Another Drop in the Ocean

For many years, I've considered myself a game developer, and for quite a while, I dreamed of my own studio to create my own games. It all started with joining a small startup with some colleagues from Wargaming, where we were building a new "Heroes of Might and Magic 3" for mobile, which was never meant to happen and led us to outsource game development and eventually breaking down with some personal drama. Since then, I have had this idea fixated in my brain. I tried different things - building games independently, getting other colleagues to make a shot in the hyper-casual market, and building more casual games with a partner. Eventually, I burned out, and now I am not sure what I want anymore, but one game I actually released and I am proud of is Territorial Defense: The Game. And it's a complete disaster.

In more than two years, my App Store game has been downloaded 127 times, with an average session per device of 1.85. There have also been three more downloads on Itch.IO. This is a free game we've been working on for six months, part-time, of course. It was not a commercial product from the beginning, and we didn't expect much. But I really like the game and the concept and was dying to see some proof of the game's mechanical viability to continue working on it. But I hardly found any.

And this is not something unusual or even unexpected. But still.

A few takeaways from the experience:

• I don't know how it is for others, but when I work on a project, I fall in love with it. I really liked the game mechanic, and apart from the deeper meaning I put into it, I believed that the game was actually quite fun. And seeing it being a flop is very painful. I know this can happen, and I didn't put my hopes high, but still, I was heartbroken, which I tried to hide, of course.
• Working on the production build of a game when you are a programmer, level designer, product owner, and everything else is hard. At some point, I really hated the game because I was exhausted and confused, having to take care of too many things with so little time and energy.
• Screw mobile games! To be noticeable there, you really need to invest in ads, and the mobile market has much fewer enthusiasts than on the PC. Of course, I am being harsh, and it's not that simple. But it's a tough place for indie game developers to start.

Another thing—Indie game developers and fans mostly don't care for mobile games. If there is a mobile indie game, it's usually after the success on PC and as a port, maybe even created by a publisher. While trying to build a mobile game, I felt myself as an impostor, weirdly trying to associate myself with indie game developers but not feeling it. I felt a bit isolated and neglected. People who appreciate these games are heavily focused on PC and Steam.

The Sentiment

The idea of this game was born in February 2022. I was locked down visiting parents in Ukraine when Russia started a full-scale invasion. The airports were closed down, and the roads weren't safe anymore. Enlisting offices were full of volunteers. They couldn't process them all at once. And as we were hearing news of shelling and tanks marching, people started to do what they could. In many cities and villages, people were actually making the fire cocktails called Molotov cocktails. It was invented in Finland when the Soviet Union (Moscow, again) decided to invade it. They were ready to defend their city with what they had.

Molotov Cocktails in winter: What 1939 Finland tells us about Ukraine today

But while Ukrainians may be prepping Molotov Cocktails, this winter war is already different.

Atlantic CouncilKatherine Walla

Before that, I wanted to focus on games that did not involve violence. At least those where the player is not forced to inflict violence on other characters. Too much of it already. But after February 2022, I struggled to keep this thought. Territorial Defense was a type of a unit built from the civilians, who were released weapons to, to support the army in defending their cities. So, the inspiration for the game is quite obvious. Many heroes died back then. Unfortunately, many still do. So I wanted to do something else I could, and I decided to make a game to raise awareness and stimulate more donations to the Ukrainian cause. Or maybe to distract myself from the reality and keep myself busy. Considering the game's success, it is more of the latter, after all.

That was rough. Let's keep it like this. The worst part is that at the moment of writing these lines, it's still happening. Ukraine still needs your support, and our cities are still being shelled and people murdered.

--> DONATE TO SUPPORT UKRAINE HERE <--

The Development

In 2022, my dev partner Andrii and I relied on Unity for game development. We've built quite a bunch of different Unity-based game prototypes on our hyper-casual adventure and were quite confident in that.

As you can see from the Project View we used quite a lot of supplementary assets including GUI PRO Kit, Dreamteck Splines, Feel and so much more. Unity Asset Store is a dungeon full of treasures that one can scroll almost infinitely, especially during some discount events. It's also full of inspiration - you might find an asset around which you would like to build a game.

I did a few 3D models using Blender and some 2D assets with Procreate and Photoshop that I believe came quite well and fit the game perfectly, although I did not do it all myself, of course.

It might look like a simple thing, but for me, making this bottle from scratch that I managed to use properly—and it's a central element of the game—was an achievement.

I heavily used Asset Store for graphics as well and particularly I was impressed with the work of Synty Studio. One of the major asset packs I used was POLYGON City.

One of the other things I tried back in the day was using AI for generation. I wasn't going to rely on it heavily, but I was making a tutorial, and it felt a bit dry with a simple pop-up. DALL E was quite famous at the time, and I used it to create a character for the tutorial.

I wasn't super impressed by the tool itself; it was quite hard to tweak, and I wanted a quick solution. But in the end, I think it fits well enough for my free game. However, I would rather find a partner artist next time; it was a pure experiment.

One of the other things I really enjoyed working on was creating a special ability to call on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) inspired by the very popular Turkish Bayraktar that was sent to support Ukraine in the past.

I wanted to try doing something other than programming, as I am a professional programmer but always curious about the arts. So, I tried myself in Game Design. I did minor 2D/3D art for the game, did the UX design, and everything else, honestly. I tried a bit in marketing, but that's not worth mentioning.

We used Notion for the project documentation and tracking, and I was really impressed with the tool. It has a wide range of features that are more than enough for managing a small team. There, we also did all the work on Game Design—including competitor analysis, reference games, UI mockups, and, well, Game Design Documentation.

But for the icon I actually asked help from my friend Kate and I still think it came terrific!

Otherwise, I would have to use something I tried to make myself...

Another collaboration I am very proud of was with audio producer Vitalii Dernovyi; he is also the reason we used Wwise, who did the audio design for the game. This included most of the sounds and the main theme, giving the game an exciting vibe.

Territorial Defense Main Theme by Vitalii Dernovyi

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The game was released for both Google Play for Android and the App Store for iOS. However, my Google Play account was suspended for inactivity because I focused on my mental health instead of game development.

--> DONATE TO SUPPORT UKRAINE HERE <--

So what?

Remembering the whole process gives me a pleasant feeling of nostalgia. A lot of work was done there, and many hopes that I tried to suppress, and many things make me proud, nevertheless.

Ultimately, I produced another drop in the ocean of games people will never know about! For that, at least, I think I deserve to call myself a game developer. But that was much more of a self-discovery than a fun adventure. Tinkering with prototypes can be fun, but trying to build a product to show other people is work, and I didn't enjoy working after work. Perhaps I am too old and grumpy for that (but I know people older than me who enjoy this), or I am not as much of an enthusiast as stubborn, wanting to prove myself I can.

In the end, I think the dream is to find other people with whom you can share ideas and complement each other. And that's what I really liked—to engage with people who also thought it would be great to participate and make something, if not great, at least interesting or fun together.

But being a programmer and a bit of a sociopath, I mostly met other programmers, and the synergy was not always there. So, instead of getting the energy from the process, I was exhausting myself a lot. So, I needed to take a breath and a step back.

But that's me. I still love video games, tech, and stuff, though. And I constantly think, "What if I build this one game?".

So, believe in yourself and support Ukraine!