Home is behind you… The world is ahead
Hello again everyone. It’s been a fare few months since last I spoke here about Conquest and you all deserve a candid explanation and accounting of where we’ve been, where we are and where we are going.
Where we've been
When I started, I had a team of three. The programmer was a student at a local college for game programming and the graphic artist/ apple expert is a long term friend of mine. Soon after we started, we were contacted by a very well-known publisher about publishing our game.
This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. We tried to hammer out an agreement on production and distribution of the game, but the talks stalled our development by about 2.5 months, by which time our programmer had to go back to school. We then hired him back and two of his friends but they were unable to complete the project. I was then forced to resort to another programmer who agreed to take on the project in exchange for royalties. He also fell through.
This was 8 months ago... During this period, I exhausted the remainder of the kickstarter funds and I had to take a job out in Colorado with the same publisher whom I was originally in talks with. I did try to contact other industry professionals, but no one was willing to take on the project.
Where we are
Right now, I am working for a game developer/publishing company in Colorado in order to maintain my proximity to game production and gain access to their resources. As of right now, I am pitching the game to my superiors in the hopes of getting it made under their name with their resources, but I have to shift my priorities to the job at hand.
Where we're going
The future still holds the very real possibility of Conquest, now Onwards, being made. My company has reached out to several reputable teams in and out of the United States and all have expressed interest in the project now that it has a stable backing and fairly large name behind it. It is being re-worked to better reflect the core values and strengths of the company’s brand but it remains, at the heart, the game I pitched all those months ago.
This period has also allowed me to continue to develop previously cut features, finish the score, and create/ acquire all the SFX needed for production. I won’t go on the record with a date for the restarting of production, but I do see a light on the horizon. This project has not been easy, by any stretch of the imagination. We have failed to ship, failed to complete and even failed to stabilize.
It’s a risk inherent to all such endeavors, but this one in particular seems to have attracted the lot. That said I still believe I can pull something positive from this, but it will take time. I have learned a great deal from this experience and continue to do so as we push forward on all available fronts.
I want to thank you for your good will, your patience, and your faith. I will be trying to fill those last rewards that I am able to: those of you who were on the line to receive iPads filled with content from this project will receive them in January of next year as we ramp up production again.
Thank you again, and by the good grace of whichever gods you worship, I will see this done.
ONWARDS!