Hi everyone!

It had hit me that I have been ignoring my blog for the most part, so I thought that I’d fill you all in on my progress.

INK

INK was a project that I spent roughly three weeks on (part time). It was an experiment. I hadn’t completed a commercial project and INK was something that I could ship without the need of anyone else. The biggest thing there was that I didn’t need to *hire* an artist to assist me. I also wanted to test alternative game portals to Steam (itch.io and company). INK is not a game for a particular audience. It wasn’t designed for anyone. It wasn’t even a game for me. It was a test. It was a portfolio piece. I got it out of the way as quickly as I could.

A month or so later, I have Destructoid articles (among others), a handful of *let’s plays*, a few thousand dollars in sales, requests for interviews, and the project was greenlit for release via Steam. I’m still getting a few tweets and emails each week and it has been really good for me as an independent dev. However, the Steam release has been effected by all of this *success*. When I pumped out the initial build, I did just that. I pumped it out. I didn’t stop to reorder levels. I didn’t fine-tune the design. I just did whatever needed to be done and then I moved on. Now I have something to live up to. I want the expansion to be even better.

Perfectionism breeds procrastination. The more that I want it to be great, the more that I hold off on working on it. I don’t churn out level after level because I am more aware of how important each level is. Before I could get through ten levels a day and now I’m taking a day or two off here and there. This week I’m doing my best to just push forward. For example, today I implemented a basic turret type for *world two* and created eight or so levels that feature this new obstacle.

I reworked the design and the difficulty curve a bit, but I am definitely keeping it HARD. I believe that people liked the challenge. I also believe the challenge is what makes INK more of a game, and not just an aesthetic. Above is the current level 36, I believe. The triangle design of the turrets/bullets match the triangle design of the second boss. As of now, I plan to have four bosses and eighty levels in the new INK build. I plan on being content complete within a week!

From there I have to worry about Steam certification, Steam API integration (Achievements, Cards, Wallpapers, etc), additional sfx/tracks, and the final marketing push. Thank you all again for the continuous love and support. Many, many more cool projects to come!

-Z