Status

This is an archive of You're a dad statuses. It's mostly for myself, but feel free to read it if you want a glimpse into the process of making a game for the first time.

October 2024

• The demo is out on Steam!
• I put together a trailer! This was hard, but I'm happy enough for now.
• I've started talking to other game developers. This was a bit scary, but I've learn't a ton. There's a lovely community around the Game Dev Field Guide (an amazing podcast). Highly recommend joining it if you're into it.
• Three videos by two creators have been made about the game! I'm incredibly humbled by that interest. Thank you Nick Button and Roishie!

September 2024

• Things are moving really fast! Some major milestones have been achieved.
• We have a Steam page out and about! Go wishlist now!
• The demo has been soft launched on Itch.io. I don't plan to do much marketing there - it's mostly a vehicle for me to get over my fear of sending something into the wild (and making sure my family and other beta testers can download it).
• The plan is to add the demo to the Steam page in a week or so, when I know that no one has encountered any major bugs.
• Then I'm continuing work. I've got a lot of things I want to add to the finished version, but I'm going to start with most important ones in case I need to scope it down. The most important is the "true" story in the game. You can see glimpses of it in the demo.

July 2024

• It's been a year. I paused development of the game due to overload in life, mostly due to family, parental leave and allocating what little project energy I had for Kontroversiellt.
• But after finishing Kontroversiellt I've restarted work on You're a dad... and boy, things are moving pretty fast now.
• Decided to focus on art direction and sound design for a bit. Made great strides there. The game feels good now. It's awesome.
• That led to lots of technical improvements and features as well.
• Along with script updates.
• I've started playtesting (pre-alpha) with family and friends. Great feedback, and loads of things to consider improving. Even Sam, six years old, had an idea for a great feature!
• At this rate I should consider creating a Steam page and early access by autumn. That would be exciting (and scary). I'm going to start with updating the page I've got here on linusbohman.se.

July 2023, a bit later than the previous entry

• It really worked. When I get up with the kid(s) I can usually cram some words in. They're not many, but they add up. I'm proud to say that I've completed the major tasks that the player has to do in the game and am ready to start writing the primary endings.
• As a result I updated the writing completion percentage from 70 to 80. Probably lying to myself a bit, but eh.
• I even built new (relatively minor) functionality into my editing tool. I can now see all endings and their groups in a nice way.

July 2023

• I got my second child, Lily, in February. Amazing. Exhausting. I've not worked on the game since then.
• Today I took some time to write a bit more on the adventure. Small steps, but it was really nice. I'll try to find a rythm.
• I never have energy to do it during evenings. I mostly crash into bed somewhere between 21:00-23:00.
• But during mornings I usually get up fairly early with the kids.
• When they're occupied I can probably write a scene or two. I'll try that going forward.
• The commit messages are really fun. Instead of the enterprisey "Fixed bug X, refactored function Y to achieve business value Z" I do at work I write "You can now buy potatoes". It makes me smile.

Early January 2023

• I've been working on the game for about a year. Work on it slowed down considerably the latter half of 2022 due to life. We're pregnant and I've started a new job. Awesome stuff! But energy consuming! That's okay and expected.
• This is the first time these pages are published, forcing me to communicate what I'm doing.
• The game is working, with several endings in place. I'm focusing on completing the script for it, so that I can start having language minded folks proofread it.
• I work on You're a dad once a month or so, depending on life.