Luminesca and Switch ‘N’ Shoot were both meant to be finished by now. A long time ago, in fact.
You may already know that I decided to temporarily halt development of Luminesca to work on Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty. This turned out to be a hugely rewarding experience which will inform my game development for years to come. But I deeply regret Luminesca’s extended hiatus; it’s gone on far longer than I anticipated. I can only apologise to anyone who is waiting for it to be finished and thank you for your patience. I still plan to complete it, but the finishing line is still a way off.
Meanwhile, Switch ‘N’ Shoot was meant to be a short side project that I could finish quickly. I hoped that getting it packaged up and shipped would alleviate some of the pressure of having Luminesca on hiatus for so long. Instead, I succumbed to feature creep and the project dragged on months longer than I planned.
I’ve decided to cut a lot of its planned features; they’re not necessary for the game to be fun, and getting it finished will be a far more valuable experience for me right now than exploring every possible nook of its design space.
As for Luminesca, I’m still not entirely sure of the best way to fit development into my current life, but it’s something I’m going to work out this year and attempt to make some serious headway. It’s been left silent for far too long. On the flipside though, the lessons I’ve learned over the last couple of years are going to result in a much better game.
2016 is the year I double down on finishing the things I started. Or at least make strides towards that distant finishing line.
