "life story". Here is a short description of the book: Indie Game Developer’s Handbook: Chapter 1 – Roots of Our Craft A personal story from a solo indie game developer who’s been in the industry since 2009. This book shares the ups and downs of the journey so far — but also takes a deeper look into the motives and mindset behind choosing the indie path. Alongside the stories, you’ll find hands-on tools: Practice Modules — short, practical exercises for learning what it means to be (or become) an indie game developer. These include: - Design guidelines – How to create clear rules for your game designs to stay focused, reduce scope creep, and keep development time manageable. - Art guidelines – How to define an art style that’s readable, simple, and uniquely yours. - System guidelines – Practical advice for building game code structures that cover essential functionality — without overengineering. - Find your authentic motives – Exercises to help you discover what truly drives you to make games, and how to build around that purpose.
Like everything in life that brings joy and excitement, comes with a risk of addiction. Addiction brings bad and unsustainable habits that destroy its bearer in the long run. Even if I’m not physically there, building my imaginary worlds on my computer or tablet, I may still be there. In my head. With my eyes wide open. It’s consuming in the long run. I’ve been learning to knowingly pull myself out from that bubble of mine. Just to make sure that I reserve my energy when it’s time to work again. Since I can’t be working all the time, even though it feels exciting. So, there is a lot to learn to work with something I’m passionate about. To keep myself focused on the right things, on the right time but also to not destroy myself during the journey. What if I’m ready to go through this discovery and learning journey? What if I could keep myself working with the things I’m passionate about? What if I could make a steady income from that hobby of mine? If you ask me, most of us spend way too much time working with things we don’t even like in the first place. We just do it for the sake of money, to pay the bills, and cover the costs of our (ex.) hobbies. For me it’s a no-go. To spend over half of my waking hours on something I’m not interested in. To me, it feels like a waste of time. A waste of life.
I’ve discovered that creating art is a complicated assignment for one to do every single day. One day I may be able to do hours and hours of work without problem. I may also be very efficient on that given day. Getting things done. It’s like hammer time! But the second day: Everything is hard. It may be like navigating through mud with a frozen brain. I’ve learned that not every day is a good day to work. Sometimes it’s just better to take a walk, go to a coffee shop, theatre, see friends or do something totally different. But the thing is: I need to have a deadline. Without it, I may find myself dodging work for a very long period of time. With deadlines, it’s easier to allow myself to rest today, tomorrow and maybe even the day after tomorrow. But then I need to get my stuff together and continue where I left. Most of the time, it feels good when getting back to work. Usually starting things is the most painful process. Ten minutes in and I’m already in the flow: Travelling through my imagination and building things I’m super excited about. I may be in that bubble of mine for hours. Not many things in life bring such pure joy. It’s beautiful. But at the same time, it’s a dangerous place. Like everything in life that brings joy and excitement, comes with a risk of addiction.
I welcome thee to the world of indie game development. It’s a world of trial and error. It’s the promised land of experiments. And like experiments usually do, these will as well: They fail. My experiments are no different than the rest of the games released on Steam. It’s a shot in the dark, a blank ticket without promises. The sooner I realize this, the easier it is for me to start advancing through the modern markets. And to pursue my dream of making profitable indie games. My perfectionism is my biggest enemy. My doubts are the ones which slow me down the most. Slow me down in doing the thing I’m supposed to be doing: To do more experiments and ultimately: To ship more games.
Horror Visual Novel + Hidden Object + Dystopian Cat Story. What could go wrong? Cats With Standards Demo will launch on Steam 1st of May Wishlist here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3320020/Cats_With_Standards/ All music, art, design, story, sounds, voice-overs (even the voice of a small child) is made by a single person. Which would be me! #gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiegame #cats #indiedev #sologamedev #steamgames #horrorgame #art #illustration