Swimming Against The Current

One project I've recently started is the prospect of creating a game, from scratch. I could do this purely for kicks but the wealth of indie-friendly shopfronts that iOS, iTunes, Steam and the XBLA Indie Store have produced a strong desire in me to try and monetise the project.

I'm not a particularly frugal person but myself and my family survive on a pretty damn modest income. It really wouldn't take many sales to keep us going for a month or two. Hell, if I could rack up the equivalent of six months wages then I'd consider sacking off the full-time job completely and going into development and writing full-time.

I have my game ideas mapped out and I'm trying to shovel as much C# knowledge into my head at the moment (albeit in a very disorganised manner - I think I'm hoping that it'll stick by virtue of osmosis or something). All it'll take now is the awkward task of actually putting fingers to keyboard and writing some bloody code.

As for development and release platform, I've opted for Windows and Windows Phone 7. This might sound like a weird decision to most but it was by far the cheapest platform to get going on. Developing on iOS demands a Mac and that's something I can't stretch to right now. However, a Windows 7 PC suitable for development purposes only set me back £130, which is a cost I can most definitely live with. The development tools are all free too, and learning materials are plentiful. I just need to buckle down and get on with the task itself.