Hey hey!
I am still busily working on 868-BACK. I'm very happy with how it's coming along.
It has grown! When I was crowdfunding it at the end of last year, I described it as being 'on par with the biggest games I've made before'. Now I would describe it as definitely my biggest game yet. Nobody ever expected a big 868-HACK. It still has that tight focus; it's big in a way that honours its smallness, I can't think of much like it.
I also said 'I'm aiming for a release mid-2025'. That would be around now, wouldn't it? Well, there is still a lot to do! I would like to very clearly update that to late-2025.
This is a good thing. I am giving the game the time it needs to be what it wants to be. It's become very clear to me how important it is to my work to be able to take that time when I need to. Some of my games I've made very quickly, some have gradually come together over a few years, but in both cases it's been a matter of allowing the organic process to grow to completion. I have to not rush things.
In this case, a couple of ideas arrived that really blossom the game into something extra strange and special - the kind of "blow your mind" recontextualisation that we all love - but the technicalities of making sure they work right with every other piece has added some time. There's still some uncertainty ahead. There's a small chance it ends up being "early-2026". I'm going to try to avoid that, since A) it's been way too long since I've released a game and those of you who've supported me through this time really deserve something, and B) we'll run out of money. But, if it ends up that's just the best thing for the game, I'll do it somehow. Still, there's a lot of 2025 left!
Meanwhile, we've made a trailer!
The folk from thinkygames.com asked if I could share a trailer, and I had a think. One the one hand, probably I shouldn't take on extra work - my plate is already so full. But on the other hand I am trying to do everything the best I can, to finish and promote this game above and beyond what I've done before, to get the marketing and money side right not just the making. Well, by the time I'd spent a while pondering those two hands then I had an idea for a trailer I wanted to make so I just went for it. It ended up fitting well because it gave a focus for working on audiovisual design for one of the corporations, which we needed to do anyway.
(p.s. they also had trailers for a bunch of other games that look neat, and a big discount on Steam ongoing.)
The trailer introduces UNIFIED MEGACORP, one of the three megacorporations in the game. What makes them "mega" is that they control more than one connected server, so hacking them is a multi-step process. Unified are - well I hope the video gives you a feel for them. We'll reveal the other two along the way. It's also a first taste of the game's music, which Tara is collaborating on.
I've also put up a Steam page. You can wishlist it if you want to!
As I said above, it's not clear at this point whether the budget we have will last until the game feels definitively done. I don't want a publisher messing it up, so I'd prefer not to go there without really good reasons. I'll make it work somehow. Maybe I take a few weeks off to make a smaller game to support development of the bigger one - just six months ago that would have been impossible but my health is getting better all the time and now I do have some side-project energy, which is a really good sign. We'll see what happens! But simply, I would really appreciate it if any of you do want to support my ongoing work. I would appreciate if you buy my other games (ios link, itch.io link) - I've made a lot of them and they are still good! I would appreciate it if you support my Patreon. I would appreciate it if you just want to throw large amounts of money at me (please contact me directly).
That said, THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED ME TO THIS POINT. I am thriving. I have gone from being absolutely smitten with covid in 2020 and not being able to work at all, to now doing my best work so far (and with better yet to come). It means so much to me that a lot of you really still appreciate all the work I've done before, and you've helped me through such a hard time and I am - still not at full strength, but definitely - BACK.
