SQYD.studio

Joel and I have been working on Watch Out for Goblins! for around three years now. Let me say upfront, I am immensely proud of what we’ve been able to create. I think the WOFG! Demo is fun to play. As a developer I realize my bias, but I’m not sure there’s another game that’s quite like it. I think it stands out from other games in its genre while also being similar enough to be approachable. It’s all the things we want it to be: fun, funny, kinetic, and carefree. I believe it’s a good promise of what the full game could be with more development. 

But all this remains to be seen- we are approaching a stress test. WOFG! Demo will be launching soon and we are planning a marketing push to coincide with Steam’s NextFest in October. It’s time to take all our hard work, put it in front of the public, and see if our little goblin game can find its audience. 

As proud as I am of all we’ve managed to accomplish, I’m also very nervous about seeing how players react to it. This is a normal part of the creative act- most artists are nervous when it’s time to show their work. There’s more to it though- our scope creep with this project is pretty high. We have a plethora of ideas for content we want to create for WOFG! and the list only grows with every day of development. We hope this game will find an early base of supporters, people who are excited by the idea of what WOFG! can be and who are willing (and able) to buy into an early access project by an independent team of two in the year 2025. That seems like a big ask, but when I have fun playing the demo it seems more reasonable. At some point very soon, we will know. It’s out of our hands.   

If NextFest goes well, if WOFG! finds an audience of people excited to support it as it grows and evolves, that’s excellent! It means we can continue to do exactly what we’ve been doing- making our wacky physics game with ambition and care. If we don’t find that early audience I’ll be disappointed, but I’ll understand. It means that not as many Steam users think like Joel and I as we expected. We will scope down our ambitions and release a smaller version of WOFG! than we’d like, because we are bringing this game to market in one form or another. 

Whatever happens, I’m proud of us. I’m proud of the WOFG! Demo. More so, I’m proud of all the things we’ve learned over the years of creating it. I know now that we have all the skills we need to make a game. I also know that there’s no way we are going to give up on game dev- nothing else I’ve done in my life has been so fulfilling or rewarding, and I couldn’t ask for a better creative partner than Joel. No matter what happens with the WOFG! Demo next month we will be able to take everything we’ve learned forward into the future of SQYD.studio. We’ve already done good work, and we are just getting started. 

But I’m still nervous about NextFest. 

Because I’m not done with these goblins yet.

And I think there are people out there who agree with me.

But we will have to wait and see.

Not long now.

Watch! Out! For! Goblins!