Plan for David Myers

<aside>This is mirrored on my blog if that's the sorta thing yer into: www.lumpygames.com/madrantz</aside>

I've been wrestling for a while now with the identity of Lumpy and what types of games we'd like to be known for. I've been talking to people in the community a bit and my poor wife can attest to the amount of time I've spent trying to hammer out which direction to take. I see a game like Zuma by Popcap making unworldly amounts of money, and it's a natural inclination to follow suit and try to make a next-gen clone.

Of course, I know for a fact that there are at least two other such clones coming out in the next six or so months. So, maybe not so smart to go there, eh? But the money that is flowing in the casual game market is terribly sexy to someone who has not worked fulltime for his own studio for two years. And why shouldn't I attempt to compete at that level? Anything I try to accomplish as a studio should be at a high level, right?

I then think about why it is I do this thang that I do. It's because I want to have fun making fun for people. If I'm not enjoying myself, then I'd be better off not trying so hard to make a success out of something as risky as a game studio. Maybe I should buy and sell real estate if that's the case.

I spoke for just a few minutes with Jeff Tunnell last week and I took away one important thing from the conversation. I'm not even sure he was aware of imparting this, but I do thank him for his time. He reminded me that a business like Lumpy or 21-6 or Bravetree or GarageGames is a long-term commitment. You cannot expect to make a quick buck and then do whatever you want from then on. You have to invest yourself in your company and grow it.

I was doing this at 21-6, to be sure, and many of the decisions we made there were looking long-term. So, I'm aware that this is a long-term deal. But sometimes you need a reminder, and that's what is so nice about having good people to talk to in the indie game dev community.

So, what is Lumpy going to do now?

We are going to make games that fill niches that aren't well-served. We are going to make games with some depth.

We are going to make games that I would buy! (And then we're going to sell the hell out of them. ;)

The first game we are currently prototyping is one inspired by the likes of Seven Cities of Gold. It will be a bit more in-depth than that game, similar in scope to the recently-released Pirates! If it turns out to be as much fun as I think it will, we'll move on to full production sometime in April I imagine. And it will very likely be 2D using the T2D engine.

I'm pretty damned excited and I can't wait to have something show now.