In any game, its impact is determined by its weight, the story leading up to an event. The epic rivalries of sport, the long growing of your empire in a game of monopoly THAT FELL IN AN INSTANT when you landed on your sister’s fully upgraded park place, ARG! That fully functional mansion you painstakingly built from nothing that now has custom waterfalls, a chicken coop room, and amenities to store your items in Minecraft. We as game makers want there to be a story that emerges from your play, we want there to be a throng of considerations you have to strategically consider in your mind that over time creates a unique and compelling story that culminates in each your actions within the game.

This notion of weight has been the driving force behind SeaCrit since its inception, the rising tide of gameplay elements that coalesce to build an experience greater than the sum of their parts. As a solo indie dev, I always knew this would be my only shot at making a game. I don’t have the manpower to create the massive swathes of content other studios can produce, but I CAN make what small amounts of content I make cohesive, I CAN jump from system to system rapidly and build an experience that is a spiritual whole free from the madness of tribes.

I’ve attempted to model the play session after multiplayer greats like Dota and LOL. I absolutely love the bite sized chunk of progression you get out of these games, no matter how many time you play, that story of starting weak and relying on allied troops and slowly growing your arsenal to be able to deal big damage and execute more and more powerful skills is so rewarding. I’m hoping that the added layers of single player twitch play and innovative new charge mechanics make up for the lack of multiplayer, and open up a whole new avenue for gaming where games are not dependent on large player pools and multiplayer hosting to give players this bite sized chunk of RPG goodness.

Tonight I’m gearing up to finish up this bite sized demo. It’s not the demo i’m going to push out there to try to get publishing or generate buzz, that will be the next one. I’m calling this the “Secret Seacrit demo”. It’ll be popping up with zero buzz in the coming day or so and i’ll probably ask a few people to play it so i can get a little feedback. Truth be told I can barely play my game any more, I’m so friggin burnt out. It’s weird, I can enjoy the sections that I know are polished, so I think the game is becoming good. But my brain freaks out when I think of going to areas I know will alert me to the work that needs to be done, I’m so f*cking burned out…

The procedural spawning, the randomized shops, the compelling combat scenarios with big beats of random challenge and engagements. The growing learning curve that also invites new players. I’m really hoping that after all the farming, all the exploration, all the fun, when the player sneaks up on that rare fish with that awesome rare item, and they charge up their attack using that neat ring they found that enhances their charge damage, and they have that super rare armor item that allows them to camouflage and sneak up on their enemies, after saving up all those pearls and buying all that cool stuff from those untrustworthy sharks… I hope that big smack that they lay down in my game has tremendous weight for them, I hope they feel that.

After all this building, all the obsessing, after this long journey, I hope all this hard work… hits.