As the year is about to end, it is inspiring to hear Jake going back indie fulltime or the success of Cas had with the humble indie bundle. The new year is filled with potentials, aspirations, and hope - and I'm sure some of you are beginning to plan what you'd like to accomplish next year. Please share them here, what are your goals for 2011? I've always been driven to build a growing company, and as much as I enjoy developing story driven games (specifically Adventure Hidden Object Titles), I hadn't felt that fire of truly creating and pushing out something of my own. Having built a substantial team of talented artists and programmers within the last couple years, now is the time to develop a game I am passionate about. My goals of 2011 are: 1. Gross casual download sales exceed $5 million 2. Build a team of 15 people 3. Complete a beta build of my legacy game Previous years: 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006
Finish Dungeon Brawl. Release version 1.1 of Dungeon Demon Finish the first four maps of Endless Empires, release them, listen to feedback, build and release more maps. Probably the other thing is Real Estate Empire 3 but don't hold me to that.
I'm glad to have gotten Lylian Ep1 out this year. But I realise it's just too hard to do something like this mostly on your own. a lot of shortcuts were taken to get it out in time for my self induced deadline. It isn't a title I can say I'm proud of as a debut release. Even though most reviews have been thankfully favourable. So although I'll slowly develop the remaining episodes my goal for 2011 is to: 1. Work on other developers great titles 2. Build my animation business to include a motion capture facility 3. Collaborate with other indie developers. Which will help me fund future games and hopefully a small team. I may leave the programming to the programmers.
I have been thinking about my goals a lot lately. In 2011 these are my goals: Release three high quality and unique casual games for desktop and mobile platforms. I am hoping to complete Mac, Win, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android builds with localization in as many languages as I can. Develop a SNES inspired core game using the public development model (game for sale in alpha, 50% off for people who buy early, updates released as they are made even if the game isn't even playable), and release it on Steam before the end of the year. This game has been in development for a while but the work has been put into doing the tools. I want the game to be easy to mod and build content for, and I expect/hope people out there will build amazing things out of it (and thus people would need to get the game to play their amazing creations). Launch my first social game and help it to break 1mil MAU with $20 ARPPU. I have spent the last year and a half iterating this. I know I'm at the point where I'm ready to do it right. Paint a new painting every day and post it on site alovelypainting.com (nothing there yet but expect it come 1/1/2011). This is the most difficult goal... I will probably end up posting a lot of game related assets as it will be hard to spend the time not moving projects forward - in the last year I tried to develop rituals which would directly benefit me but ended up doing things which are interesting but don't really benefit me, so now I'll commit to doing one painting a day no matter what. Note: these don't have to be completed paintings - a thoughtful sketch will be enough. Spend a good amount of time developing projects which are free and are built with the intention of helping all people of the world (IWA, SD). Launch my secret project into private alpha before the end of the year (not a public release). I will strive to attain these goals with every day reaffirming my commitment to them.
This year I'm pleased to say I finally launched my first commercial game! Very exciting stuff. We just got featured on the Chrome Webstore homepage and will continue to promote the game with updates, sales, etc. In 2011 we'll be giving tech talks at a Google event and other conferences and will be trying to expand our brand, perhaps onto other platforms like iOS and Android. I'd say our definite goal for 2011 is: Release at least 2 games, focusing on more casual gameplay. Fun thread Best of luck everybody!
@SteveZ: Ha, thanks for the honorable mention! I'm certainly stoked about 2011 and will post back my goals as soon as Ludum Dare #19 is out the way. As for you, I've every confidence, from what I've seen, that you will achieve you goals with flying colours. Looking forward to watching your progress!!
2011 already?!! 1. Ship arcada mia. 2. Support/Market arcada mia. 3. Either work on sequel, or rejoin the workforce, or work on my 'guilty pleasure' game. All depends upon arcada mia's success. last year my goals were: - get cracking on this latest prototype. (can't remember which prototype of four that was!) - let go of my anxiety over the natural decline of sales of my last game. (declined but now hanging at a very teasing level.) - build the best team yet for my next game. (mostly true) - ship before that day in Feb when my brains settled on this new project and break my 3 year development curse. (It'll be two years in Feb. I was hoping to ship in April. That seems optimistic, at the moment. The code will be on time, but the writing is going to drag on.) - Keep an eye out for that ship of rare fortune that continues to haunt my horizon, and signal it to make port. (that ship sank, but last week I heard it was being salvaged for one final trip.) wish us luck,
This time will be rather easy for me. In 2011, I don't want to repeat the mistakes I did in 2010. It will be enough to have a good year Jokes apart: Finish at least 4 of the various active projects I am doing (many of them with help of external people). finish my current RPG and re-use the engine to release at least 2 more RPGs make a time-management game and have it on all portals (kind of an experiment this one) Try making a webgame (maybe this year will be the right time). Not a social game but a full MMO. Finish my first full 3d game (again, with help of skilled external people) and get it on Steam! (this will be the hardest task for sure) ignore the mac appstore and focus on linux market spend much less time in front of PC unless it's for work keep donating to charity through Kiva even in the worst moments
In 2011 we will: 1. Put RoTT on Steam (imminently) 2. Develop and release and alpha of our new game idea, "Droid Assault Tactics" as it's codenamed 3. er... try and take some time off work. Cas
My modest goal for 2010 was "Release my first casual game and start working on my second.". That succeeded and I have soon finished game number 2. Goals for 2011. * Release my current project in first quarter * Become a dad for the first time in march * Work and hopefully release a commercial Roguelike ( depending on my free time after the baby is born)
In 2011 I'll release two mobile games with the big goal to get an almost worldwide distribution and all the required localizations on all important mobile platforms (primary Android, Bada, BlackBerry, Brew, iOS, J2ME) within a release-timeframe of no more than 4 weeks to eventually get the momentum required to create some decent revenues ;-)
...figure out what I want to do. I may be burned out, but making games isn't much fun for me anymore. It stopped being challenging. It stopped being fulfilling. And I can't bear the thought of making yet another cow feeding and collecting game. I'll continue making games for the foreseeable future anyway, as it still beats most 9-5 jobs, but I'll probably do something else on the side. My most clear goals for 2011 are to get into healthy diet and sports habits (I'll be 30 in exactly a week...), and to write a novel and submit it to an important contest. I also want to film a short movie and submit it to a festival. Maybe it's burn out. Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe I'm just becoming old and grumpy.
Oh yes! I feel that way too As ggambett says, I still see myself doing games because beats ANY 8 to 5 job, but is not really fun as it used to be. It seems to me that nowadays is less and less about 'art', creativity and more about 'business'. Maybe is the normal evolution of things, or maybe I'm burned out like you two, not sure. I'll add another point to my list: - start another business/creative thing NOT game related and try to break even
I think your major issues is about what ggambett said in his phrase "And I can't bear the thought of making yet another cow feeding and collecting game.", ie you aren't making games which are fun to you . Of course unlike me (who is making stuff i like), you're making money so it might be one or the other . Though i'm sure that if i make anything like cow clicking or anything else like that i won't make any money either since it'll suck...
My goals for 2011: -release a game that is not ad-based -make at least $20 in actual game revenue -have better sleeping schedules
Okay, my actual goals. - Smiles: More ports, more platforms, more stores - Submit new game to IGF (launch mid 2012) - Prepare for Ludum Dare's 10th Anniversary (2012) with ... something Back to work.