After a long, protracted battle and seemingly endless series of real-life delays, my first video game project is finally getting off the ground! For real this time!
I'm ecstatic to announce that a playable demo of my RPG, Unto the Breach, will be made available to the public at the Quicken Loans Make IT Faire on August 26th. The demo will go live on our shiny new website the following day!
I've been engaged in some heavy testing, ironing out the last remaining bugs, and rounding out the content of the demo some. I've added several more mini-quests and am in the process of almost doubling the NPC population of Varennes to make it seem even more alive. The combat has been balanced for a consistent and challenging experience, graphics have been cleaned up, sound effects categorized, behind-the-scenes work done, and everything is shaping up for a wonderful experience!
To help celebrate the release of the demo, I'll be posting a new lore article on the website every day between now and next Monday, giving you a chance to either take your first steps into my world, or return to it once again and learn more about it!
Why now, after so long? Well, simply put, I'm not in college any more. If you've never been, it can be a very soul-draining experience. Mostly because of homework. That tends to eat up a lot of time. But now I'm out and working a real job, and when I go home, I go home and can do whatever I want until the next morning.
Also, a huge part of it is the people I'm around. Since I've moved back to Detroit and started working at Quicken Loans, I've been surrounded by people who are not only professional, but enthusiastic, not just about their jobs, but about Detroit itself. I'm working in an environment where the kind of creativity I have is celebrated. I have a giant four-foot poster of my map of Terranis on the wall behind my desk, and almost every day someone walks by, sees it, and goes "That's pretty cool!" or asks me about it. Then they go "That's pretty cool!" after I spend a solid ten minutes talking about the game and my world.
I've also met tons of people outside Quicken who feel the same as well, and I've been making connections with people who, even if they can't help me directly with what I want to do by making levels or art, they can give me advice and, most importantly, energy and encouragement. I think that was a key component missing in a school environment.
I actually wake up excited in the morning. There's an air of adventure and entrepreneurialism among the people, and Detroit is on its way into becoming a leading IT city in America, despite all the crazy things happening right now (and I'm also excited that my family is playing a pretty big part in that. The IT part, not the crazy stuff). There's resources available I just didn't have before, and I'm so excited I'm nearly vibrating.
Anyway. Video game. The demo is a prologue to the main game, taking place about a year before the primary events do. It's an independent story, so you won't play the demo, then get the main game and have to replay the same stuff over (I always hated games that did that). It's all set in the same universe as every other piece of writing I've posted on this blog, and hopefully will be the first of many adventures in that world for you, and for me. I'm putting together plans for after the demo's release for a possible Kickstarter campaign to REALLY get the game going, and help overcome that biggest obstacle I've faced: not having enough time to do it all myself. But more on that later.
In the meantime, keep heading over to the site and check out the lore articles I'll be posting. Join us on Facebook and Twitter to support us, and of course continue reading this blog to get a more "uncut" look at the lore I'm developing for this universe. Thank you everyone for your support, and I look forward to exploring Terranis with you all!
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