Plan for David "RM" Michael

"What happened" or "Here come the excuses..."

Testing...testing...<tap> <tap>...Does this thing still work? Oh, it's on? Sorry...<ahem>

I decided that "post mortem" approach would be the simplest way to update the small universe of Those Who Care about what the hell happened after my last plan post 10 months ago. Here goes...

A Post-Mortem for the Past 10 Months

What went right:

1. In June 2003 I stopped wanting to write a novel and just started doing it. The schedule I set (and kept) for The Indie Game Development Survival Guide proved to myself that I *could* write a book. I've actually been pretty happy with how this is turning out. On the hand, this turns up again under "What Went Wrong".

2. The Indie Game Development Survival Guide was released in August 2003 to very positive reviews and has been doing pretty well.

3. The Journal has continued to grow, and is within a few months of a very significant upgrade. (It's my primary project for the moment.)

4. Artifact didn't die. We took our lumps on a pricing structure change in 2003, admitted defeat when it failed, and reverted. "If it doesn't kill you..." maybe it makes you stronger eventually. Sometimes it leaves you weak and tired, though.

5. The IGF at GDC 2004 was amazing. I only covered it, didn't participate, but seeing how far it's come was inspiring. In fact, overall, GDC 2004 was pretty inspiring. Even if the big publishers pretended it was *them* that discovered the casual gamer market. ;)

What Went Wrong

1. Writing a novel, like most creative efforts, is hard to schedule. I naively thought that I would be done with the manuscript in November 2003. Currently, I'm looking at June 2004.

2. Artifact. Besides a pricing change that tanked (and cost us a lot of old *and* new players), there was an update that wasn't very well received, a couple of disasterous server crashes, and the game actually went into the red for several months, requiring money to be pumped *in* just to keep it online. It was hard to keep a positive outlook.

3. The Paintball Net project stalled out. The only reason I'm going to give for this is that I had a crisis of faith. Have you ever had a crisis of faith? A time when you stared at the world around you and despaired that things could ever improve? If not, allow me to sum up: It sucks.

4. Blah blah blah. Everyone has a sob story.

Enough with the negative stuff. If you weren't there, it doesn't make for very interesting reading. Hell, I *was* there and I'm sick of focusing on it.

And now...?

There should be news about Paintball Net again within the foreseeable future. Not that it's done, mind you. Just that it's moving again.

Artifact is growing again and resting comfortably on its new server. I'm even considering updating (read that as "completely re-writing") the client software this year. Maybe even getting new artwork for it.

The Journal...well...with the release of Microsoft's OneNote, the market for notekeeping/diary software has been given the Bill Gates Stamp of Approval. This could be a very nice year. :)

On the book side...I'm putting together a proposal for another game development book (with some indie usefulness, I think), and I'll be learning how to sell a fiction manuscript this year, as well.

That about sums things up. Thank you for your attention. :)

-David
Samu Games
The Indie Game Development Survival Guide