The Production Blog of Sword 'N' Board
 
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After issues that I had with a previously released game on Greenlight, I was really hesitant about doing it again. I figured it may be best to wait until the game was done and then just fine a publisher that could help out. However, after talking to some people, I decided "why the hell not?". The Great thing right now, is that Sword 'N' Board still has a while to be developed, which means that It still has a lot of time to find an audience and really form a community around it, which is great. I think it's a much better plan to really start spreading the word about the game early, rather than waiting until the game is almost finished, and putting it up on Greenlight like I've seen a lot of developers do. 

So far the support on Greenlight has been really great. Sure, you get some people that give you a no vote, or a simple "no" comment, but that's going to happen. There isn't a game in the world that has been able to appeal to everyone, there will always be people who just don't find your game all that interesting, or who really don't like the genre of the game you're making and because of that, simply move on, and that's fine. Either way, it will give me something more to promote, and a place to post updates to when the time comes. 

The Kickstarter is doing really well right now. It's at 75% currently with 11 days to go! With a random 3k dollar pledge and another 500 dollar pledge the following day, it's grown by leaps and bounds since then, and I think it has a really good chance of getting funded!

Programming for the game still continues obviously. While there is currently 8 directional movement in the game, it still has some tweaks and things that need to be made to the animations and how they play to better refine the controls and make them feel better. Either way, they feel much better than before, which I'm grateful for! Most of the feedback that I got on the game, was about the 4 directional movement, and so after some thought it made sense to change it.

I'm also currently getting all the item mechanics programmed in the game. Once all the Item Mechanics are programmed its pretty much all down hill from there! Then it's all about puzzle designs around those mechanics, so I still have a ways to go, but definitely manageable still!

Anyhow, I will be getting back on this development diary, like I used to back when this first started. With promoting the game, and promoting the Kickstarter it's been really hard to constantly update this with anything interesting, but it will definitely con

 
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As you can see with the updates, it's been a long month or so since I've updated last! I found myself with little time to do much of anything, except work on the game. 
Last month found myself with my first investor and business partner, which was completely unexpected and out of the blue but definitely an amazing thing to have happen and at such a crucial time!
I found myself really without an option, and almost having to completely scrap going to San Francisco for Casual Connect to show off the game and help promote the Kickstarter, but luckily Luke Burtis of HouseOgames.com came completely out of left field and helped to fund the trip (and my wedding plans) which was an amazing thing to have happen with a project that I've put so much of my self into.

Kickstarter has been an experience, and an experience that I quite honestly underestimated. I never really thought about just how much work went into a Kickstarter. I knew there was going to be press and marketing things to do, but I never really thought about just how much I wasn't in a head space to do it. Coming out of developing a game, doing the artwork every day, to writing emails is a completely different head space to be in. 

Luckily, at Casual Connect I met some great people, including a man I would room with named Jay Ziebarth! Jay has a sense of humor and quick wit that I totally clicked with immediately, and then later saw at Casual Connect, also had a great eye for design! Jay does point and click adventure games, one of which I immediately loved was The Ballads of Reemus. Jay has done a huge number of games, but this one he showed at Casual Connect, to great affect! He also won an award for best storytelling! Not to mention the fact that the animations are absolutely awesome!

I told Jay of course about the Kickstarter, and how much trouble I was already having with it, and he told me about a group of people from the Adventure Game Revival Movement that really got on board with his project, so I of course reached out to them as well!

Their support through all of this has been amazing, from feedback on the campaign, to improving the quality of the tier rewards, to even finding me other independent game related sites to help spread the word about the campaign, and their support has been absolutely amazing!

It's been an odd month, from going to completely developing this game alone in a vacuume to pushing my game out in front of people (be it possibly a little prematurely, as there are still things I'm tweaking and adding in to the game) and having them play the game, it's absolutely insane. However, what I really never thought about when developing the game, was the overwhelming amount of support I would recieve from people. They actually seem to like the game, and for the most part see the theme for which I intended it. There are definitely still story things that need to be added to further flesh out the story and the theme behind things, but that will definitely come over time. 

While I may be absolutely exhausted from working on the game, and working on press things, the support from people I've never met has been absolutely worth it.