March 2020: Complete Rebuild
Development Will Continue!
Hey guys,
So the operation went smoothly and now I'm just taking things easy as I recover. While I spend the majority of my time just laying down resting, I've had a lot of time to think and plan. A lot of time to think about the future of Dead Monarchy and also the current situation we are all facing.
So I guess it is time for me to address the elephant in the room, otherwise known as the Coronavirus or Covid-19. As the situation continues to intensify it will no doubt impact upon development. I'm a solo indie developer working on a project that has been entirely self-funded yet I cannot work on this project full-time as it is not generating enough revenue for me to leave the multiple day jobs that I'm juggling. At the end of the day, I need enough money to support my family, our day to day needs and whatever freelancers that I'm working with.
It's only a matter of time before the restaurants and cafes shut down and so when that happens a significant portion of my income will be affected. It's not all doom and gloom though, this isn't when I say that I'm stopping development but it has been a very rude awakening for me.
If there is a total lockdown in Australia, who knows how long that will last and the revenue alone that I make from Dead Monarchy won't cover the daily expenses. To put things into context, I've spent over 8000 hours now on development and I have netted under 10K. The game has sold 1336 copies and has 30 reviews of which 27 are publicly displayed. I'm sure a few indie developers might be interested to see the actual figures too, so I've posted them up.
The figures are pretty brutal but at the same time, these were the figures I was more or less expecting. This is the first game from an unknown developer and it is also an early access title. I've noticed quite a lot of my posts recently have been quite "negative" I suppose and I'm not inherently searching for sympathy but I'm just talking about my development journey and it just so happens that the end of 2019/2020 has more or less been the hardest year in my entire 27 years of existence.
At the same time, I also want to say that I am extremely grateful for everyone that has bought, tried, reviewed and wishlisted the game, the support without a doubt is very encouraging. I knew Dead Monarchy wouldn't be a hit right out the gate, it's a niche game and a passion project of mine that will go through countless iterations. I was more or less plodding along but sometimes passion doesn't put food on the table, especially when your primary source of income is suddenly under threat by a global pandemic of all things. I knew my development journey would be hard, but I didn't see this coming haha.
Now that I got all of that out of the way,
I want to stress that development of Dead Monarchy will continue, as a solo developer I don't inherently rely on anyone or have to pay anyone to perform crucial tasks, that is the one good thing about working on this project alone. So long as I'm alive, Dead Monarchy will continue to move forward.
That said, I need to start thinking about the future and think about generating multiple sources of income so I can support myself. As such, I've decided to do a complete rebuild of Dead Monarchy from the ground up. At first glance that doesn't really make sense, it might make more sense to rush the game out but I have my reasons.
The rebuild is really a COMPLETE rebuild, I will be looking into every single aspect of DM from models to formulas, UI and gameplay etc etc. After the rebuild is completed, that will most likely be the point in time where I will increase the price, I feel that is fair enough.
As this is my first game, there has been a lot of iteration but also a lot of redundant things in the editor that clogs things up. Now that I know the limitations and have a framework to reference, it will be a lot easier to implement larger changes. Also going in the second time, I now have a great community behind me with a lot of good feedback. Rebuilding from the ground up is really the only way to implement more dramatic changes, now that I have a better idea of what works and what doesn't. It really is just like creating a sequel.
Lastly, as I rebuild Dead Monarchy, I will be using this new framework to look into the possibility of creating new games or spin-off titles. Those new games are still years away but the reality is I need to start looking into trying to create more sources of income, it's just the reality that I now face. There needs to be some change in the game plan now that my primary source of income is under threat, I cannot just maintain the status quo and sit by idly.
This means that my main focus will now shift to rebuilding Dead Monarchy, but the existing DM builds will still get periodic updates, the next update will be coming out soon in fact. While I am rebuilding, I will of course be posting updates and gathering feedback on proposed changes. The rebuilding effort is basically a very large update, a total overhaul of the entire game, the catch is it will just take a while. I've also decided that as I reach milestones I will be uploading the rebuilt version to the beta branch so that you guys can see the progress for yourself.
I feel that Dead Monarchy is a true to roots early access title, not just a late beta build masquerading as an EA title being released into EA because it's a safer and more profitable way to gauge public opinion. A lot can change, a lot has already changed and the feedback from players no doubt prompts change, the culmination of all this feedback is partly why I have decided to do a complete rebuild.
I'm hoping I can get everyone's support and understanding on this. It is a pretty big move but we now live in strange and unpredictable times so at the very least I need to start thinking about trying to secure the future and this is the only way forward that I can see without having to sell my soul or secretly deciding to stop development but still announce that I'm opening up a Patreon account to help "fund" development.
Cheers,
Kevin.
