After more than 12 years of developing games in my spare time, I finally managed to stick to one project for longer than a couple of weeks and I really think it’s looking promising.
The kicker for me in actually keeping my motivation, I think, was having a large detailed todo-list of everything that needs to be done in order to make the game playable. I’ve tried this before, but I usually slack a lot in keeping it updated. I’ve found that dedicating some time for cleaning the list and elaborating on points has helped keep up the motivation and I always have an idea of what to do if I get bored. I really can’t overstate how important this has been and if you’re into game development, I recommend that you try always having clearly defined tasks waiting to be completed.
I’ve been thinking about creating this game for quite a while now. I first started developing a school tycoon game, but realized all the action happened once a year when the it was grading time, the rest of the time was spent waiting. I then tried developing a 2D version of what I am making now, but I got stumped on some technical issues. Then I had a sudden burst of inspiration for a pathfinding algorithm and it motivated me to start again in 3D.
I was also hugely inspired by Game Dev Tycoon and I felt there were so many possibilities to go more in-depth with the software tycoon game idea. With Software Inc., my goal is to go more in-depth when it comes to the development cycle, the buildings and staff management. I want you to not just push out virtual products to gain some points in a game, but also feel like there’s an entire ecosystem just below the surface, that you have to manage.
When these pictures were taken I had implemented rooms, doors, elevators and lamps to create buildings with. I also had an employee type person, who would turn up once a day to sit at a desk/box, to test the pathfinding algorithm.