One More Day on Segira?

Today I got through a few more things for Segira.

The biggest thing is finishing the adventure. I'm a little bad at this because I keep going back and forth on ideas. I'm probably about half-way through, if not further, but I always wind up with bloat. I'm going to publish a second alpha tomorrow with a direct LibreOffice export (plus the cover and the character sheet/examples), and by Tuesday I hope to have the Scribus export with all the art and sidebars neatly tucked away, plus also release a form-fillable character sheet.

To clarify, here's what's left for Segira:

Alpha:

• Finish adventure
• Finish vehicles

Yeah, it's a short list.

"Full Release":

• Scribus export and formatting/image insertion
• Maps
• Character Examples
• Form Fillable Character Sheet

It's really weird how making a game winds up feeling and being when you reach this stage, and I've done it enough times now that I've gotten used to it.

There's something that feels a little bit depressive about finishing a game, like the exertion and stress that's been going into the whole project–making it good, keeping up the pace of progress, getting everything ready to ship, and so forth–gets used up and replaced with nothing.

I know when I released the velotha's flock and the Hammercalled Quick-Start I had this feeling left-and-right when it was said and done.

With Segira, I think I hit that a couple times this week, in part because I knew a lot of the parts ahead of me were not really different from things I've done before. It's just sort of a question of wrapping up. That's not to imply that there aren't things that will require me to have some skill and probably grow my skillset a little, but rather that there's nothing left to do that's foreign to me. I've danced this tango a few times before, and it's lost the mystique, you could say.

That's not to say that being a game designer has lost its mystique and appeal. I still can fantasize about making a profit off a game, something I haven't had the opportunity to enjoy yet, but it's also just kind of interesting to see how a hobby changes as you go from a total amateur (Loreshaper Games was founded at a time when I'd already made one decently sized game, but it sucked, so I don't count it) to something approaching an expert, or at least being competent.

What I really enjoy most about making games is this step where you get to release them to the public, to take what you've made and show it to the world and say "I made this!"

That's a little bit of an ego rush, but it's also validating in other ways. I'm not going to pretend that my games are great art that's going to be giving the world some grand enlightenment, but at the same time they're enjoyable and might have a few lessons in them, and that's worthy enough to make me happy.

They're also reminders in teamwork. I've had some great people give feedback, contribute as freelancers, and simply affirm my efforts over the past year and a half of working on Segira and more generally as Loreshaper Games' head honcho, and I don't think I could do it without any of them. If you're one of those people, thank you!

I'm really looking forward to finishing this, and it's been a great journey thanks to all the people here on Steem and elsewhere who've been supportive.