A few short weeks ago I launched my first game, Drone Trainer. Technically reaching the end of my journey to become an indie game developer. Well not quite, but actually releasing your first game, albeit as small one, puts things in full motion.
GameDev.tv Helped Get Me Motivated!
Things may have gone south if not for GameDev.tv. I began taking the Complete C# Unity Game Developer 3D Online Course I had purchased awhile back, looking for a change of pace. The Zenva courses I had been taking seemed to go on longer than I hoped (I did complete the certificate) and by the end I was waning. Longing to just get through the courses, I was losing interest. Perhaps it was the flow, or lack thereof from section to section, I’m not quite sure. I did enjoy the courses when I began taking them and loved the quantity of content, I was going to learn EVERYTHING. But alas that’s not how the real world works.
As soon as I began to take the class on GameDev.tv I knew things were going to be different. You learn, you’re challenged, and your encouraged to stray from the point to point tutorial directions along the way. That is how Project Boost became Drone Trainer. I didn’t want to create a spaceship, I felt a drone would be much more fun.
Drone Trainer Arrives.
Full disclosure I don’t own a drone, yet, and I’ve only flown one once. However once I started to design Drone Trainer more and more I realized I was having fun. The drone handling felt nice and I was making some early levels that weren’t complex but still interesting. By the end of the Project Boost portion of the course you’re challenged to actually finish and launch your game. Oh boy that was the push I needed. I used some techniques I’d learned previously to make some intro scenes and such and packaged it up for a web launch. It felt good having something out there, that people could try and play. No longer was I just “talking” about making games, I was making them.
Initially I decided to just launch it on sharemygame.com and once I fix some things up, add some features and some additional levels I play to release on itch.io. Eventually perhaps a Steam release. It’s available here on this site as well so I hope you’ll give it a try. I look forward now to BEING an Indie Game Developer and continuing to work and improve Drone Trainer as well as developing some future game ideas. Stay tuned.
