Short answer, I lost faith in the project. It started when I was few months in and I wasn’t feeling great about it. From the beginning, I knew it would be a big job, and I thought that I’d ultimately need to get more people involved, and for a while, I told myself that when other people come on board, they’ll throw new ideas in, and it will all be OK…

But then I realised… that’s just an excuse. I mean, loads of games come out which have only one main developer on them, and some of them are pretty big. Mitu Khandaker‘s Redshirt’, Nicholl Hunt’s ‘Fist of Awesome’, and Lucas Pope’s ‘Papers Please’ are the first three examples which spring to mind. I’m sure there are hundreds more.

So even that excuse wasn’t cutting it for me any more… and after two more months of solid development in which the fun just hadn’t appeared, I simply lost faith in the project. Making the game just felt like work, and so did playing it. So I decided to drop it, and I’ve started a new, safer project instead and I’m much happier.

It did get me thinking once again, however, about when developers should talk about projects they’re working on. Because I talked about this one a LOT, got loads of positive feedback, and even a bit of coverage… which makes putting it in the reject bin all the more difficult. Because on top of the feelings of inadequacy and failure, you also feel as though you’ve let people down.

My esteemed friend Mr. Brian Baglow of ScottishGames.net would say “Talk about your games as much as possible, LIKE F*$^*G ALL THE TIME!!!”. And whilst I probably wouldn’t be feeling quite as bad if I hadn’t spoken about this project so much publicly, ultimately he’s 100% right…

When you show your work, you’re showing it because you think it’s cool, and you hope that others might too. You’re not entering in to some kind of contract where there’s going to be ethical or financial repercussions. (Unless you’ve taken money off people on Kickstarter. In which case you’re a very naughty person and you should give them a refund, but that’s another post for another person another time.) Abandoning projects, even very publicly, does nothing to damage a developers reputation. Notch abandoning 0x10c if you would like an example.

All the feelings you’re feeling, they’re caused by your own perception of the situation, which is heavily weighted toward the spotlight being on you. The truth is, nobody else really cares. And since you’re thinking so much about yourself, you should really think about why you chose to be an independent developer as opposed to having a job. It’s so you can make the games you want to make, instead of having horrible projects with unreasonable timescales dumped on you. And if you’re going to stick with projects which are doing your nut in, then why bother?

Nobody is watching you quite s closely as you think. In fact, I could end this post with a bunch of nonsense and I bet nobody would even notice. Blurp, plurpy bleargh, willa willa bang ftumpsh. Joss Ackland ‘s spunky backpack…

I don’’t think anything sums up this point better than this panel from Sub Normality…

Until next time,

S

Obviously, this is still very early development. Screens and art may change.

There are a lot of ways to keep your tavern profitable, and the most obvious one is to sell booze! In The Waycross Inn, you don’t just sell drinks, you actually concoct your own drinks. Alcohol can be made from anything that has starch or sugar in it, the yeast just love that stuff!

It isn’t a ‘Simulation’. Some of the less interesting parts of real life brewing ale making have been removed or streamlined. In this world, wines, bitters, spirits, ale’s… they’re all the same, and they’re called ‘Brews’.

First thing to do will be to click the ‘Brewery’ button on the main page, and you’ll be taken through to your own personal brewery.

From here you can click the ‘New brew’ button to start experimenting. Note the ‘Fermenting’ and ‘Ageing’ panels. I’ll explain them in more detail a little later. (p.s., yes I’m aware of the typo!)

You can make a brew out of anything in the game. Each ingredient has a specific flavour, alcohol potential, colour, and you can mix up to six of them together to make a brew. Make a brew from fish heads? Or perhaps a nice earthy, bitter malt from all the rats you find in your storeroom? You may even happen upon a mysterious vegetable the likes of which the world has never seen, and create a legendary ale which rockets your taverns reputation skyward.

Here, I’m making a simple ale out of carrots, watered down a little so it’s not so alcoholic. The last thing to do is to give it a name, cook it up and set it fermenting!

After clicking the cook button, the ale will move in to the fermenting tub, and the time left to ferment is displayed in the ‘fermenting’ section of the distillery. Fermentation is where the yeast turns all the sugar and starch into alcohol. After a week or so of fermenting, the brew is transferred into a barrel and moves to the cellar, where it sits and ages.

During the ageing process, brews can take on new properties and improve. For the sake of fun, the ageing process is much faster in the game than in real life, and you should start to see results within a few days.

At any point during the process, you can have a wee taste and see how the brew is doing. And if you decide it’s ready, you can prepare it for the taproom, or leave it to age some more.

And of course, once you’ve determined it’s ready, you can plug it, put it on tap, and start serving it to your guests! You can determine the selling price here too. People in this world are very aware of the value of things, and will know if they’re being overcharged, or getting a good deal. This may not have any effect on whether they buy it or not, but they might leave with a slightly better or worse opinion of your establishment.

I hope this gives you some insight into how this part of the game will work anyway. It’s likely to become much more complicated as the design becomes more refined with age (Like a fine wine).

If you’re interested in this game, and have any questions or comments, PLEASE ASK THEM because It’ll make me think about things more. YOu can leave a comment here on the site, or catch me on Twitter at @StewHogarth.

Cheers,

Stu xxx

Fairly early on in the project, I realised that I needed to design a fantasy ‘World’ in order for the story of the Waycross Inn to convincingly unfold. The game is about a tavern which unites or divides the cultures of the land it inhabits. Therefore, it’s important that these cultures are in fairly close proximity to one another.

In order for these cultures to exist, however, there has to have been a history, which would of course mean that they would have been mixing for many years before the game is set.

Finally, the land has to be small enough that you could convincingly believe that a large portion of the population need to meet in a single place. Which is your tavern.

So this is how the land of Fermentale looks. Four towns at each corner of the island, and their only safe method of passage to each other involves the crossroad which connects them. In case you’re wondering, the game is called ‘The Waycross Inn, and although that is the default name of your inn, you can actually call it whatever you want. Which is why it’s called ‘The Pig’s head’ in this picture!

Fermentale History

The history of Fermentale is based on the colonisation of the USA, but on a much smaller island. The cultures already have their own history, and have existed for many years on the main continent, but a small number of them have decided to settle here for their own reasons. The island is much smaller, and no wars of independence / civil wars have happened yet, however, the tension is brewing and it may happen in the near future. The game is set in the year 1512.

Cultures of Fermentale

It is very important to me that there are no ‘Goodies’ and ‘Baddies’ in Fermentale. Each culture has their conflicts and flaws, however, I don’t want the player to side with any of them because they’re obviously the good guys.

Tulle

“Order is the path to peace. Wealth is the path to progress” – Message inscribed on the Tulle coat of arms

The Tulle empire are the biggest culture in the world, and were the original discoverers of Fermentale. They were the first to settle there in 1134, building their first colony in the south west corner of the land, which has now become the bustling town of Rosekeep, at the center of which sits the original stone keep. The Tulle culture has spread to all of the other towns in the land, often with a little resistance.

Droma

“I was born free” – Common phrase uttered by Droma when they are sentenced for a ‘crime’.

When Fermentale was first discovered, many people of minority religions emigrated there so they could practice their faith without persecution. One of these faiths is ‘Droma’. They’re a culture with an affinity to the land and who practice rituals which some consider to be quite frightening, and often offensive. They don’t believe in being ‘ruled’ by anyone, instead favoring the notion that Fermentale should be everyone’s land.

Croll

“Hedonism sickens the spirit. It makes us less able to love.” – The beginning of a well known Croll Prayer

The Croll are a pious branch of the ‘True’ faith, and they settled on Fermentale originally to spread their message to the natives. Their culture promotes a life of chastity and peace. They are uncomfortable in this new found land of liberty. They are quite easy to spot in a tavern, they’ll be the ones tring to discourage people from drinking, and looking after those who have overindulged. They regularly make large charitable donations to the poor or sick.

Buckan

“Let’s gar yam, thoo’s reet kaylied”  – (Translation “Let us depart to our abode. You’ve perhaps had too much to drink”)

Of course, when the colonists arrived on Fermentale there were already people there. The native culture of the island, the Buckan. When the strangers arrived, they were fascinated by some of the technology they brought with them. In turn, the Bukkan were experts at fermenting alcoholic beverages, and the colonists exported these methods back to the mainland, where they are now used worldwide. Originally scattered across the land, they Buckan have since created a stronghold in the north west corner of the island called ‘Wildborne’. Despite having widely taken on the Tulle culture, they still hold on to their proud traditions.

As with all the dev diaries, this is essentially me ‘Thinking out loud’. the game is still early in development, so the information may change. This is an open development, so anyone who wants to contribute ideas or suggestions, either comment below, or reach me at @StewHogarth on Twitter.

Cheers, Bye!

“It’s an RPG about running a medieval fantasy Tavern, and It’s going to be a bit like ‘King of Dragon Pass’.”

And the response is one of two things… More often than not, the response is a nonplussed expression, followed by “What? Never heard of that game”. But when I tell someone who knows and loves the references, the response is a much more positive “Omigod! Take my money!”.

The Waycross Inn is going to be (it’s too early to say ‘is’) an RPG / adventure game about running a medieval tavern. If you’ve played any of the ‘Atelier’ series, or the ‘Harvest Moon’ games, imagine those, but with a ‘choose your own adventure’ novel mixed in there as well.

Again… blank expressions.

It’s one of those things you just have to play to get I suppose. And if you think it sounds hard to sell, just imagine what it’s like to be throwing hours and hours of your free time into making it. I have no idea if it’s going to work either.

So, The Waycross Inn is about running a tavern in a politically volatile fantasy world, which is situated at a crossroad between four diverse towns. Your tavern is pretty much the only place where people from these different towns and cultures will meet.

Taverns have typically been places where you might rub shoulders with people you wouldn’t normally associate with, and over a drink, realize you’re not that different and that you all share a basic humanity.

The question the game asks is this; Can one location, in the right place and with the right management, build bridges between cultures and classes enough to prevent a brewing civil war?

But that’s the much bigger picture.

Most of your time will be spent deciding upon the menu, keeping guests happy, brewing your own ales, trading for resources… and tons of other stuff I haven’t even decided upon yet.

I’ve been working on the game for two months now, and I’m aiming for a ‘Computers’ release, I haven’t ruled out mobile either.

If you like the sound of the game, please let me know in the comments below, and if you would like to keep track of development, the best place is probably my Titter Account (@StewHogarth).

Thank’s for reading, see you next time.

Stu xxx

Just a quick note to let you know what we’re up to at Smiling Bag right now.

As some of you may have read on my Smiling Blog, I had a difficult end to 2014. Sadly, as the main contributor at Smiling Bag, if my own life hits issues, then the work stops. So I’ve decided to try and concentrate on smaller projects until everything gets back to some kind of homeostasis, because the large ones keep getting interrupted by things!

The first of these smaller projects is ‘S.I.D the Snake’. When we were younger, myself and my twin brother used to write stories about a hedgehog called Tom and a snake called Sid, so that’s where the ridiculous name comes from. I might try and come up with a game about a hedgehog next. You know, for completion.

Anyway… S.I.D the Snake is the third and final part of Smiling Bag’s ‘One Touch’ trilogy (The first being I am Level, and the second being Ducky Fuzz). They’re games that can be played with a single button / touch, which makes them much more accessible.

It’s sort of like an analogue version of Snake crossed with Asteroids. the snake goes round in a circle, and you tap / hold a button to change the direction of the circle. Collect good stuff, avoid bad stuff. Easy!

I’m managing to get quite a bit done on this at the moment, so the hope is to get it finished by the end of February, and released some time in March on iOS, Android and Web. Fingers crossed.

Until then, look after yourselves.

Stew xxx

The concept is like a side-on version of Dwarf Fortress, which is also heavily inspired by the Amiga game ‘Diggers. It’s about managing an underground colony of heroes as they search for treasure and other legendary things in the uncharted depths of a fantasy realm, with a focus on survival and exploration.

This video demonstrates how the Dwarf class is used to carve out rooms and build ladders.

S

I’m Too ZXy is a webcam filter that renders you in real time in glorious ZX Spectrum Technicolor. It requires the Unity Web Player plugin, and of course, requires a webcam too!

The ZX Spectrum style, with its 256X192 resolution and 16 colours, two of which are identical, transcended the limitations of hardware and achieved a recognised visual identity of its own. With 16 colours, only 2 of which can be used in every 8X8 block of pixels, the creativity required to achieve results bore the foundation of impressionist computer graphics for the years following.

You can have a play around with I’m Too ZXy here, or by following the link on our on our ‘Experiments’ page.

this is the first post on the new Smiling Bag 2.0 website, so I though the most appropriate thing to do would be to summarise the last year and let you know where we’re aiming to go next.

I went for a rummage through my old files to try and find a document I’d written a year ago, which contained a ‘plan’ about what I aimed to achieve in the first year. I found it, and here’s what it said…

I aimed to get I Am Level (then in development) finished and played by 100,000 people in the first year, and to release two more small mobile games. One about controlling waves and another about particle collisions.

It’s been 8 months since Smiling Bag started. I Am Level has been played well over 100,000 times, and we’re about to release our third game, iON Bond.

In summary, we achieved our first years goals in 9 months. Which is nice. So, it’s about time to start thinking about the next year. The aim is to use the momentum from the first three games to step it up a gear and make something a bit bigger with a larger team.

As for adding more people to the team… well, that’s progressing as we speak. There are regular contributors, which is why I use the term ‘we’ when talking about Smiling Bag, but I’m still the only core member. So that’s the first objective, to add more people to the team. Then it’s simply a case of picking the right project.

Currently, there are two bigger projects being mulled over. One is safe but simple, and the other is risky and niche. Not sure which one we’ll go with. Who knows, maybe both.

Watch this space.

Stu x