Reclaimate Mnth2 Wk4

So I haven't been blogging much because everything is proceeding still. I'm hoping to release on September 1st, but I'm still not iron clad on that. Those goals I listed before, making sure the game is fun is high up there. And it honestly takes a lot to do that. The amount I over estimated that is required on systems work is substantial. And while those are all lessons learned, I still have to adhere to my overall goal:

Be earning enough stable money to pay my living expenses while working on my games for 30+ hours a week from home.

As I told Brennan (my artist) recently, when I can afford a bowl of instant noodles that will be a milestone.

To do that I have to publish something. So if it's not Reclaimate this month I'll take 3-7 days off to push something very small out there. I'm thinking tic tac toe or something. I really have to see something come in.

Things are looking better daily for Reclaimate though, so we will see.

Developers that Impress Me

I'd like to make a call out to some developers who impress the heck out of me. Today I want to talk about Noa. There isn't much known about him (or her?) Other than the fact he comes from Japan, works full time and still somehow is able to come up with incredibly DEEP games.

I played "Elona Shooter" on Kongregate over a year ago and was impressed how much there was to this simple shooter. Fair warning, even on casual mode it's hard.

This is Elona shooter, click here, or on pic above to try it out.

And then I find out that this shooter is actually based on his Nethack "Rogue-like" main game he's been working on since 2006, Elona.

You have to download this game for Win Vista/XP from his site here

Just so you are aware, the amount of time and effort that goes into an RPG is INSANE. He's created a full large scale commercial RPG by HIMSELF. He's made excellent use of existing arts and sounds from lots of free sources, but even so, the amount of work that was needed is simply unbelievable.

Add to this, he's been working at a full time job this whole time... Does he sleep? I just have no clue how you would be able to do this. All the same, I'm impressed.