I have to ponder what’s been motivating me to release Gravity Flux, a game I’ve made, on the Steam platform. It is a simple game that I made at a game jam, that can be quickly added upon to be in a state that is releasable.

I sat down and wrote a few dot points as to why I thought I was:

• Experience that I may not be able to get otherwise
• Experience I can share with others (eg. Tas Game Makers)
• Personal achievement and satisfaction
• Quicker to release than my other game, Wizards with Rockets
• Curiosity – how well will it do?
• Beginning of a strategy of releasing games/software to earn passive income
• Bragging points
• Improving the reputation of game makers in Tasmania – another Tasmanian has released a game!

But it hit me after that. I think the reason I am releasing this game, is that well, this game isn’t a really big game, like Wizards with Rockets was aiming to be. I know some local developers, Myriad Games, who released Where the Snow Settles. That took them about 5 years to make. A relatively big project. For many of them, that’ll be their last game they release on their own (or as a part of a small indie team) for a fair while. I don’t want to do that. I want to get into the habit of making and releasing multiple games! Starting with Gravity Flux. I’ve got to start somewhere, and that somewhere should be simple and easy, as opposed to a larger game. So the reason I chose to finish this game off and release it was to build myself up as a “game making person” akin to Cheeseness and others I know who have a similar approach. Now, I may not spend as much time on game making as Cheeseness, but I will be just as persistent. Slow and steady wins the race.

So, with the hopefully inevitable release of Gravity Flux, it will mark the beginning of my “professional hobby” of making and releasing games. It’ll be quite an exciting launch party for me!