I’m glad to say that a completed release of Void Wisp is now available. You can find it here on itch.io.  

There is a lot that I want to say about it’s development, problems I’ve encountered, and what I learned during it. Void WIsp was my first attempt to do something vaguely commercial. I wanted it to be something that I put in a lot of effort into and be confident that it would be worth the player’s time and money. While there’s a lot that I either cut or decided not to add, I feel I did achieve what I set out to do. I’m proud of my little game. 

It was a long process getting it to that point. While there certainly were roadblocks from my inexperience with programing they were minor compared to other things that sapped time, energy, and motivation.  

Marketing, PR, etc, for a game is tough and I learned I have really detest doing it. Haha. Trying to shout loud enough into the void of press and youtubers is exhausting and tedious in a way that nothing I’ve ever done is. There’s something about it that’s so incredibly anxiety inducing despite the fact that most probably won’t even look at the stuff you send them. Magnify the feeling from when you have sent out tons of resumes and haven’t heard anything for a couple of weeks, but in this case it’s only been a day. Maybe it comes from a feeling of imposter syndrome, or maybe it from knowing there’s thousands of other small devs doing the same thing.  

If there was one thing I would have someone else do instead, it’s all the marketing and PR. I’d loved showing Void Wisp at SIX last year. Stuff like that is a lot of fun. I’ll talk about a video game, haha, it’s just getting that game out there that I find tough.  

Another big issue I’ve had is dealing with working a day job while trying to make time to work on a video game. I find it really hard to do, even with a part time job. Something about coming home afterwards that just saps any motivation. It’s tough because I can’t do game work anywhere else then on my home computer. I don’t have a decent laptop that can handle it anymore, so I can’t like stop at a cafe after work to then work on a game for a couple hours. Not having access to a lot of modern technology like tablets or smartphones has been an impedance for me since their creation and unfortunately I do not see that changing anytime soon.  

But the main problem that prevented me from pouring more hours into Void Wisp was post-election depression. I don’t my make political leanings hidden. I don’t think most folks can afford too nowadays. It’s hard to find motivation to work on a small irrelevant distraction when it seems like the world is collapsing and every day it’s getting worse and worse.  

I love Void Wisp, but it was always meant to be a game that people play while listening to a podcast or play to lose themselves in. It doesn’t really have a strong message related to the current state of the world. It’s about the fear of closeness and feeling lost, and I hope the resonates a little bit, but largely meant to be enjoyed without exploring a theme. And that’s fine. People need games like that. People need to make games like that. But for me it just felt like I could be doing something more.  

I’m not entirely sure what my next project will be exactly, but I want it to say something more and be something more. Even if that is just “Hey, shit’s fucked, don’t forget it, and keep fighting.” There’s so much I want to bring to video games that I’m just not seeing too many other people do. I would love to focus solely on the systemic ideas. The world is just so fucked up right now, it feels like there is a moral imperative to make something that is more than just a fun cool game. 

Void Wisp was an incredible and important project for me. I am a much better game developer now than when I started it. I’m excited to move on to something else.