New Game Announced! Geneforge 2 - Infestation Coming Soon!
The March of the Aging Elephants will lumber on indefinitely.
We have officially announced our next game, Geneforge 2 - Infestation! This is a giant remaster of one of our most popular games, with everything redone and tons of new material. You can learn about it here, see a trailer here, and wishlist it on Steam here.
That was blatant self-promotion. There'll be more of it in March, when we release the game for Windows & Mac. Thanks for your patience.
The Aging, Remastering Indie Dev
We will be releasing Geneforge 2 - Infestation to celebrate our 30th year writing indie games for a living. That's a long time to be an indie dev, and unexplored territory in this industry.
People used to know about us. These days, we are a tiny, tiny fish in the indie gaming pool. Indie gaming is big now. Enormous. So big that even multi-billion dollar corporations are writing indie games now. We're so cool!
But, insignificant as I am, I do still have the trail-blazer status to hang onto.
I’ve done a lot of writing and given some solid talks over the years dedicated to answering this question: How can a lone creator or small team have a career in indie games? A sustainable, lifelong career?
Of course, it's almost impossible to make any money in games. It's art, after all. That's how becoming an artist works. You think it's any easier becoming a career musician?
But suppose you do catch lightning in a bottle and start bringing in some money? What is the best way to sustain it?
Well, speaking as a comically old guy, I do remasters. And soon so will everyone else.
Hey, It's Still Fun
My retirement age is in sight. If I can keep selling games for 12 more years or so, I will have had a full career in indie games. Then I win indie games!
How will I do this? I have a list of games that have really strong designs but were written in archaic times. Games that were written before we knew how to use the graphics card. Back when trying to harness graphics cards was a confusing, crash-laden technical nightmare. Games that just don't work well anymore.
We will still be making new stuff. Don't worry about that. But it would be a shameful waste if we didn't send our good older titles into the future in a working, improved form. (Plus, I've written 18 full-length, all-new games. Isn't that already a LOT?)
A Brief But Important Aside
The gifts of the Muse are fickle. A huge number of artists only create at a peak level for a relatively small portion of their lives. If you are one of the few that makes A-list material for many decades, that's awesome. However, you must prepare for the fact that sometimes inspiration runs out.
You'll Be Seeing This a Lot
If you wrote a successful indie game, even just one, you made a little machine that prints money. If it's a fun game, it'll always be fun. On the other hand, writing new games is always a huge risk. Eventually, that risk won't pay off.
Like always, I have to turn to my personal inspiration, Billy Joel. He hasn't put out a good new album for over 30 years. He just tours. He looked at his body of work, was content, and has spent the rest of his time bringing it to the people. What a legend.
So, in years to come, I think you're going to see lots of successful indie developers release and re-release and re-re-release their old hits.
Which Is, Of Course, Already Happening
Writing one hit is almost impossible. Writing two is even harder. We already have plenty of good examples of developers stretching their work.
The hugely successful expansion of the 10 year old Stanley Parable is a great example. Braid has a planned and much-deserved revision coming. Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Factorio are still being expanded, turning them into their own gaming platforms.
The list of indie hits that can probably be re-unleashed onto a new audience in ten years with profitable results is LONG.
On the other hand, some indie classics don't have the potential to be brought back to life. Which ones? I don't know. (I'm really dubious about Thomas Was Alone and Gone Home.) It'll sure be interesting to find out!
The Big Question
How much of a catalog does it take to have a full career? How much work do you need to put out there to have enough to do to fill your time? Honestly, I have too much remastering to do in addition to making new material.
But I like to be kept busy. I'd rather be Billy Joel than Hemingway.
So time to finish our new (newish?) game. For morale, I have a ticket to one of my favorite rock stars, who coincidentally is having her 30 year celebration tour.
I'm pleased to announce that The March of the Aging Elephants will lumber on indefinitely.
Subscribing is free, and you get all these in your in-box. If you’d like to support us, consider wishlisting our upcoming indie role-playing epic, Geneforge 2 - Infestation.
Spiderweb Software makes fun role-playing games and also has a mailing list and a Twitter and a Facebook if you want to learn when we do something big.
Congratulations! Wishlisted the new remake at once.
In terms of musicians, your career remind me of a certain little-known Swedish guitar player going by Hank C. Burnette. The guy started recording music on his own, by building a studio at home and playing all instruments some time in 60's and was still going uploading is stuff to Youtube at least 6 years ago, doing the same rockabilly routine, but with his own unique twist (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OWe1ANJCOU for example)
Spiderweb was remaking/remastering content back in 2000 with the original Avernum Series. You were doing this long before it was cool.