Hello everyone,
This week is pretty special for us as it marks the first year anniversary of Bishop Games! Indeed, we started this crazy adventure at around the same time last March.
Looking back, we made tremendous progress throughout the year and we are very proud of what we accomplished thus far. We entered this marvellous industry without much knowledge (aside from David who had worked in other studios in the past) and the initial concept of Light Fall looks nothing like what we have now.
From local and regional events such as the Pixel Challenge, «La soirée Jeux d’Ici» and the Montreal International Game Summit to international conventions like PAX South and East, we met so many awesome people along the ride. This is honestly the highlight of our year: meeting so many passionate fans, people that love video games as much as we do.
We’re also starting to get our name out there, which is a nice recognition for us. Light Fall has been Greenlit in just 11 days after reaching the top 30, out of 1720 games, and the studio has become certified developers for Sony. After the earlier months where we spent most of the time working on our own, without outside validation, it feels great to know that the community is interested in our game.
Failure is an essential part of development
In hindsight, failure can be greatly beneficial if used properly. At first, Light Fall didn’t have the Shadow Core nor the in-game narration. It was a pretty but unoriginal platformer. After we tried our luck at different indie contests, where we lost every time, we decided to take a step back and critically look at our game.
This was probably the best thing we could have done, because shortly after we came up with the in-game narration and implemented the Shadow Core as the game’s pivotal mechanic. So to anyone who starts a project out there, be it a video game or not, don’t be afraid to fail and rebuild from the ground up.
What’s coming for Light Fall?
For the past 3 weeks (since we came back from PAX East), we’ve been working on our Kickstarter campaign. We have thought about many cool rewards for the backers as well as backer achievements that will be unlocked as a group. For every 4 achievements unlocked, we will post a video of us doing a speed run of Light Fall in “extreme gaming conditions”. That will be fun… for you.
We also added two members to the team, a part-time artist and a part-time programmer. With their help, we are confident that we will be able to work quickly and more efficiently.
So once again, thanks for your support and stay tuned for the Kickstarter!
Cheers,
-BEN