Why So Long?

So now that MiniSquadron has been announced for a while, and especially with the initial wave of excitement which entailed from that, I have learnt something about the world of "keeping interest going". In other words, how to make the news in a timely fashion. For all indie devs out there, and in particular one man bands like me, you should know that it takes A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME to keep posting interesting things - including writing blogs and what have you. This is ON TOP of developing the game - which NEVER STOPS. Right now, even after the build is "finalised" (whatever that means) I am still spending HOURS playing through it REPEATEDLY (I just had a break from a 4 hour repeat playthroughs). This is on top of the beta testers (yay) that have been helping me. I do this to spot bugs but also to do one of the greatest challenges of all in making a game - making it *balanced* and *fun*. And you can almost never get it right. I can only imagine what the makers of Mario must have felt when they played such a perfect game - I hope to experience it one day but that day is far far away but at the same time nearer and nearer as I gain more experience.

And not just that, I'm also having to record and cut a new gameplay video, design and make a half decent Splash page website, make screenshots, eat etc. And also become slightly paranoid at why no one bothered with the preview builds I sent them apart from PocketGamer. I'm pretty sure I must have done some horrendous timing or something or the format was wrong or *gulp* I'm just not very news-worthy YET (where's my fame?! Maybe I should go on X-Factor).

Anyway - here's something that I did to encourage myself to finish this game. I have a pair of lovely Adidas Trainers which I bought in Tokyo which are now almost 4 years old and literally falling apart (thank you Loctite). I promised myself I wouldn't get new shoes until I've got my first pay cheque from the game and so far....it's been a rubbish incentive because they're still really comfortable. I just wanted an excuse to show you a photo of them (notice the lovely varying height of the sole - its not the angle of the photo):



My name is Tak and I give you pictures of old trainers in lieu of actual game graphics.