I hope by now that you've heard the news that Team 17 is my new client. They're an incredibly professional and successful outfit, and it's no secret that Debbie Bestwick, their CEO and I get along famously, so I'm really happy about this new partnership. I'll be helping to identify talent and opportunities. If you have something you'd like to pitch, or know someone who does, please get in touch.
I'm also delighted to say that I'm working on something very exciting with Pete Morrish. It's unlike anything I've done before, but when Pete described his vision last year to me, I was so excited that not only did I tell him it was a superb idea, but I twisted his arm to let me be part of it. I've known Pete for a few years. We also get along famously. This could be big. Watch this space.
I've been rethinking my relationship with games creation and trying to think through what I want to make. Many of you know I've threatened to do a Chimera remake for a very long time now, but then came to the realisation that it never needed to be remade. My reasons for much of my thinking are on my Chimera2010.com site (the URL embarrasses me now, that's how long I've been talking about it on and off)
I realised that it wasn't the original game that needed to be remade, so much as I needed to step off at the point where I think I took a misstep in my development career, which was that I moved onto Pandora instead of doing Chimera 2, but that's not it either. It's the feeling of making something, anything, without being commissioned or burdened in any way, that I missed — the joy of making a video game as a hobby. You see that’s true independence. That’s freedom. No player expectations, no publisher burden, no pressure for a sequel, or the desire to build a technological statement. With that in mind, I'm going back to my roots without apology.
I'm making an overhead view 2D science fiction game. I've done a few of those already, with Pandora on the C64, Atari ST and Amiga being the most notable, with my good friend David Eastman (yes, he of Floor 13: Deep State fame). I've taken another look at Pandora to see what I was trying to do, and there are quite a few unrealised ideas in there that could be explored further. The big change for me is going to be that I'm going to have a crack at prototyping this in Godot Engine. A change is as good as a rest. I'm excited about trying something new, and unfettered by expectations, it's easy to make such decisions. I hope to be a lot more open about this project, given that the rest of my working life seems to be permanently under NDA!
You might remember that I recently finished a port of a well-known game from PC and Switch to iOS and Android with Kieran D'Archambaud. It's passed Apple and Google's checks and will be announced in due course. I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say what it is, but I'm happy with the results, as is the client. If you need a port doing, I'd be very happy to talk.
Finally, my thoughts turn to Liverpool and Real Madrid playing in my favourite European city tonight, and it reminds me that I miss visiting Madrid, a place of many happy memories because of my amazing friends and colleagues there. I've continued to work with the PlayStation Talents team and mentored developers over video, but it's not the same. I hope that before too long, we will all be a little more connected than we have been.