After 3.5 years of working on my first game on and off, its finally here.

Dyer Expedition will be released on September 19th at 19:00 CEST!

While I wish the game was more than it is, I\'m still very happy with the result and what is essentially my first ever finished game. Its very very close to my vision, even if that vision doesnt vibe with absolutely everybody. I know that. Be gentle in the reviews <3.

Bugs

I tried my best to fix the game breaking bugs I could find but speaking from experience, there will still be plenty that Im completely unaware of. If you find any, please report them on the [u]Steam forum[/u] or on [u]Discord[/u] .

Pricing

I previously announced that the price will be USD 9.99. I changed that to USD 7.99 because that seems more appropriate.\n

I know that Steams default regional pricing is off in some countries (e.g. Poland, which I already adjusted). If thats the case for your regional currency, shoot me a message and Ill adjust it to currently applicable exchange rates.

Native Linux Version?

This is probably a question only a few people will ask. I originally intended there to be a native Linux version, mainly because I daily-drive Linux myself. But having compared the native Linux build that Unity can produce with the Windows version running through Proton, it has become clear that the latter option is the superior one. Things just dont work properly with Linux builds straight out of Unity and I frankly dont have the energy to debug these problems when using Proton works just fine.

What now?

The game will obviously still receive bug fixes for the foreseeable future, but otherwise it\'s \"feature complete\".

An Honest Post Mortem (you can skip this part)

When I first started working on Dyer Expedition, I was at a crossroads in my life. Things ended up lining up in a way that allowed me to work on the game for six months uninterruptedly, under the condition that I start my own company and earn my own money after that period (its a thing in Austria). So, for six months game development was my full-time job and I loved it.

Because you cant really release your first (and frankly badly planned) game in just six months while still having to learn how Unity works, I had to prioritize other projects that were able to pay my bills; a step that I had anticipated and was mentally prepared for.

A thing I learned about myself in the last couple of years is that I do not have enough mental capacity to work on more than one long-term project at a time. I can only give one of them the attention it needs while the others suffer in productivity. Since DE was an unreleased and niche game, I had to put it on the back burner. Months went by without any real work on the game while I worked on other unrelated projects. One could argue that other people have released games while being employed full-time by grinding out 80-hour weeks. While I admire these people to an extent, I am not one of them. Doing that would inevitably lead to major mental health problems.

Another thing I learned about myself is that I absolutely loathe the solo indie dev grind outside of actual development. When I started out, the two pieces of advice I got repeatedly were advertise on social media and advertise in person at cons. None of these things come easy to me, and in fact, they were extremely exhausting.

So what now? Honestly, I dont know. I will continue to work on games on the side, this time shifting my focus to Godot. I want to try my hands on making a boomer shooter with some kind of twist I havent figured out yet (a portal gun maybe?). I also want to try making a party game with a low barrier of entrance; one that everybody can just pick up and play for ten minutes. I may even collaborate with a friend and make his game come to life. I also have an idea for a Lovecraftian horror game with a modern setting.

The one thing that matters to me at the end of this journey is that I have released a finished game because thats what I set out to do. Its an awesome feeling and one thing to tick off my bucket list.

Thanks for reading.

\nChris

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