Monthly Memoirs - February 2024

February 2024 has been a big month for Upbeat Galaxy Games. Indie game development has a lot of mechanisms that need to be put in place and maintained outside of actually creating the game. Every decision has a chance to take a studio in a different direction, and not every direction is a good one. This is the first month of Upbeat Galaxy Games, and already there has been so much learned. This is our studio launching point and I am happy to share the highlights for this month.

TLDR;

• Submitted to Pixel Pitch

• Created Websites

• Started Blogs

• Started Social Media

• Created Mascot and Theme

• Check out Frontline Fantasy Development Update

Pixel Pitch

I am very happy to say we have submitted our game Frontline Fantasy to Pixel Pitch. The process was much easier than I thought, though it still took time to get all the necessary material created. Submitting to Pixel Pitch compelled us to gather the necessary materials we would eventually need, for which we are grateful.

We now have:

• Websites

• Pitch deck

• Game Design Document - 1 page

• Detailed Game Design Document - Multiple pages

• Business License

Even if we don't get picked, we have the materials that can be refined and sent to other publishers in the future.

Blog Posts

Along with the created websites, we started adding blog posts regularly as a way to give back and connect to the indie game community. For the first couple of weeks, there will be one post a day, but in the future, the schedule will change to at least 1 blog post a week. Blog posts are used in conjunction with X (formerly Twitter) as a jumping-off point for discussions. Though they are probably considered an old-school way of using the internet, because of a busy schedule, they are what works for us.

Social Media

An X (Twitter) account @upbeatgalaxy was also created this month with the goal of consistent posting and updates. This is still a work in progress and also not the best form of social media for marketing, but it is what fits with the schedule.

There are plans to look into YouTube and if there is a time-efficient way to make videos, you can expect that in April

Numbers

This month we have 0 followers and the goal for next month is to have more than that. The necessary research into social media has not been done yet and we do not have a vertical slice to showcase. Both research and the vertical slice should be complete by the end of the month.

Social Media and Marketing cut into development time, so it has to be balanced to meet our timeline goals. It is an important part of game development but it will be easier when we have a vertical slice to post and market.

Mascot and Theme

Throughout the site, you will notice many images of an astronaut wearing sunglasses and headphones. This image combination is a general mascot and theme. The cartoon on the home page is the main dude (name pending).

More Numbers

I like using numbers and stats as a straightforward way to track progress. Since this is the first month the numbers are low; as to be expected. It's good to start keeping track of these things and compare them as we go to see where we are improving and what we can work on.

Conclusion

February was a great month full of both expected and unexpected accomplishments. More things were created than I planned for the business side of game development. New processes were implemented and more plans were added. Included with the new, is new responsibilities and research to juggle with game development. This is a great starting point and it's very exciting to imagine where it will lead.

For details on how Frontline Fantasy (the game currently in development) is going, check out the February Developer Update