Today we’d like to introduce you to Sky Ives.
Hi Sky, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I spent a lot of time scribbling ideas and vague concepts for video games into various notebooks throughout my childhood.
In my early twenties, my closest friend made me swear to her that I would, one day, make something that people could actually play.
I didn’t think too much of that promise at the time, but when we tragically lost her a few years later, I knew that I had to get busy fulfilling it.
I coerced a couple of friends to help me realize this goal, and where I didn’t have friends with relevant experience, I hired someone at a criminally low wage and tricked them into becoming my friend.
We’ve been grinding away for a good while now and should be releasing our first title this year.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
We believed that we had pared down our intentions and expectations for this project appropriately, but development has still taken twice as long as anticipated.
Our budget doesn’t leave much wiggle room for bringing on additional hands, so the three core members often find ourselves wearing more hats than comfortable in order to get this game out the door. Hopefully, our struggle is rewarded in sales, but standing out in the flooded independent game marketplace is a challenge in its own right.
We are currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter to help with the costs of translations and porting the game to consoles, but even getting eyes on us there is proving tough.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I primarily work in pixel art. I enjoy making games that have an authentic classic arcade aesthetic, and I think I’m pretty good at letting limited color palettes and available space inform some of my design decisions.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
It honestly didn’t affect our production much. We had already been doing most of our work remotely, so things just kind of kept on. Being trapped inside with my work, I expected to get more done more quickly, but breaking down the work/life barrier completely isn’t really sustainable and led to some pretty close scrapes with burnout.
Pricing:
- 15 dollars for the game at launch
Contact Info:
- Website: arcapcreative.com
- Twitter: @NeonCaveman
