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//--8/29/2024--- Aug. 29th [Game Updates]
Well if there's one thing I'm clearly terrible at, it's estimating time and the complexity of finishing a game. After so many delays, I should have known not to be overly optimistic—and in the
scramble to try to live up to my prior word, I only became more stressed and crippled with project fatigue and burnout. It's perhaps my biggest flaw, and one of the reasons why I haven't
officially announced the game yet or done the typical long-lead style of marketing / buildup. In simple terms: pressure is my nemesis and the thought of revealing a still in-progress work is
just a nightmare.
While it may be financially risky and unconventional, I tend to think that a complete game launch out of nowhere holds a much higher value proposition to would-be consumers than a gradual public
marathon-style completion that drags everyone endlessly along. Call it a gamble, but I know how terrible waiting for something can be, and to that end I don't want to further disappoint people
with my failure to finish in a scheduled and timely manner—especially with my habit and chronic need of taking massive breaks to climb out of development burnout and programming / drawing avoidance.
And while I often imagine myself as a game developer, in truth I'm just a dude.
I can't quite be sure how many of these last weeks have been totally wasted, but I can at least say that my mind is finally refreshed again and I'm back to developing the game. Though a
downside of that long recovery is that I now have to re-go over forgotten code and work to make it better.
Additionally, while I had previously thought the programming was almost done, there are actually a few major technical things that I stupidly overlooked and still need to tackle for the game
to be completed. But things are actually improving and getting closer.
I know this isn't the update that was hoped for, but to the select few people that personally know about Annihilation—and to the unknown 55 that have already wishlisted the game on Steam—I
want to apologize for the continued delay, but also to say thank you for giving me my space to silently continue working beneath the broader gaming radar. It certainly won't always be like this,
and perhaps part of my slow progress is because of that very thing: the fear of success and change.
Anyways, that's enough written words for the present time. I can't say exactly when it will be, but I do promise that the next published post will be the "One". In the meantime, stay tuned and
be surprised that Annihilation is in fact coming and soon...
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//--7/3/2024--- Jul. 3rd [Game Updates]
After seemingly forever, I can now actually post something positive—and despite the countless delays and setbacks, Annihilation is getting legitimately close to its final programming
stages. It's a statement that only just last month felt impossible, but things are looking to be back on track and with some further grit I'm aiming to wrap everything up just in time for my
scheduled launch at the end of July.
I won't go into much detail here on the numerous development hurdles, but to summarize a bit of the past: the legacy engine I was using to initially build
the game was suddenly shutdown by its company and I almost lost the entire project due to inexcessible program files. Words cannot describe the level of despair and sickness I felt that initial day,
but thankfully a bit later I discovered a random post online that mentioned if you sever your internet connection the program can still be partially opened. And with that piece of knowledge I began the
slow process of extracting my game files and learning the engine's modern successor.
It's been a long tiring journey of building and rebuilding, coding and scraping, but things are coming together now and for basically the first time in the
game's development process—outside of its initial prototype—I actually feel good about things. There's still alot to tackle art-wise, but I think with some scaling back and postponement of features, I
can accomplish enough to have both a sufficient visual game experience on launch and an established foundation for the long list of updates for the game's post-release future.
So yeah, that's the latest news on the project: in one week all programming will be done, and then in the following days so should the initial art. Then it
will be a mad dash to finalize the game for Steam submission and finally a moment to prepare that Announcement Trailer, Demo, and other marketing plans. And while the journey isn't over yet, the
endless wait is almost done.
In the meantime, stay tuned and if all is successfully meme-worthy, Annihilation will soon be a popular hit...
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Annihilation Delay and Development:
//--2/29/2024--- Feb. 29th [Game Updates]
It's been a long time since the project's first announcing blog post, so I thought I should give an update—though unfortunately it's mostly a negative one. In some ways it's kind of funny
looking back at the original optimistic timeframe for completed development, though even more depressing when realizing that today was my more realistically planned launch date.
And yet after so many months, Annihilation still remains undone.
I could list a bunch of reasons why, though in reality they're all excuses and failures of fact. In truth it's just been a struggle for me to get the job
done, and there's been many more days where I haven't even touched the game, let alone meaningfully worked on it. Bugs / problem-solving have certainly caused delays—let alone multiple
entire-project level code scraping and restarting. But the biggest detriment simply has been fear and motivation.
It's both embarassing and painful to admit that in type, but consistency has never been my strong-suit and pressure has always been my weakness. The
initial excitement of starting a game project—one that in the past would normally be enough to last through development—quickly became overmatched by dealing with business logistics, platform
technicalities, market considerations, and all other sorts of aspects both new to me and beyond the scope of prior personal game making. And as the stressors built, the progress only slowed.
I can't give any definitive date for when the project will be finished, but I can at least say with some pride that Annihilation does officially
have a store page on Steam. And while that hurdle now has been dealt with, many more are still ahead. Currently the project framework is a cluttered mess, and so I'm now starting another fresh
code base and rebuild—one that will hopefully be the last and get the game smoothly to completion.
And while programming knowledge has been a limiting factor throughout development, my art skills have been as well, to the point of perhaps being
the biggest source of uncertainty for me as to whether or not I can actually make a visually appealing game that's worthy enough to sell—but that's a future George problem.
Anyways, there's the full update. Hopefully sometime next month the project will be in a better state and I'll actually have the demo and animated
announcement trailer done. But in the meantime, stay tuned...
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//--9/26/2023--- Sept. 26th [Game Updates]
After nearly fourteen years, the time has officially come for GSig Games to return. A lot has changed over the years and in the broader industry, yet now more than ever there remains a
gaming void waiting to be filled. And while the indie genre is fierce with competition—roguelikes in particular—none have the "trademark" GSig style nor its endless ambition.
Originally designed as an arcade classic, the remake of Annihilation naturally imbues the roguelike genre and is perfectly poised to capture
the market. While development is still a ways off, I'm hoping to make an Announcement Trailer by the end of October and wrap the game up by end of December.
Currently, the plan is to release it first as Early Access on Itch.io for a discount, in order to give it some safe exposure and allow me to make any
necessary fixes / adjustments while not having to worry about the risk of any negative reviews. Then once everything is player-sufficient and finalized, I can then officially launch it on Steam.
Ideally that gap window won't be any longer than a month, but we'll see as things get closer.
Annihilation was the first GSig game I ever made, and so it's fitting that it will also be the very first product I publically release. On one
hand I'm incredibly excited, and yet as time goes on I'm honestly only getting more stressed in regards to dealing with marketing, sales, and reception. However, if nothing else, this will all
at least be good practice for when I finally get to launch my book series. As certainly a game is much lower-risk / soul-crushing if it completely bombs vs novels that have consumed so
much of my creative drive across all these years.
Regardless, now is not the time to worry over such matters. First the game must be built, then I can dwell later on how it performs and is
received...
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