Releasing my first game

Today, Macedonia finally releases.

When I started working on this, it could have easily become another unfinished project on my PC. I have several of those. However, this time I've actually managed to finish it; what set this game apart from the others?

For me, Macedonia was not one of those games that you want to make since before you even know how to develop one. I hadn't planned it, I had never thought about it before, and I wasn't sure about what would become of it. I just made a room with some objects I could interact with, and played around without a clear vision in mind. Then I asked myself how (and if) a challenge could be created from these objects, and from there I just went with the flow. I've let the game build itself, making adjustments where needed.

Making a game on my own wasn't easy. I've tried to focus more on style rather than art quality, and I've spent several hours reading about licenses and stuff in order to procure the assets that I couldn't make myself. This was something totally new for me - with years of experience in failed projects that never saw the light of day, I had some experience regarding the design and technical aspects of a videogame; however, I had never reached the point where I actually had to worry about licensing, advertising, making promotional material, etcetera. And as I'm realising just now, these things outside the game are just as important as what's inside.

Making this game has taught me so much about game development; about how it is so frustrating and yet so rewarding. As I'm writing this, I still need to figure out how to get people to notice Macedonia, but I definitely know more now than I ever did. It also taught me that the best way to ensure that you can finish a game is working on a game that feels good to make, not only to play. Making the puzzles in Macedonia was a challenge, because moving something a few pixels can make a level trivial or impossible, and even when it was neither of these two it also had to be interesting. So, finally getting a puzzle right after days of trying is extremely satisfying.

I can't say that Macedonia has turned out the way I wanted it to be, because I had no idea of what I wanted it to be; but I think that in the end it became what it wanted to be, and I'm happy with the results.

Thank you for reading!

Fecs