It's time to get serious. (An indie game devlog) 

You can now wishlist my game on Steam! steampowered.com/app/2967630

Happy New Year!

Happy new year. I found your channel around the time I chucked my awful job during the Great Resignation too in search of something more fulfilling, and I've found your videos really inspiring. So... thanks for sharing your journey, and glad to see you've found a better balance to your life. Really enjoyed your last vid too - seemed like a really smart use of resources, kept the original charm and style but added a layer of polish that looks smashing. Definitely no cause for creative guilt that I could see. Keep fighting the good fight and when you get around to listing your game on Steam I will "smash" that Wishlist button.

This is all very relatable! Glad to hear things are going well with freelancing. Keep on keeping on. Happy new year!

Alright, alright, I'll work on the novel I've been trying to write for three years. _Geez._ You didn't need to make a fourteen-minute video to convince me for heaven's sake.

I have spent time longer than this video with it paused looking for that Westerlies song. Can you please specify which one it is?

Lets get serious indeed my fellow Earthman!!!

Super interesting! I quit my job 2 years ago to focus on being creative, and quickly found my way to freelance writing. Alongside more videos for the channel I want to dip my toe into game dev, in part inspired by yourself! But I have to echo some of what you said, it's hard to switch tracks from 'freelance writer mode' to 'creative mode.' Also, the last few months have been quite fruitful for me too, so the things I want to work on have had to take a step back too - as you say, a good problem to have :) Hope you're getting on well!

AI will definitely take over everything. However, just like movies never put book writing out of business, and tv never put movies out of business. They won't necessarily put people out of business, except when they do. Lol. Basically, people will be doing these things because they want to, and less will be about making money. Unless you have an ai service. In the future I could just have AI create a movie for me, and it will just do it, and it will probably something you pay for. That said, people still go to plays. People still like writing and playing text adventures too, although text adventures don't really make money anymore. So you don't have to freak out too much. It's probably better to learn AI yourself, so that when it comes to that time, you can use AI to your best advantage.

Oh wow, just discovered your channel! That's brilliant!☺️ Been putting off making a point and click for more years than I can remember. Not sure you're helping... 🤣 Joking apart, love your videos. Thanks so much for sharing your journey.

3:26 "and if AI is going to take my job and make game development kind of useless" Nope, not now at least. If there is a way to create a game by pushing one button, I'have had already found it. I'm ALWAYS looking for ways to automatize everything I do as a solo game dev. My "last find" was Chat GPT helping me with Unreal blueprints. It doesn't do everything for me, unfortunately. As a comic book artist (my day job), AI helped me with nothing. For a clean and precise comic art style, AI is still awful. For illustration, it gives dull and boring composition ideas, but the color and lighting suggestions are great! I share your entrepreneurial spirit in developing a product for a future where jobs are gone. Honestly, I've never wanted to work for others, and this pressure is great to keep me in survival mode and make me release projects haha

From personal experience i found that wriiting a story for a point and click adventure game and keep that story to it's bare minimum works best, as the logic and sequence of puzzles will 'push' the narrative. In the end it made more sense, since it's not writting a novel but an interactive experience. How did you approach intertwining the puzzles with the story.

Before Game Dev: What almost 2 years, but the game looks almost done After Game Dev: 2024 oh, good luck

i wish my main hobby and passion and work would grant me 63 days free. I'm not there (yet) and i hope one day to be able to free myself up.

Bruh. I wanna play your game already! Make a steam page so we can all wishlist this bad boy!

Please clear out the ash from your fireplace :)

Happy new year and with you till the end ♥️

Happy new year, 2024 it is! Same here. Some years ago i said "It'll probably been done in two or three years". Well i started in 2019 not really knowing much but that i wanted to make a game.

Happy New Year and thank you for the update! It's difficult to pursue a passion (that doesn't pay yet) while also trying to maintain a stable income. I think 1 hour per weekday is a reasonable goal that will not burn you out and will ultimately make you feel better as you start seeing progress. Regarding AI generated content, it's difficult to say which way things will swing. I like to think of it as a good referencing tool, just as you would normally use references when making artwork. However, I can see the problems it has caused by using famous artist's work as its source learning material. It's definitely new territory for all of us involved in some sort of a creative field. Looking forward to the next update, you're the best!

Nice update. I try to to block out anywhere from 1-3 or 4 hours/day for gamedev. Always balancing gamedev with client work. It’s tricky business though and requires me to change a given day’s work on the fly without feeling stretched too thin or feel deflated for not having much time or not completing the day’s tasks. I used to try and commit one day/week for full time dev and have evolved to a bit of time on a daily basis as you’ve adopted. Thanks, keep plugging away at it. Personally, I favor the method for eating an elephant, one bite at a time. Happy New Year.

I love this video.. I don’t know precisely why or what it is exactly… something about fresh starts and settling into a project with a renewed sense of vision and focus. Although we are well into 2023, I find myself coming back to this video to inspire me to go on and get serious about my own projects.

Happy New Year! Completely agree. Take your time. You'll always have fun and positive ideas when you do work on it then.

Changing workflows ftw! :) Sometimes it's really nice to just switch things up a bit! Excited for your game to come out, and congratulations on all your progress! :D

I appreciate the cautiously optimistic tone of this video. Very much how I'm feeling with my project.

Good luck to you this year! Very relatable and i think its a good idea to work on your game for an hour everyday or something. A plan is better than no plan.

It's really great to see how well the game looks now. Also thanks for the ongoing devlogs, you're really good at, well, talking. I enjoy listening to you a lot.

Hang in there 🦾 looking forward to play this game!👍🏼

The important thing itś you are still going strong. I fully recommend you take some weeks and prepare the Steam page. Those wishlist and exposition are important.

Awesome job! Love the updates. Keep up the good work!

Honestly sounds like good news, stay healthy

You've done great so far. Keep it up.

What an inspiring entry, that Cheese puzzle with the Westerlies in the background 💖I hope you guys are healing well and wish you all energy for this year, I love how this devlog series pretty much hypes any amateur game developer watching 🙌

I’m so excited for the day I’ll be able to play this game, it’s been a long wait full of teased things of what’s to come and I couldn’t be more hyped. I really admire your hard work and wish you great success for 2023! 🥂

Happy New Year! Solo dev is really hard and can break you at times, take it easy.