It has been a while since the last update, hasn’t it? I’m sorry about that. The longer you go without a post, the more daunting it seems to try to recap everything that’s happened in the interim. So I won’t attempt that.

The Flash Gaming Summit and GDC were very good this year. Along with the general atmosphere of inspiration and enthusiasm, several talks really changed the way I’ve been thinking about my work, and have caused me to revise my plans. Since I’m in a reflective mood, though, let’s first talk about how we got into this mess.

So, why has Godfall taken so long?

1. It Hasn’t, Really.

One of the main problems, especially early on, was that I announced the game much too early. In fact it wasn’t until about six months after the announcement that I actually started working on it. This was really stupid, and led to the perception that the game was much closer to release than it was. I was working on Dragon Age Journeys at the time, and frustrated with repeated delays to announcing for that title. So in a fit of pique (I suppose) I announced the next Monsters’ Den instead. Bad idea.

2. Scope Control and Feature Creep

These are separate but closely related issues. By the time I started work on Godfall, I had two years worth of ambitious ideas stored up. Naturally, I wanted to implement them all. And new ideas kept coming! This is a recipe for working on a game forever.

When you don’t have a clearly defined end-state, it can sometimes be tough to even keep track of what still needs to be done, or what you should be working on that day.

3. Motivation Issues

I think it’s natural on any big project for your enthusiasm to wax and wane. Productivity can vary, but when you’re working by yourself it’s much more dangerous since you don’t have the camaraderie/mutual-guilt-trips that can keep you on track in an office environment. I’m happy that development has never gone completely off the rails though, there has always been steady progress.

4. Life

I developed the first Monsters’ Den in just three months, while learning Flash. I did very little else during that time. Even by Book of Dread I had started to slow down, and I’m just not able to lead that lifestyle any more. The problem is that I can’t convince myself of that, or at least the part of my brain that’s in charge of estimating how long things will take.

5. Alone, So Very Alone
It’s just hard to do this by yourself!

The Next Step

Godfall is still coming out. Not in the immediate future, but I’ll be very depressed if it isn’t this year. However.. it is no longer the next Monsters’ Den game.

That next game is now Monsters’ Den Chronicles.

Chronicles uses the Godfall codebase and art assets, and in some ways provides a somewhat more traditional Monsters’ Den experience. In other ways it will be quite unlike any that have come before, or even Godfall. I’m quite excited about it.

Building on the lessons I learned above, this is a game I’m announcing after I’ve already started working on it and with a well-defined scope. That’s progress.

Development-wise, it serves as a stepping stone to Godfall. It shouldn’t be seen as a loss of focus. The majority of the work going into it are things I had to do anyway, and will carry over directly. This lets me get a game out to the fans sooner, get valuable feedback on new systems and (quite important for me at the minute) get cashflow-positive. It’s also a chance for me to experiment with game structure in a new way.

I’ll have more to say about the game soon. Thanks for your interest and support.

As a peek behind the curtain, here are sketches of some of the armor styles available to player characters in Godfall.

First things first: It’s now pretty obvious that the game won’t be out this year. If you’re waiting, I’m sorry, but I’m doing my best to deliver on the promise in this concept.

More work was done on skills this month, that’s ongoing as inspiration strikes. The groundwork was also laid for the customization of player sprites, with artwork now in production. The player characters in earlier Godfall screenshots were placeholders, in the final game the characters’ battlefield appearance will accurately reflect their equipment.

What took up the most of my time this month, however, was the world map. I rewrote the code for the overland segments to make it render more efficiently (tile-based) and did a lot of experimenting with different ways of presenting it. Coming up with the final map itself was the biggest element, though, and it is (thankfully) now pretty much locked down. Instead of placeholder locations on a placeholder map, the real things can now be placed. I’ll post the first screenshot of the overland stuff soon.