This is a post I have planned to write for quite some time now. After being euphorized to have found a game theme and genre I would like to make, the motivation ceased rather fast. Family business, job, all was somehow getting higher prioritized than hobby game development. Additionally, two existent games made me realize how complex the game I planned to make would likely be.
To give a rough outline, the game I planned was sort of a simulation about a country failing to solve its growing amount of protesters and drifting into a police state. The player would play the government, sending police troops into cities, while the turn-based simulation would resolve the effects like citizen movement from city to city or even abroad, or growing violence (protesters and police).
Not only the restricted spare time stopped me from continueing the development, there were also some other concerns popping up. First, I noticed how my idea for a simulation game was quite close to reality. Closer than it felt good to me with all the events in Ukraine or Turkey, for instance. Also, I started playing The Last Federation by Arcen Games, which is a great game by the way, and noticed how complex and difficult to balance my idea would become. The Last Federation has a similar premise, combining a complex world simulation with rather indirect player actions. Last but not least, I also found an indie game in development with quite a similar basic idea as my game. Unfortunately I cannot recover the link to that one.
To sum it up, my struggle felt quite futile with all that impressions. So that is how my motivation faded away and I stopped developing the game. What could be next on this blog with all this irregular and rare updates for over a year?
Regarding game development, I still would like to make an interesting and rather complex game. But given my actual situation it doesn’t look like this would happen very soon. At least not until I have finalized my PhD thesis, planned for the end of this year. Nevertheless, I want to add content to this site more regularly and I am planning to translate some German articles I am writing anyway an post them here. So feel free to check back here or follow me on Twitter for new content.