Some thoughts on the next two Patron Games, Discover Our Bodies, More (Patreon)

Hi all, I had some time today so I wanted to write a longer post about the next two games (Phantom Limb ; Genius Loci and Resin Of Earth). Some of it is housekeeping regarding the release schedule/plans but I go a little bit more into some recent thoughts I’ve been having about development as well, and also give some notes about inspiration for Phantom Limb;Genius Loci.

First, the planned order of getting the games done/seeing them through, PL;GL first, then RoE. After they are in your hands I will refocus my efforts on Discover Our Bodies, with other patron games coming after a period of time working on DOB.

Second, Phantom Limb ; Genius Loci and Resin Of Earth will be a bit more mechanically dense/interesting than the more narrative-driven (or narrative only!) games I have put out. There is still a focus on narrative but in making THE MOON IS THE OCEAN’S BRAIN I had a bunch of ideas that I ended up not developing on in the game for the sake of saving time. This is a typical reality of game development from solo developers to big studios : something is designed or thought of, it’s either impossible or not fun or you run out of time and it’s cut down or stripped out. For THE MOON IS THE OCEAN’S BRAIN it was partially a matter of the mechanical ideas I had not being realized in a way that I liked or that fit with how I ended up making the game and also partially just because I did not want to spend more time on getting them to a point where they did fit in. And that’s OK! I still liked how the game turned out.

However  I like Resin Of Earth and PL;GL enough that I’m really trying to realize the ideas I have with them. I still plan to make more straight-up-narrative type games in the future however, but these two games will be more along the lines of Growing My Grandpa! in just trying to have a bit more game for the player to play with, although they will not be as long/multifaceted as Growing My Grandpa!

Just going more into detail about what I mean : PL;GL is a lot about places, or rather a place, it was inspired a lot by my own life/experiences, as much as one is in a place, one is making a place, one can put out/take back from something in a place as well, for better or worse. The extreme end of this is, a common Yames theme, mind or attention or desire so far removed from what is normal, so remote from  what might tie desire down to what is normally considered real, that that desire or mind or attention begins seeping out into “stuff” or what is disconnected from mind/desire. So the place that you are in in PL;GL starts getting weird or rather weird stuff starts happening. You have to talk to people about their experiences in that place to understand what’s going on, a view from humans, but also look at the layout of the place in order to understand the impact the humans who go about their activity have in the place.

After PL;GL and RoE are delivered to you, at some point (if I work quickly, maybe sometime around this Halloween?) I will probably try and package them all together as some sort of Yames Games Anthology that will be available to the public, on itch and Steam, or else they will be sold as separate games. Sometime before this release, I will give the go-ahead for the game to be streamed/made content about by those of you Patrons who have youtube channels/twitch channels.\

As I mentioned before once these games are in your hands I will spend a time refocusing my efforts on Discover Our Bodies. I will be developing the game in full but also I think as a sort of milestone I would like to be able to give you something out of it, either the sort of “free play” body examination mode I made a post about a while ago or a single chapter/vertical slice/demo of the game for those who are interested. Some sort of preview, I guess. Getting feedback from you/hearing your impressions will also be good for development and give me some things to mull over.

I moved into a new place this month and I’ve got all the hard parts done mostly as I am living here so I’m officially “moved in” and thus will have more time this coming month for buckling down and getting PL;GL done, although I am pretty happy with the framework I have set-up this month. As I mentioned on the discord there are good “game development energies” here. Anyway I thank you all for reading this far if in-fact you did read this far my rambling sort of post here. As always please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I appreciate you so much for your support and giving me the opportunity to make the games I do, I really am infinitely grateful and continue to be blown away by your continued financial and moral support.

Yours In Games

Yames