Easing out of the 99% grind
Hallå pals!
Jonas here with another issue of Indie Notebook to get some ideas out of my noggin, and to inspire you to do the same.
I’m sort of gathering myself and trying to figure out how to spend my time.
I’ve worked nearly 100% on Surmount for more than 3 years so it feels kinda weird to not work on it that way anymore. Now I just spend a couple of hours on it per day, doing tweaks, fixes and responding to players. My brain is wired to think about the game and now I need to rewire it for what’s next, or rather now. Which is to start making some money, I’ve been burning through my savings for about a year (roughly, I think).
So I gotta focus more on finding and doing freelance work.
I already did this illustration for Aggro Crab’s game Another Crab’s Treasure! Which is an incredible game. Big recommend.
They reached out to me because we met at a game dev event in San Fransisco, someone over there liked this illustration I did a while ago. So I went with the same idea for this illustration.
I’ve got some more work lined up too, which is a relief. I’ll hold out and wait for the dust to settle on Surmount, then I’ll get more real about what game to work on next. I can’t help myself from thinking about ideas though, I’m so excited to work on something different. But for now I need to focus on freelancing, Space Deer and ofc Surmount.
I feel a bit like people expect me to want a break from game making, but honestly I love it so much, it’s so much fun. I would get right into the next thing if I didn’t have these other obligations.
I’m very psyched about getting to share my thoughts about my next projects here soon!
And I thought I might as well mention! If you know of anyone who could use my help with something - drawing, writing, 3D modeling, etc. Let me know or hook us up!
I could even do some more personal commissions if you’re looking for portraits or art for your youtube channel or something.
Mini Notes
📝 Article - Success means I get to do it again tomorrow
Honestly, I didn’t read this article. But I read an excerpt from it somewhere and the title says enough. I feel really lucky that I’m still motivated enough to want to keep going and that nothing’s really stopping me from doing whatever I want.
🐶 Figurines - Blind Alley figurines
One of the reasons I decided to reboot Space Deer was because I discovered Blind Alley a couple years ago. Seeing it made me think “wow, why did I stop doing this.”
And I’m so glad to see how beloved the comic is by its fans. Adam (the creator of the strip) got custom figurines made, and the fans at TCAF bought ém all up in one day. It’s so nice to see someone going full indie (as far as I know, no publisher involved) and still managing to do all these things. He commissioned a really good artist to hand make them, there’s a cool blog post about that here.
🕹️ Game - Animal Well
Cool to see a metroidvania without combat pulled off so nicely. Good game, fun puzzles, I liked exploring it, weird and spooky vibes. I played through it in three or four days but it feels like there’s a lot more I could discover in there if I would try, I only scratched the surface of the egg.
Panel of the week
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Thank you for reading Indie Notebook! The best way to support me right now is by getting/reviewing Surmount, or by sharing this newsletter with a friend.
Take care and have a creative week.
That's a dope illustration for Another Crab's Treasure. I have heard that it's good.
I just got Braid on the eShop yesterday but have yet to play it. It's been on my radar ever since it came out (ages ago) . Now it's on the Switch and I decided it is time.
Good to read that you're still passionate about game development, even after such a big project. Best of luck on whatever this new phase is going to be for you!
As I've already told you, I've completed just about everything in Surmount and really enjoyed it :)