2019 in review
Looking back, I have mixed feelings about this year. On the one hand, we did some great stuff:
Completely redesigned the avatar, and made her more personalisable and interactive than ever. You can now customise your agent's face and body type, turn her around for a rear view, give her tattoos and piercings, get her hair wet, etc.
Implemented the Lifepath. You can now create a unique back story and intelligence career for your agent, and play through some sexy university scenarios.
Created the SURPS rules, which turns the game into a functioning RPG with stats, skills, dice rolls and XP.
Improved lots of existing systems (including the notification system created by Hyneman, the scalable avatar and other visual improvements created by Lara, and lots of bug fixes by Tommygun).
On the other hand, I know I'm not the only one who's disappointed that the game isn't further along. I think everybody sees Female Agent's potential, once we get to open world Bangkok (repeatable gameplay loops, with new locations, activities and side quests added in each update) – but the game's biggest problem is, and has always been, slow implementation.
I've been thinking seriously about how to increase the development speed. One of the big things I need to make better use of in 2020 is the community – you guys have great insights, and I believe that consulting with you more regularly can speed things up overall (by helping me get to the right solutions faster).
I wrote some analysis that I want to put out to spark a discussion on how we'll improve things in 2020. I was going to publish the first piece tonight, but "Anatomy of a Failed Sprint" is too maudlin a topic for New Year's Eve. (I am feeling kind of maudlin at the moment, but that's at least partly due to listening to mid-90s Faith No More on repeat).
So I'll publish that tomorrow, and just end 2019 with something that doesn't make me feel maudlin at all: a heartfelt thank you to everyone with an interest in my little video game, and especially to all patrons, past and present – your support for the game changed it forever.
Happy New Year, everyone. ☺️ I hope 2020 is your best year yet, and not just because your agent is finally going to get to Bangkok.
Comments (4)
Have a great 2020 Crush ;-), you and all your team.
The communication is so neglected by many others, or they fail to be personable about it and talk about failures as well as successes. It's something that works well for you and makes people less inclined to criticize. Keep it up. (Ooops, meant this as a reply to above)
Allow me to say that your unflagging transparency has always made me very comfortable that you have been doing everything as you should, and making tremendous progress. Yes, your ambition has grown along with the progress, leaving you perhaps further from your new goals at the end of this year than you were from your goals at the end of 2018, but all things considered, you’ve exhibited a wonderful balance of practical focus on getting the work done and periodic steps back to review direction and vision.
Yes, all the communication from Crushstation means a lot. Maybe I prefer that the project would've spent time doing some other work than what they sometimes did, but he hasn't by any means wasted his time. Maybe some draconian overlord is needed sometimes to tell Crush that enough is enough and not nitpick more on a specific detail, but I see no risk on this turning into Duke Nukem Forever ☺. The groundwork is mostly done, so look at it on the bright side. This game will be better for it, and if (which I hope) they make the next game with the same engine, all heavy lifting has already been made!