After my nerdy hobby got out of hand, I put my 2-decade-long professional career on hold 18 months ago to focus on developing my first video game for PC full time. World Turtles has just launched into Early Access with thousands of followers and t...

Congrats with your launch! At what part of the game while developing did you get stuck, to a point you almost had regrets doing this?

Never (not yet). There were times when I spent a week trying to figure out what unknown demon was causing bugs, but never so much that I regretted it. In fact, since I dropped my consultancy work, there hasn't been one day that I was not motivated to work on this.

Are you a fan of sir Terry Pratchett?

I am a huge fan. That's why I chose the World Turtle myth as setting (which STP also borrowed). Just to be sure, I actually contacted Rhianna Pratchett, and she has no problem with me using it, as long as I don't make it "Discworld-y",

As soon as I saw your trailer I thought of Terry Pratchett. Looks great. Congrats.

Thanks!

Hey OP, the game looks beautiful.

Thanks. Now just to get enough people to support it so I can make it better still!

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I saw on another comment you are working with a publisher. I thought that by doing that you wouldn't need to rely on EA buyers for revenue to improve the game? I thought publishers provided income so you can focus on the game without worrying about cash flow? Or is the EA cash flow you need for things like hiring an artist to improve designs, etc? If so I would think the publisher would cover that to improve on their investment?

Good luck to you!

Hi. No problem! You get investors, publisher and publishers that also invest. This publisher does marketing, helps with the admin around publishing the game, PR, localization and have also offered to pay for improving the AI. But they don't invest as in giving me budget to spend on the game, or covering "a salary" for me to live off.

The graphics look really polished for a one-man-show. Nice work!

I'm a big fan of the Civ/City Building genre. How is your take on it unique and interesting? How does the turtle flying through space plot line affect or drive the city building part of the game?

Thanks! You need to feed the Turtle to keep it from starving, and also to steer it to / away from certain part of space that impact your humidity, temperature, flux (power), etc. There will be more "things" in space to also interact with later. Snow comets accumulate on the flippers and crash down one your stuff from time to time. The turtle also flies through areas of gas pollution, and you need to stockpile enough water to cater for this.

Sounds similar to wandering village by stray fawn, except yours is in space and theirs is a walking land one. cool idea and seems fun!

You may appreciate this:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1512050/view/3681172762840133277?l=english

Very much wandering village vibes. Sunk many hours into that one.

You may appreciate this:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1512050/view/3681172762840133277?l=english

Wow! This is honestly so creative and original! Hopefully one day it will morph into multiple turtles in one Galaxy all fighting each other ❤️

It's a peaceful little game, and I'm sure it will remain peaceful. I'm trying to find alternative mechanics (feed) to keep the player occupied, even if they sound/look warlike (catapult) at first glance.

Congratulations to you and your game for going into early access.

Heading into game dev with close to no experience in the area, what was the most challenging to learn and/or understand?

The most challenging is also the most interesting and rewarding. There are so many different skills / areas / functions you need to pull together. You don't necessarily do every physical thing yourself, but you have to be intricately involved, even when someone helps you with something, since you take ultimate responsibility for everything. While people can assist, nobody cares about its success as much as you do.
There are certainly no room for being disinterested in any part.

How did you collect fund and software knowledge to create this game?

Although I started completely fresh with Unity and C#, I'd been coding for 20 years! I learned what I needed to know mainly through tutorials, forums and documentation.

When I originally went "all-in", we lived off of our savings for a year, then I got a publisher who gave me a recoupable amount per month to keep my going, then we launched - hopefully I get some income now!

Damn this is your game? It has gotten a ton of attention on YouTube for a while and already had it on the wishlist. Didn't realize it was a solo developer. Looking forward to giving it a try.

It's me, yes. Since I'm launching today, there was quite a bit of media of it around. Not as much as I'd like, but a decent amount :)

Firstly, I'm very proud of a fellow Saffa, and will jump on steam this week for the game.

My question is, how is the South African game development industry? Is it a local publisher who is assisting you, or did you go into partnership with a publisher abroad?

Hey Saffa! Thanks. It's an American publisher. They approached me after my game started ramping up in wishlists. We had some chats and I decided, especially since this is my first game ever, it would be good to learn from a team whose done this many times before.

Just a small anecdote about contracts. I / the small company I was at, we built a small game that got some traction. One of the biggest publishers signed to do worldwide marketing and distribution. We agreed to a X percent cut of SALES, with them contracted to spend a pretty sum on marketing.

Game did ok financially, but because we were receiving revenue split, we came our way ahead.

Sorry, I don't think I totally understand the last question. Is it "came out way ahead". Do you mean you earned a lot more than you would on your own, even after the revenue split, because sales was just so much more than it would have been?

Congrats, that must be very satisfying to see your vision become reality.

Any specific tutorials or resources you can recommend to someone starting where you did?

I've been a coder in a different field a long time, so there are a lot of "someone starting" I did not have to learn. Catlike Coding (has his own website) and Code Monkey (Youtube) were my main sources. You can also learn A LOT from them - they are proper coders with good coding habits. Code Monkey has loads of beginner stuff too!

Can you pet the turtle?

Not at the moment, but I will have expeditions to go and heal wounds on its body. No reason why they can't spend a bit of time around the head too :)

Best and worst things about Unity for you while on this journey?

I'm going to have to think about this one a bit. What I can say is that I never really compared game engines to decide which one to use.

My opinion is that there are a few roadworthy buses out there. Some may be better than other in that or that department (or for specific uses), and some may even be more luxurious in most departments. But, if you have a roadworthy bus, all you need is to be a good bus driver, and you should get to the destination.

At my level, Unity is more than what I need to get to my destination.

Respect! Do you see yourself taking in help if the early access generates enough dough? Or do you think it’s a solo project all the way?

I already have someone helping me with the audio side, and someone else spending a couple of hours a month on tweaking 3D models, as well as an illustrator drawing the icons I cannot create myself. If there is enough interest, I would certainly look at getting some more permanent assistance, but it would have to be someone very specific (whom I don't know yet!)
But I have no "I have to do every single stitch all by myself". I'm not talented enough in all departments (although I know enough to be able to work technically with those who are), and I would never have the time to do everything well enough.

This is where my life has been headed for a while. It's daunting, but I feel like if I don't my games out there, what's the point? I'm glad this has gone well for you, and hope you have further success.

Thank you. I understand how enormous my decisions / split was, but I've been fortunate with a good career already. If I really have to, I can go back to it 2 or 3 years later and still be fine. But, if I don't take this opportunity, I know I'd regret it for the rest of my life.

Any chance of multiplayer? My buddy and I love city builders and so few can be played together.

I do want to include some "interaction" between players' turtles one day, but trying to implement a complete multiplayer system at this time, with all the other things, would probably kill me!

Did you do all the artwork, modeling, and animations yourself as well in addition to the coding?

I'd never be able to. I by assets that I cannot create / commission myself, use some free stuff, do a bit of photoshop to adjust things, etc. I do mostly coding and pulling everything together, working with the people who do certain parts to make sure I get something that fits in (visually and technically).

Ah, cool, I've been doing some Unity lately as well, using free assets. I also mostly have experience coding and was wondering how an actual indie developer handled having to work with multiple skill set domains.

While I really admire people with the complete skill set to do everything by themselves, I simply would not be able to make this game if I had to. I know my strength and weaknesses, and I need some help!

What has been your best/biggest source for assets? Do you get them from a marketplace, or commission someone to make them? I'm a really good coder and love to make a game. I got pretty far, but I suck at anything related to art. I see some asset packs here and there, but they're always disappointing to me, or I have to try to put different stuff together and it just doesn't fit well. Then I get depressed and stop working on the game lol.

Unity Asset Store and a few free ones here and there.
I get you - it's not easy getting the visuals right if you're not an artist (or have access to one) to tailor-make it.

I like turtles

I know this one :)

Do you know this one? This seems like a core design philosophy. After all, hexagons are the bestagons

They sure are!

How many Discworld easter eggs are there?

Oh, the thing about easter eggs is you have to uncover them without knowing anything about them :)
I want to add more, but there definitely are some. Also in the names of the achievements, since they're not technically part of the game, so I'm more at ease referencing them there.

Do you worry about that overstepping the agreement with the Pratchett estate? I would be careful, especially here in a public forum where it could be suggested that a post like this was using their IP to draw hype.

IANAL

IANAL

No. What I'm describing here is perfectly reasonable and I'm sure more a "hat tip" than trying to "use/steal IP for whatever reason".

I write C++ for work, and I'm quite comfortable with the language, but hesitant to pick Unity (above other engines) because I'd like my skills to be transferable.

What programming/scripting langues did you know before trying C#? Was it easy to pick up? Did you find any footguns the hard way?

I had no problems learning C#, even from just about no C/Java type experience. I grew up on Turbo Pascal, Delphi and some VBA, and did a lot of SAS (statistical data analysis software), but never had a "huge arsenal of languages". But getting into C# was really no problem for me.

I don’t know what relevance to the quality of game does it have that you quit your job. I never really understood why devs have to tell us this, it’s like a sob story for more sympathy/sales.

Let’s see how your game hold up by it’s own merit, it looks super cool. If it is any more fleshed out than Wandering Village, it should be a big success. Graphics remind me to Populous 3 in a good way, did you take any inspirations from that? Good luck with your future developments!

Hi.

I did not base the graphics on any existing game really . I started with the terrain and then had to look for assets than would fit together on it (since I'm not skilled enough to make them myself). I just tried to look for available assets that I liked in the setting.

The relevance of the fact that I put my consultancy work on hold is that it impacted how much time I could spend on the game - it was quite an important part of the story of how the game came to be. But I understand what you're saying.

Congrats! I remember your post from a few months ago, it's great to see an update.

Anyway...

If you made a sequel to this somewhere down the line - what animal would you choose as the 'world'?

Boring question also, but do you have any plans for a console version in future? I don't have a PC else I would gladly give you my money.

I really need to spend another year on this to finish it up first. No thoughts of consoles at this time!
I know a "Space Whale World" game is coming out this year too. How about a world on a snail?

How long do you expect for it to pay for itself? How did you support yourself?

We took the decision that I'd take a year off and we live off of part of our savings (I still have enough investments left over for old age!). I hope to now start supporting us through the income from sales.
It's my first game, so I don't know how sales will go - I can gauge a bit by checking out some published figures and analysis, but even then, the ranges are huge. You can skyrocket or just amble along. As long as I don't flop! But, I'm not expecting to make back the "opportunity cost" of spending that time on my "adulting" career. It's not just about dollar for dollar comparisons.

What is it that makes World Turtles so good? What was your goal for the game?

Initially I just wanted to learn Unity and used this as a "holder" for stuff I wanted to learn. Then, suddenly, it become a "living world", and I started looking for thing to learn to put into the world in ways that I imagined it. I think I just want to build a world where you can "go for a while" and enjoy "being somewhere else".

I saw your game at PAX, it was the first time I've ever gone! Congratulations, I'll pick up a copy!! How is working with Freedom Games? If I end up getting my hobby game off the ground but need funding should I try to pitch it to them? (Assuming my game is good, I swear I have high standards and a degree and sort of know what I'm doing.)

If you can have an early prototype/portfolio (most important) and a pitch deck (as well), you can pitch to either publishers or investors.
We didn't get quite as many wishlists as envisioned, but working with Freedom Games has been very positive. They've helped a lot, especially where I had no experience.

Big congrats. One question though, what is below the turtle? 😄

In this case space. And space isn't like our space. It actually has humidity and temperture!

Why do people continue to call anything related to video games “nerdy” when it’s quite possibly one of the most mainstream/popular hobbies?

Maybe Nerds are taking over gradually?

Well, developing a game is probably more nerdy than playing one.

Haha maybe.

Congrats on the success btw! I didn’t want to just make a negative comment; but I assumed you’d finished up the AMA.

Thanks. No problem. Still here…

People know they can make small short and sweet games as a hobby and if one of them get famous ( probably by some streamer playing it) they can make a longer version, right ?

No, quitting everything and early access and becoming a marketer to promote yourself everywhere with your "unique" story is the only way!

Promoting is definitely a factor, and Reddit has been good to me, but you can also check my posts - I always interact with people interested in the journey / product. I can totally understand you not caring for a bunch of promotional posts - I get that, and I'm sorry for mine being one of them in your case, but I've also had very good conversations from these posts, and most people seem to be at least a bit positive about most of it.
If I just "dump and run" posts, I would be totally cross with myself too :)

The thing is there are thousands of short and sweet games out there. I specifically decided I'm going to try and make a longer one that is easier to stand out.

Congrats on your journey. Do you have dependents that you also had to factor in while deciding on the big areer pause? Best of luck

Yes, I have 4 kids. However, I've had a very good career of 2 decades, so I have saved up - this is not "gambling their future away" by any means.

Is there any particular reason you decided to go into base-building games, a quite saturated market at this moment. Or did you simply go for it as that was the type of games that you liked to play?

It was the type of game I wanted to make 4 years ago :)

Love the idea with the turtles! My husband really likes these types of games so I’ll introduce him to it. How has your life changed from working on a passion project rather than your last career? Good luck!

Thank you! My last career was really becoming a negative factor. Most of my work was in "negative situations", when things had already gone wrong and everybody was scrambling to stop the water leaking out. It was draining. I now am eager to get to work.

Feeding the giant creature you live on while working out how to best use resources....so a bit like Wandering Village but bigger and without environmental hazards?

There are environmental hazards - you can fly through gas clouds that make the water unusable, but leaves behind crystals. There are snow comets that crash down on your infrastructure.
Something interesting:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1512050/view/3681172762840133277?l=english

What was the hardest thing to get right?

The hardest thing is fitting all the things together. There are so many functions, skills, tasks of various nature that all have to come together. There's no room for being disinterested in some part of it.

Did you have offers for any other publishers? I'm curious as to why you picked one has released mostly subpar games.

I had one offer before (which wasn't suitable), and some initial interest that never panned out.
I think most of those games came on board after I'd signed with them. They added loads of games to their portfolio after I joined. I'm not sure, but I do remember they had a much shorter list when I went through their portfolio, and that list included almost all the bigger games they currently have.

How did you keep yourself motivated?

How did you deal with graphics and sound?

I didn't need to - I love working on it!
I have someone helping me sounds, and I either buy assets that fit or have someone helping me from time to time edit them.

My own nerdy hobby is starting to become more important than my career. Starting to consider shifting my career to accommodate it more, possibly capitalize on it. Any advice?

What I can say is that it really is a risky option - no doubt about it. I would not do it if my future financial well-being depended on it absolutely working out well. I see it as a spend/investment in an opportunity that I love doing and, if it actually works out decently, will be financially viable too, meaning I can continue doing it long-term.

Also, I only made this decision after some tangible, concrete indications that there "was something here", so don't jump the gun. Take small steps and see whether the "returns" keep getting bigger as you take them. Just to give you an example - it took me 14 months to get just under 4,000 wishlists. I'd put a lot of effort into making the game rather than trying to market it. Then, because of the quality of the game, I got into some events and suddenly gained over 9,000 in 5 months. This was a big step up.

So you've been coding for 20 years. And you are a solo dev.

What about 3d modeling, animation sound and art?

I have to commission that or buy assets, unfortunately.

How did you stick to one project and push through it? Were there ever any moments where you thought that it wouldn't work or you wouldn't be able to complete it?

I simply love working on it, so it wasn't hard to push through! It may not work out, and "complete" is vague :) but I have a lot I still want to add.

Does it support cloud saving?

Yes. Or let me say it's supposed to, and I've not had any indication that it doesn't work, yet.

Congrats!

What are your thoughts on Godot?

I don't know it at all, but it can probably do a considerable amount if you know how to handle it. If it's a roadworthy bus, you just need a good bus driver to get you there.

Do you have any preference from a indie developer perspective on Steam vs Epic vs GOG? Morally/financially/support or otherwise?

I don't think Epic and GOG can get you close to the volumes that Steam offer, so to me Epic and GOG seem to generally be "we launch there as well". That's the idea I get from the publisher in any case.
Steam takes 30%, which is huge, but they also bring a lot to the table. I've had loads of exposure on Steam - either directly from them, or from events that can be hosted on their platform. They also handle a bunch of "admin" on the sales side, etc.

What can you tell us about your 4 year learning process? How many hours did you put into it daily?

I can't really say. I had my own consultancy, working from home (with 4 kids, also at home), seeing clients now and then, so I worked really "bits and bops" for large parts of the day. And at first I did this as a hobby after hours, then it started increasing and eventually I did this full time, but still taking a kid to piano lessons (having my own piano lessons), running errands, etc.
But certainly a huge number of hours over 3.5 years.

The graphics look really polished for a one-man-show. Nice work!

I'm a big fan of the Civ/City Building genre. How is your take on it unique and interesting? How does the turtle flying through space plot line affect or drive the city building part of the game?

Thanks. Although I still want to expand on it, you currently can feed the turtle and steer it around in space, affecting health, rain, temperature and flux in the realm.

How much experts there are in your team?and how you convince them to work with you?

I'm a solo developer, although I outsource things now and then.

Why griebenow when you can griebelater?

The "now" is actually pronounced as in "low" (oh).
In my language, it's almost "Gryp en hou" (grab and keep).

Does it work on Apple Silicon Macs?

Hi. At the moment, while the binaries are included for Silicon, no. It loads, but then crashes on the Title Screen. I am investigating why...

Props for the completely honest answer. I feel like a lot of people would try and spin that by just saying something like "We're very excited about our upcoming support for those Macs" and leave it at that without giving any actual info.

If I'm not honest, I'll definitely forget what I lied about!

Does beating the game hatch a baby turtle world? It could be harder than the original. And then that one could spawn one ever harder.

It's still a while before I get there!

How much money you making after putting your career on hold?

I'll really only know after a month or three what the long-term success will be.
Importantly, I don't need to make as much or more than my career. There are other factors at play, too.

Wasn’t there some other world-building-on-the-back-of-a-giant-creature game talked about here recently?

I've got this for you :)
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1512050/view/3681172762840133277?l=english

Congrats on making the game!

I would ask, if someone else (me for example :) ) wanted to make my own game with no coding experience, where would you advice to start and what development tips can you give?

I would start by not only watching tutorials, but learning from them and them adapting them to do slightly different things, so you actually learn how they work and how to "disassemble" and "reassemble" them.
Code Monkey has some very good beginner tutorials.

Are you gonna make it multiplayer?

I won't be able to add that as well for now - there's already sooo much to do.

What kept you motivated throughout this journey?

And what do you have to say/warn about towards someone who is going into game dev?

And what do you plan to do now since the game launched, besides bug fixing or something?

Sorry if this is too many questions at once. I had been interested in game developping sector for a while but never took a proper look into what it is like inside there, I feel like I have too many questions in mind to to even begin asking

But congratulations on your current success on your game!

I just really love making the game and learning so many new, interesting skills, really!
This is Early Access launch, so the game isn't complete - I plan to continue working on it to improve and expand on it.
Warning: Don't go into any big decisions like this one blindly / with a lot of bias. It's usually requires really hard work, lots of luck and you have to consider many factors (not just money, but money is important too).

[deleted]

AMA I know anything about :)

Has quitting your job and committing to game development full time been a positive or a negative for your sex life?

I don't think it has affected it. It's not really an important factor.

I was wondering how that got on my wishlist!

What are you most concerned about now?

What's the maintenance you envisage for the next few months?

All I want is for sales to be enough so I don't eat into my savings further. I want to be able to cover monthly living expenses. It would be really sad if I can't get there, because according to the measures I've been researching, it's a very real possibility. That's my main concern.

I'll still actually expand the game considerably in the next few months. It's not just maintenance :)

Good job! Keep going, we need more passionate people in game making! Are you happy with all the effort you pour on this project with all its struggles and do you think the learning journey was what it was worth or you just decided to give it a go and whatever comes?

Thanks. I enjoy it immensely, and find it really interesting to learn what I need to, then implement it in my own way with some extras here and there. I'd rather be doing this for 50% of the salary I can have in my old "real world, being important" job.

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Oh, that take again. Sorry, I'd spend way too much time on this topic last time it came up.

I am grateful for what I have (and have also worked hard for it all my life). Maybe don't put my entire life into the slot that whatever credit risk management has done to you or whoever you know from one Reddit post. Please. Singing off.