Time For Birds

An RPG in the making! A game made by birds, for birds! — About — Patreon

[timeforbirds]

The State of Development

I haven’t been active in a while. I hoped that I could pick things up again soon, but it looks like it hasn’t happened. I have a job, and I struggled a lot with this, but I no longer have time to make a game. Time For Birds is on hiatus, and if I pick it up again, it’ll be a different kind of game.

But time wasn’t the only problem. Here’s everything that went wrong.

Firstly, I turned my hobby into a job. I launched a Patreon with hopes of supporting my endeavors with income, but it turned into a source of anxiety. I felt like I needed to work. Game development turned into a bad experience where I felt pressured to get something interesting done to gain approval of supporters, but then I got stuck making game engine components. I started feeling heavy guilt, and it made me want to take multiple month-long breaks from the project so I could forget about it.

To add to the stress, I was accepting Patreon rewards for custom modeled birds. This worked well the first month, and then I lost all motivation and never gained it back. I’m still trying to contact some people to offer refunds without much luck.

In the future, I won’t take money until it’s done.

That was the biggest issue, but these next issues still greatly affected development.

The scope was WAY too large for my first time making a complete game

I’m hardly interested in most RPG gameplay, making the game engine a struggle to create

I did not have enough coding experience at the start, so there is too much old spaghetti code

I was working alone

It’s tough to say this, but there were too many birds

If I start up again, it will not be an RPG. It will be a much smaller game, and a lot of it will be coded from scratch. I also won’t intend to model 200+ individual birds.

I’ll be closing down the Patreon next month (June 2019), archiving the posts, and shelving the project. It’ll be safe and in a place where I can resume development if I find the time.

I deeply appreciate your support up to this point. Despite the issues, I still had the time of my life making this game.

— Dove 💕

[timeforbirds]

I haven't seen any updates in a while, is the game still being made?

The short answer is no. I’ll explain in more detail in an upcoming post.

[timeforbirds]

Bird Collision

[timeforbirds]

Wouldn’t it be neat if your friends followed you places?

..... Ah.

[timeforbirds]

I follow several wip games, and they've all been dead silent for a year because they only want to post about presentable stuff. Or maybe they're just dead and disbanded; who knows? Meanwhile, another wip I follow posts weekly about lots of things, from all branches of devwork, to thoughts on how they're doing financing/marketing, to the work involved in going to a con to talk about their stuff at a panel. Moral: I assumed you quit, as 99% of people do, then forgot you existed. Post more!

I’ll do that! You’re right, thank you!

I used to post a lot of WIP stuff, but then I took a lengthy hiatus, and I felt bad about posting unfinished stuff after being quiet for so long. I think that might have been a bad decision. I’ll write some posts and record some videos to post a little later!

[timeforbirds]

Hey im a solo dev aswell, what would you say is the most important thing people want to seen on patreon?

They want to see what you’re doing! Write out what you’ve been working on, take screenshots and videos, and outline your plans and designs! I think your game needs to be interesting on a basic level before they’ll be interested in a Patreon, but if it is, then it’s easy to get people even more interested when you show what you’ve been working on!

I think content and gameplay is more interesting than raw programming. If all you’re doing is programming, then explain what content it’ll let you to add in the future!

It’s easy to go silent if you haven’t done anything substantial. In fact, that’s what I’ve done here. I’ve been working hard, but what I’ve been working on is not very presentable. However, even if your game is in a state of disrepair, seeing exactly what you’d been doing or planning for the future can be exciting!

For example, I'm working on a UI overhaul, and I’m also redoing my collision system to be gridless. But it's not presentable yet. In fact, for the past couple of months, the game haven’t been able to go past the title screen without erroring, so I've been holding off from posting about it here until it’s done. But on Patreon, I posted about what I was doing and what it would mean for gameplay and content!

Update often, and show new gameplay and content! If you can’t, write out your future plans!

[timeforbirds]

Whats up with your site? and where is it i cant find it on google?

I don’t have a proper website! I only have this blog, Twitter, and Patreon.

I planned on making a website at some point, but there’s not much I’d put on it yet!

[timeforbirds]

Where to find me elsewhere

This website seems to be having some issues... so you can find me on Twitter! I’m much more active there!

https://twitter.com/timeforbirds

[timeforbirds]

While we're on the subject of birds that make good griffons... how about House Martins with their fluffy legs?

they have long birdpants!!

i WILL create these pals

[timeforbirds]

You've probably already got them on your list, but what about some of the larger parrots, like blue/gold Macaw, white Macaw, or hyacinth Macaw? Oh, also the lookalike relative of macaws, the Black Palm Cockatoo. I need my fix of large, hooked beaks.

Oh heck YES

I’m gonna be adding a bunch of parrots once I perfect the parrot beak I’m workin’ on!

[timeforbirds]

Yay, griffons! And I'm hoping for barn swallows, too, they're adorable.

YEAH! I’ll add barn swallows!

Also for your consideration: gryphon barn swallow

[timeforbirds]

can we get a glimpse of the laughing kookaburra :0c ?

[timeforbirds]

I’ve been working on a TON of backend stuff, so I haven’t been able to show anything lately, but I recently started working on a custom bird designer! Once I finish building the interface for this, you’ll be able to make your own bird out of different parts and choose whatever colors you wish!

Go ahead and make yourself a gryphon with socks! Or slap a pride scarf on an owl! Or make your favorite species that I forgot to add!

[timeforbirds]

A UI test!

I was on a looong hiatus, and I just started working on the game again a week or so ago! I’m creating an updated UI system, because the game’s going to really benefit from more detailed menus, and I need something like this completed before I go any further.

Something to take note of here is that instead of each box containing only one simple list menu, I’m able to have complex layouts, like this list with a button anchored to the bottom. One of the list items is split into three as well. So I can pretty much do anything now!

Next, I’m gonna fill a menu with tiny birds that attack your cursor.

[timeforbirds]

[timeforbirds]

A UI test!

I was on a looong hiatus, and I just started working on the game again a week or so ago! I’m creating an updated UI system, because the game’s going to really benefit from more detailed menus, and I need something like this completed before I go any further.

Something to take note of here is that instead of each box containing only one simple list menu, I’m able to have complex layouts, like this list with a button anchored to the bottom. One of the list items is split into three as well. So I can pretty much do anything now!

Next, I’m gonna fill a menu with tiny birds that attack your cursor.

[timeforbirds]

Are you planning on adding any more birds to the telegram sticker pack? I love them!

YEAH! Absolutely!! I’ve been super inactive but I just started workin’ on the birdgame again. I’m probably gonna add a few new birds soon, and I’ll make new stickers when I think of some good ideas!!

Keep in mind there’s an old pack that I don’t have access to anymore because I deleted the account I used to make those a long time ago. Make sure you’re using the new one because that’s the one that’ll be updated!

[timeforbirds]

Do you happen to have a giant list of the birds that are going to be in the game? I'd be super interested in seeing one for... reasons. Mostly d&d reasons.

Sorta! I posted an older version of the list that you can find right here, but I’ve added a LOT of birds to the list since then, and I wanna keep some of them a surprise so you can discover them yourself! But there are plenty enough in that old list if you wanna use it for something!