The First Hurdle

So, this week's post was supposed to be about how I started to use Unity's physics systems and decided they didn't work they way I wanted. I was prepared and already had it written, along with next week's about controls, and the week after a post about cameras. And then the Nintendo Direct happened.

To recap last week's surprise twist, I was at my leaving drinks on Wednesday evening and telling my now former colleagues about how I was planning to make a 5v5 football game with power-ups inspired by Mario Strikers because it's been 15 years since the last one and Nintendo clearly don't care for it because it isn't golf or tennis. And then, less than 20 minutes after getting home, Nintendo announced a new Mario Strikers game.

The instant I saw the Mushroom Kingdom pitch on the left hand side, I mentally checked out of the Nintendo Direct. I could not believe they had done me dirty. All I ended up taking in was that the new Strikers was out in June, right around the time I was intending on releasing the first Early Access build.

And then, when I finally was able to take in some more information, they announced a successor to Wii Sports. And now that has a football mode too. Nintendo had a vendetta against me.

I knew there was a chance that a new Mario Strikers game could happen. I thought it was unlikely, given how long it had laid dormat, but I expected that if it were to happen, they would announce it right around E3, just as my Early Access build was going to release into the world to try and steal my thunder. I was not counting on them announcing it the very week I was leaving my job to go unemployed to work on a spiritual successsor.

For most of the duration of the Direct, I was laughing in disbelief, but I knew this was a problem. How do you compete with a giant?

After the Direct, I went back to watch the trailer and take notes. I saw Mario wearing a costume that was not red, and thought "Bloody hell, they've got different outfits like I was gonna do." And while it looks like the mechanics of the outfits and how you unlock them are different, it's still taking away something I was going to do that the previous Strikers games didn't.

But the rest of it looked very similar to the old Mario Strikers games. And I've played them both recently and discovered they are nowhere near as fun as I remembered. I was wrong to want a new one. So I can hope the new Strikers isn't actually as fun as people are expecting and swoop in with a fun alternative.

The problem I now face is do I continue to work on this for the next 4 months before I am able to play the new Strikers to figure out what doesn't work and then try to address some of those problems if they also exist in my game? If I spend the time to make a solid prototype, I can work out my next steps at that point.

Or do I take this almost perfect opportunity to pivot to one of the other ideas I had - in particular the multiplayer puzzle game? But that doesn't lend itself to Early Access as easily, which pushes the potential income further down the road. And it's also dependent on having a player base, whereas most of the football game is playable offline.

Do I come up with a new idea? Or revisit an idea I've put on the shelf? But given I had an idea inspired by Pokémon Snap and then New Pokémon Snap was announced, and now this, what other games can I summon? Ape Escape? Quidditch World Cup? Popstar Maker?

Or do I just take a few months for myself, then start applying to work for someone else?

I'm leaning towards the puzzle game, but I don't really have a plan on how to tackle it. The concept is there is a pool of puzzles that it picks from, and some of those can be somewhat randomised, so even when a player encounters a puzzle they've seen before, it will likely have a different solution. But I need time to think about how it will all work.

There's a lot of things to consider. But rather than spending this first week considering things, I decided to make something completely different.

Is it a bird? Is it a game? It's both actually. Bird Game.

This is Bird Game. Bird Game is a game where you are a bird that flies around a town and can swoop down to steal food from people, or you can stay in the sky and drop poop on them.

It's playable right now by downloading it from itch.

And next week I'll explain how I made it.

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