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Hey folks, I've been meaning to do some kind of post mortem-ish thing on the development of Yes, Your Grace for a while, as I found these kind of threads very inspirational while working on the project.
I hope you will find this useful.
RTs appreciated #IndieGameDev
I hope you will find this useful.
RTs appreciated #IndieGameDev
YYG started as a v large project, but with time I've learned that the trick is to work with what you have. You don't need to know everything and it's ok to make mistakes. Hard work is not enough and you need a little bit of luck as well. Games are hard yo
5 years ago, I had no clue what programming is all about. I was convinced I'm not cut for this and that I will never be able to get anything done myself. I was trying to hire a programmer, but quickly gave up when I saw how much it would cost. Doing it myself was the only option.
And that was the best decision I ever made. I started with baby steps. Various engines. Eventually landed on AGS and I started working on a small adventure game. To my surprise, I found scripting very satisfying and soon I wanted to challenge myself with more difficult tasks.
After months of looking through forums, watching tutorials, I was able to design and program a simple demo of a heist game. It was very much Papers, Please inspired. Single screen, work for a bank, make transfers, all while trying to rob that very bank. I still dig the idea.
After a while, I realised that bank heist game shared a lot of similarities with Yes, Your Grace. I realised if I pushed myself a bit more, maybe I could program YYG myself.
Around this time, I was working as a freelance pixel artist. I got lucky and I managed to get a gig on what later became known as @PanicBarn's Not Tonight. I pushed my pixel art skills to maximum and I've manged to create a demo level that later dictated the style for the game.
At this stage I was working on YYG after hours. Slowly, but surely making progress with programming, while polishing and honing my skill with pixel art during day for Not Tonight. It was tough 18 months.
I've prepared the pitch: funding, goals etc. All timed well together with NMR just realising NT. All of a sudden I've had a commercial game released under my belt (NT), which boosted my credibility up, not to mention the new gained contacts. Got lucky.
After months of hard work, I've managed to create a 1h long demo of Yes, Your Grace in AGS.
All is great, but games industry is a business, and sadly AGS isn't the most future proof engine, meaning it's not easy to port the game to other platforms. This was a bit of a back step, but after talking to publishers, I decided to port the game to Unity.
I used Adventure Creator plugin as a base and re-did 1h demo from AGS to Unity. At all times it felt like it will be impossible, but with tackling one problem at a time I pulled it off in two months. https://adventurecreator.org/
Adventure Creator is a great plug in, especially for point and click adventure games, but there was still a lot of functionality I would need to code myself. AGS's custom scripting language is very similar to C#, so I guess I got really lucky here too.
After porting the game, the deal with NMR was secured, and then it was all about production. V quickly I realised I won't be able to upkeep with making everything myself. @cebulaalina, my finance was just finishing her degree, and she was able to start helping me with the game.
Alina was always at my side and believed in me and the project, but this time I needed more help. She quickly picked up a broad range of skills and it wasn't too long before she was helping me full time with design, writing, implementation and art. 
I got v lucky.
I got v lucky.
YYG is very story heavy and there's a lot of text. I've never thought I would be cut for writing, and never written any professional articles, not to mention books or novels. Also, English is my second language.
To tackle this I have started reading many online guides, blogs and watching a lot of YouTube tutorials. @jennamoreci's channel is particularly good. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_fcv9kBpDN4WWrfcbCrgw
I'm not great with grammar, and that's a big struggle for me even after finishing YYG. That's why @luke_vincent1 proved to be super helpful. He was on the project since the beginning and always made sure our wording is technically correct.
Music is where I had to draw the line in terms of what I can do myself and instead, I left this part of gamdev to other people.
Originally we had Filipe Alves who did amazing soundtrack for the game, but after five years, people's circumstance can change, and we had to get more help.
That's where @DamionSheppard stepped in with his amazing sound effects. I worked with Damion on NT and it was clear to me that his skills helped elevate my pixel art to a new level. It was a no brainer for me to ask him to work with us on YYG as well. I bless the day he agreed.
Last piece here is a folk-metal band @Merkfolk I found them through my Spotify Weekly, and was a big fan ever since. I didn't think they would want to work with us & was too afraid to ask. One day I bit a bullet, sent them an email and they agreed. Sometimes you just need to ask.
All of this is just a fraction of the development story, but if any of you are currently going through problems in gamdev yourself then maybe you can find this inspiring/useful. If I've learned anything over the years, is that anything is possible you just need to be persistent
I wanted to give up on the project many times, but I've stuck with it & it's the best decision I've made. Me and Alina are starting to work on smth new, but the burnout is still in the air. Hopefully the future projects won't be as bumpy, but I believe we can pull anything off 
Lastly, I just wanted to thank everyone who supported us throughout this journey. Family, friends and especially @RaveofRavendale and @nomorerobotshq team. Thank you for trusting us and believing in our small game http://bit.ly/YesYourGrace
http://bit.ly/YesYourGrace
