The unseen forces are growing – Dev Blog 79
Greetings! This week has been an exceedingly productive one, the main thrust of development work has been working on a new terrain system for Fringe Planet. Not quite ready to show it off yet, but the progress has been fantastic – and it is going to bring a very interesting change to both the look and the feel of the game – along with some pretty awesome performance increases, which are always good to have. There has been quite the steep learning curve involved with this new system, so I am incredibly excited to share it once it is ready. I’ll also probably do quite an in-depth blog post/tutorial about it.
Excitingly, the interview I did last year has been published – which is very cool. I’ve received a huge amount of positive feedback about it, which has been awesome. I was incredibly nervous about the interview (speech issues and all), but Tony made the entire process incredibly easy and very pleasant. You can listen to the interview by clicking here. There are some fantastic other interviews there, so I’d totally recommend checking them out as well. Tony has interviewed some amazing developers! Don’t forget to subscribe if you enjoy his content! Also, if you run a podcast/blog and would like to interview me, feel free to reach out. It turns out I quite enjoy talking about my game!
In other game development news, a new round of funding from the UK Games Fund has been announced. This is a fantastic opportunity for all UK game developers to get not only cash (always important) but also exposure. I’ve pitched for the past two years, but alas I haven’t been successful. Maybe third time is the charm? We shall see. There seems to be more of an emphasis on how your business will grow this year (or at least that is what came through via the webinar this time). So I thought I’d talk about what the business goals are for both my company, as well as Fringe Planet’s influence on it.
A little known fact is that Fringe Planet is being developed by my company, Sigil Initiative Limited. Which, of course, is just me at the moment (and the cats). Solo deving is incredibly hard work, and I honestly salute everyone who does it. Fringe Planet will also not be the only game I release. There are so many ideas and concepts bubbling around that I want to do, but am very much focused on one task at a time. The goal for the company, once Fringe Planet is released (mostly to provide income), is to become a real, brick and mortar studio. With offices and everything.
I don’t really want to work solo for the rest of my life, so getting other people on board (esp to deal with things that I can’t do – art, music, etc) would be vital to the success of the company. I live in Luton, and have lived in or around Luton my entire life. Non UK folk may never have heard of Luton (despite having an international airport, a huge university and incredible rail links into London). Alas, Luton doesn’t have the best reputation, despite being an amazingly awesome multi-cultural town. Also, despite the University offering an awesome game development course, the game development scene here is fairly non-existent. I (and therefore Sigil Initiative Limited), want to change that. I’d love to have Luton as a hub for game development outside of London (much like Brighton). Setting up a physical studio here, employing from local talent and giving back to the community that I’ve grown up around would be absolutely incredible – and would be the first steps in achieving my goal. It’s a goal I’m incredibly passionate about as well. I’m a very proud Lutonian and it would be fantastic to give back.
So that is the master plan! It is, of course, a long term goal – still need to get Fringe Planet finished and out there!
(p.s. to anyone who is pitching to the UK Games Fund, I’ll happily share my pitch videos (probably as guide as to how *not* to do them) – just reach out via the blog or twitter and we can sort something out!)
(p.p.s. they are probably fairly cringe worthy)
There is a lot more to read about Fringe Planet… why not try: