Why SoloGameDev?

One day I was wondering what to do. As some of you I have too many "plans" of things to do, but not enough concrete actions to execute on. That's when I remembered about the Pirate Software Game Jam, mostly because of the video Thor made making us know that we can do it. I checked it, and it was due to start in a week!

The day of the jam came, and I waited for the theme to be set in. When I saw it I was not thrilled: Shadows and Alchemy. Shadows it's okay, it can be really malleable, but alchemy was a tough nut to crack. I refreshed my knowledge about hermetics, the transformation of substances, I learned about the separation of soul and body, and the transformation of the self to a better version of the self. I finally settled on the idea of a platformer in where you were to steal body parts of others to change yourself while "shadowing" a thief to recuperate a painting.

I was not happy with the idea, but it was an idea, so next day I sat down to focus on the GDD and/or try to start the game, but I felt like "I don't want to do the game, I don't want to take part in the jam."

Those thoughts were not real, there was something else, so I examined myself and found fear. Fear of not being able to do it, fear of it not being worth the time, fear of the game not being good enough, ... too many fears, none of them valid. They had their place, they wanted me to not explore and be on my safe space, where I knew I could live, and didn't want me to take a risk. I accepted them, then I took the risk.

And the first risk was to completely change the idea of the game, and make a game about the process, in where your inner shadow thoughts block you from becoming a better version of you, while trying to take part in this same game development jam.

It's an ok game, it will give you some entertainment, but most importantly it will remind me that I can do it.