Inaria Post-mortem

Viridian Games’ Anthony Salter has written a post-mortem blog post for his recently-released indie RPG Inaria. It’s an interesting read, even if you’ve never heard of the title before. Here’s a snippet:

1. I should not have made this game.

Or at the very least, I shouldn’t have made it right now. This is the premier game for Viridian Games. The premier game should have been flashy, punchy, and most importantly, unique. From a business perspective, this is the worst game I could have made a generic-looking game in a genre already well-covered by at least two other companies. But I really, really wanted to make it, and I felt I’d have a leg up because I was starting with the codebase from Inaria Original, but that ended up not helping me at all as I rewrote everything about the game. Which leads to.

2. Lack of middleware.

I’ve got this really, really, really bad habit of wanting to write every line of code that goes into my games. I don’t have to do that. Indeed, I shouldn’t do that. Using a middleware system like Gamemaker or Ogre3D would have shaved tons of dev time off, cost me absolutely nothing and almost certainly improved the game. I’ll be finding appropriate middleware for everything I make from now on.

Rampant Games’ Jay Barnson felt the need to write a short comment on the post-mortem in a blog post highlighting the piece:

I disagree with his first point, but then it’s something he’d know more about that me. I don’t know that the other (first game) would have ever made it out of the door. Maybe it would have, sure, but I suspect Inaria was a good stepping stone and an entertaining game to boot. But I’m not privy to his sales data, and lacking a demo (and being on the short side) probably hurt.

As to point number three (not enough content) I would ask if it’s too late to expand on this? How about an update? Give some of the dungeons an extra level or three. Make more traps / secret doors. Add some additional, more dangerous monsters. How much could the game be improved in 2-3 weeks?