Getting over some old habits

So this weekend I decided I would work on a game. I tried really hard not to work on a tile based puzzle thing but after an hour or two I had this.

It was a game where you moved tile by tile, but after a move you shot a laser, then you move, shoot, move, shoot, etc. I didn't like how the mechanics worked together so I scrapped what I ended up with at the end but I thought this would be a good project to start talking about games and my efforts going forward.

To start with, why did I make a tile based game when I didnt want to? I keep get drawn to them is because they're easy to make and to comprehend. I understand them because the amount of options of these games are limited allowing for them to fully, mechanically, live inside my head.

I'm a little sick of this approach to making games because I feel I do it out of fear more than anything else. I don't expand to something a little more ambitious because I can't fully hold moving parts in my mind. It's cozy. Maybe tiles are okay for a jam when time is limited, but I want to be stretching myself and doing things I haven't done before.

Does anyone else feel this way about the types of things they make? As though they make what they make because they're scared to move outside comfort zones?

I don't know. For me I know I'm no longer satisfied with this way of making games, and as such I will probably be trying out unusual concepts going forward such as starting with a theme or story first rather than purely mechanics. Whatever the approach, going back to the question of "what is interesting about games to me" is a good place to start. I should really figure out my answer to that.

I trying all these things with it resulting in me coming back to where I am now, making tile based games. But at least when/if I do it'll be because I choose to do so, not because of habit.

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Been thinking about making money off my work. Which means I've been working on a patreon and have been thinking about the possibility of making a small bundle of work and putting it up on steam to gather more eyes on my work. Both of these things seem possible, but I have no idea where it'll lead me. I feel as though I still have a lot of work to be done on my skills as a developer, which means the self sustaining dream is a long way off.

But I'll get there.

In other news, one of my games got into a game devs of color showcase in NYC!!!! That's a lovely thing. I know there's not a lot of front facing developers of color, and I hope that'll change soon. But more importantly I really hope that people of all walks of life start to make games as well in the same way it happened with music or art.

Games may not reach everyone, but they can give a perspective of life to those who do play them that can then be brought out into the world.

This was a bit weird and incoherent of a blog for me. I don't exactly know how these things should go but I'll try to keep up with one a week. Mostly just thoughts and rantings.