As any person who’s worked on a game before will tell ya…a game can be worked on forever if you let someone. There’s a point where you have to stop yourself from adding anymore content and release what you already have.

Spirits of Metropolis was set to be released in September. Here we are, four months later, and I’m still working on the game. The game itself is completely finished; the bugs are being ironed out at this point. But something really bothers me. Something that I know I’m going to have to fix, and it’s something that will be hard for me. I have to rewrite the save structure.

Let me explain how the game works right now. Spirits of Metropolis uses the in-engine game saving structure that Game Maker uses. This means if I want the game to save, I just tell it to. Bam! Instant save. Couldn’t be simpler. This is how I save the game and levels created with the puzzle editor.

Let’s skip ahead a few days from now. I launch the game. Despite me testing it with a dozen or so people over the course of the last month, someone comes across a huge glitch that breaks the game. Normally, a game dev will prep a patch and release it. With the engine Spirits uses, this is impossible without breaking the game. If I fix something and create a new version of Spirits, old saves will not work. Not only that, but every puzzle level created by users will not work either. It would be like starting the game completely over from a players perspective and game content perspective.

So, the answer for me up to this point is…make sure the game is flawless before releasing it. And I’m confident that the game will be bug free by the time it’s out for sale. But the bad news for the game is that once it’s out, that’s it. There’s no way for me to expand the game anymore outside the puzzle editor. Normally that’d be ok with the free games I make, but for a commercial game, that’s unacceptable.

So, I have to rewrite the save engine. But let’s look at the benefits: the game will now have an auto-updater that will check online if there’s a new patch available. The game can be updated with new modes by me, and new content within the game. And I can keep improving the game post-release without fear of “breaking” anything.

I’ll have a blog post telling you my plans for downloadable content, but here’s the plan: Have Shifter be available by the end of January, and a new Extreme mode by March. All while people are enjoying the game. And yes, all downloadable content will be free.

So, does this mean another long delay? Not really. I’ve quit my job to focus on game making full time, so I won’t have any more interruptions while I make games. Plus I’m running out of money and need to get the ball rolling on the commercial side of Vertigo Games before I’m broke, hah. The rewrite shouldn’t take me more than twelve hours or so to do. And the benefits are enormous. It’s a difficult decision, but when you really look at it, the benefits completely outweigh any extra hours I have to put in. Awesome.