This is the plan.

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TL;DR

I'll be creating a videogame prototype, growing a digital design agency idea and focusing on my personal health and professional development. There's no deadlines on when I'll achieve them, but there'll be quarterly updates on progress for each one.

I've been mulling over this for a while because, fundamentally, taking on this plan is a big commitment and takes a lot of dedication. Although I pride myself on the things that I've done and achieved, there's still a part of me that feels I haven't really done that much. Haven't really proved myself that much. It's easy to say on your CV that you're good at this and you're good at that, but it means very little if you can't demonstrate it.

That's why this plan exists. To show you that I do have these skills, but more importantly, proving to myself that I am capable and competent enough to do it. Plus, I need to update my portfolios! So let me go through what this plan entails and why I hope you follow me on this journey of success and failures. I guarantee you that there will be setbacks and failures but it's the journey that equips you with the skills and knowledge you need, the destination is the deliverable.

Creating and Publishing a Videogame Prototype

Easier said than done of course, but I firmly believe it's doable. It's been a while since I've been involved with the game development process so it's going to take a bit of time to get used to it again.

I've created a few videogame prototypes before on my own, worked with Industrial Gameworks on a Tranzfuser submission, participated in game jams and have led student groups to creating game prototypes.

That's great and all, but I've not once published a title. No, itch.io doesn't count, I mean actually publish it for purchase or for free. I'd class publishing a title to be on the official stores like Steam or Google Play/Apple App Stores.

You may be asking: why a demo and not a prototype? What's the difference? A prototype demonstrates an idea or a concept that isn't representative of what it could look like for the final game. A demo is much further along where there's gameplay loops established, it plays close to the final release and you can see how it would develop into one. Now, I'm not a AAA game studio so don't go thinking this will be on par to a demo you can get from the PlayStation Store, rather, I want this to be of a quality where you could sell it for money if it was good enough.

The most important thing to consider is scope creep.

The game development process

Let me outline how I'd like to approach this and what you can expect to see through the development stage:

Identify videogame ideas and begin looking at the feasibility of developing them through free or low-cost assets and services. Target what hardware it'll be played on and where it may be published. Creating a high concept document is crucial at this stage as it's equivalent to a feasibility study and business case. It answers why I'm doing this and how I'll be doing this. Throughout this game development process I'll create various documentation.
Identify which game engine to develop in. I'm mostly comfortable with Unity, can work my way around Unreal, but that's about it.
Identify and develop a core gameplay loop that isn't actually boring. Now this I'd argue is the most difficult part. Making a game "fun" isn't easy, so this step is crucial for success. I don't see any value in creating a videogame where the game just straight up sucks. However there is value in iterating or taking risks, or showing promise in an idea which hasn't fully been fleshed out. Otherwise, it shows poor game design. My focus is to actually develop something that's at least mildly engaging. This will be a demo after all, not a full release.
With the core gameplay loop established, developing levels is next. No point in developing levels beforehand and trying to shoehorn in game mechanics. Doesn't work like that. Naturally you'd have to build a level to test out the core gameplay loop but that'd be rapidly prototyped. Here, the focus is on creating levels that complement the gameplay loop, its mechanics, and actively challenge the player.
While developing levels and game mechanics, I'll be game testing it often. Quite simply if you don't do that, you run the risk of developing and polishing a level that doesn't play well for whatever reason. It's best to avoid that because it leads to delays.
Once game testing it to the high heavens, the final thing to do is polish, get rid of bugs, make it look presentable. From here, I'll be looking at publishing it to their respective storefronts.

The deliverables

A decent enough game prototype which shows my ability to do everything that I've listed in the skills section of my page. That's essentially the success criteria, ticking off every box that's in the skills section. I'll publish the game to play and see how it performs, if at all. Main thing though is adding to my portfolio with something that's better than everything else I've contributed to. As I say, it won't be easy, but it is doable. There's game jams where people create prototypes in a day, a week, a month.

I'll publish updates on my website through blog posts like this under the category Game Dev Updates.

Grow and Expand Harmony Digital

With my friends Jevon and Brogan, we want to see if we can really focus our time and efforts into growing the idea of a digital design agency, however, we have yet to find our niche nor have we developed the skills necessary to actually run a digital design agency. There's no shame in that, we all have to start somewhere, but we're determined to give it a good go and see how far we get.

There are a few things we need to do to ensure we find clients and provide quality for every project we work on:

Identify our niche. What makes us stand out from the rest? What can we provide that others can't?
Finding potential clients. How do we identify them? What avenues do we need to explore?
Selling our services. What are our services? Are we able to fulfil what the client needs?
Upskilling and training. Are we constantly improving our craft? What skills do we need to develop?

These are the questions that will need answering and it will take time to get there. Most businesses fail after a year so we need to understand why that's the case and how we can avoid that situation altogether. It'll take a lot of determination, focus and failing but it's always worth a shot!

My graphic design portfolio

As part of the upskilling that we'll need to do for this plan to work, I'll be demonstrating my skills by updating my portfolio with Harmony Digital projects or mocked up case studies. I'll also prioritise quality over quantity.

Focus on Personal Health and Professional Development

Admittedly I don't look after myself nearly as much as I should mentally, physically and emotionally. A lot of my personal problems can be fixed by focusing on my health and I plan on doing that over the course of next year. I may outline what that looks like in a further blog post or just mention it in a personal progress update.

Furthermore, I want to continue developing my professional development by continuing to learn from my job role and from other professionals, as they're the ones I look up to for guidance and for direction. I'll take part in any and every opportunity where I can make a difference. Pivot into roles that are uncomfortable but enable me to succeed. Take risks and accept it's okay to make mistakes, provided I learn from them.

Thank you for reading if you've gotten this far. I appreciate it.

The Plan

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