I am approaching a new place where I’ll need to decide on which hobby project I put my energy into. Going to meander through some pros and cons now. One overall pro is that I will be targeting PG level content, shooting for teen and up without (too) offensive of material (a misstep in prior projects) so that my work can be on display as I enjoy sharing and discussing these with friends and family.
Attack of the BiiBiis
This project is to create an online card game with role-playing elements. I believe I can make one that is flat out better than all of the card games I’ve played. With a deep focus on solo play, it can provide gamers a no-stress way to learn, build, play, evolve with extensive campaigns, tower systems and loads of other challenging game modes.
With a “player-created” AI engine to make strong opponents, it provides a way to self-evolve using player-directed strategies. Then multi-player would provide a way to compete “offline” as well as traditional online timed-battles.
The technology is mostly decided now with the Unity game engine and 3d modeling for the cut-scenes and probably AI to make card graphics.
The downsides are mostly time. This project would take literally years to make solo. Another downside is reach – the project will target card players only, not appealing to “everyone.” This project is the most complex of the 3 I’m mulling over, and also the only one that could be a money maker. But I need to stop my brain from “creating enterprise” – that’s not my goal for this project.
Boneeaters
This project is a reader-directed story with comic style art, voice and music. I’ve done similar projects in the past and ran into some rather huge roadblocks to make this successful. Have those been addressed in this new era of AI and 3d rendering?
The story I have is a deep dive into leadership with a science fiction setting and theme. Reader choices direct the story with massive implications so readers can explore leadership styles and consequences. It is something that could appeal to anyone who likes stories (movies, tv, comics) and would not be more limited to “gamers.”
Although there would be “character development” that has some role-playing game bones where your characters grow and get different options that impact the story in different ways – but all of that is not front-and-center, it’s the “backstory.”
Art was the largest cost doing my prior project (I had done 100+ comics with voice and music), but now that I’ve learned 3d rendering, that approach could be used to do all the artwork… or at least most of it. I would need some help with 3d modeling of my aliens and some of my alien world, as they can’t be cobbled together from pre-built components.
A larger downside is something I’ve faced off against (and lost to) before – self-directed stories are 500% (or much more) content to make than a single story. I worked with this amazing editor before (Nate Bowden), who said this, and it still resonates:
Think of it this way – let’s say you have 5 or more endings to your story… one of them is the best, and that’s the story you should tell.
Nate Bowden
In the context of this new project, I’m more ok with the reader not getting “the best” ending – because their choices have consequences 😉. But I would be fighting the beast of having to make 500% more content than just a normal story. Still, with the premise of the project itself, I have a core reason to do it – because exploring leadership is worth it.
Rework and republish some prior comics with voice & music
I have a lot of prior work that I still love, but recognize it was not targeted well. I could go back, retro that content into a PG format, recreate some new art, re-home it with new branding, and republish so it is something I could share with anyone.
A reason to even think about looking back is that some of the work is by legendary comic book artist Ernie Chan, and many other talented people, and I truly love all of it.
Some of the work I could replace the art to reach a totally different style. I have at least 5 stories I could do this way, resulting in 40 or so comics with voice and music. This is very different than the other two projects as this content is not interactive at all – it is pure storytelling. That’s not “bad,” but it isn’t quite as magical to me as reader-directed stuff or games.
Next steps?
One thing that hits home is that -each- of these projects is a multi-year effort. None are quick, all require a long vision that I would have to have some real endurance to complete. I’ve done that before, of course, but I’m older and not as willing to pour time into it like time was free. And I have to master a real budget as that solution to the time problem is also not free 😉
The “rational me” says the best thing to do is get all 3 projects scoped out, documented, and fleshed out to understand the scope of what they will take. But, I’m not sure I have the patience to actually do that. So, owning up to how I feel after writing this, I see this approach and decision:
- Convert just a couple of old comics to a new format that would also form the technology bones for the Boneeaters project.
- Flesh out the story for Boneeaters and see if that ends up being something that brings more of “me” into the product than the others do.
- Put the card game on hold.