Philosophy for Developing “Adrift”

I am currently developing a new game, “Adrift” in the precious little free time I have. I have developed over a dozen game projects in my personal time. Previous games have been primarily motivated as learning projects. This one is different. I would like to build a game worth playing and paying money for. What does that mean?

My current hypothesis is that the best games emerge out of a dialogue between the developer and players. As a developer I have a vision for the gameplay, story, art direction, audio, and all of the disciplines that must come together to make a game. But I am not the customer. To know if my vision hits, I need to observe players early and often. Then I can see which parts of the game are joyful, need improvement, or need to be scrapped.

I have found that my local Indie Game Developer group hosts playtest events at bars 2 times a month. Bringing my laptop to these events and having members of the public walk up to try out Adrift has been tremendously valuable. In observing people playing I can see which parts they understand immediately and which parts they get stuck on. I also get to have great face-to-face chats with other game developers that help me work through creative blocks.

For previous personal game projects I have worked in isolation until it was time to release the game. For this one I am in constant dialogue with players. Dialogue feels much better. It is much more productive to have constant feedback and data on my development decisions.

You can playtest the latest build for Adrift on Steam for Windows or Mac.

You can also play on itch.io, which includes an archive of previous builds.