New shades of doubt.

I have so much doubts about Bientôt l’été that it’s funny. It’s so bad that I just want to finish it, publish it, walk away from it and start working on a new project.

That’s the problem with these long productions. You have so much time to think about many things. And the world doesn’t stop either. The world in which we invented Bientôt l’été does not exist any more. It’s already an anachronism.

Earlier I was plagued by doubt about the strangeness of this project. And I was kicking myself asking why I couldn’t make something nice and normal for a change. Now I’m leaning towards the other side. Maybe Bientôt l’été still contains too many conventions, maybe it tries too hard to be liked, maybe I didn’t take things far enough.

The concept of notgames has definitely added clarity to my thinking about design. But it’s not easy! It’s not easy to ditch a decades old tradition -that was itself based on a centuries old tradition- in favor of something new, a new use that fits this new medium better. I guess it’s only normal that this is a slow process that involves a lot of failure. And I’m so happy that we’re not doing this alone.

Because of this, the new doubt expressed above is ultimately a positive doubt. Finally a context is beginning to appear in which we actually have some competition. Several developers are doing things along similar notgames lines. And it’s actually refreshing to have to wonder if our work will hold up next to theirs. Will it be good enough?