Well, the future I mentioned in my last post is here, anyway. I’ve been working on a new game, a new biochemistry game and it is a tower defense game about nutrition. This is the third biochemistry game I’ve started making in my nights and weekends, and well, I don’t want it to become just another prototype.
So I am going to blog about it, make videos, stream games, and start a Patreon site. I’m hopefully going to be closer to you, my biochemistry/science/nature game community, and I hope I get rewarded by feeling closer to you, too. In addition to community, perhaps we’ll also gain a 1 or 2 hundred dollars a month. With that money I’ll pay my tiny, freelance team of superheroes to code, draw, and audiate my games. That’s Tom Miller on audiation, everyone!
Tom has been along for all three of the last 3 years of prototype development. He joined up with me while I was still working on the Tablet version of Immune Defense. He’s made some frantic, endless runner mobile music for Speedy Cell, which is actually an endless phagocytosis game. He created really lovely music that envelops the player into the bustling community of proteins on the cell surface in NanoCrasher, a VR racing and shooting game on the surface of a phagocyte. And lately, Tom has been cranking out funky music to accompany the player on their quest to efficiently digest whatever crazy food the body ingests next, without letting its die from diabetes or gout, or atherosclerosis, or hypoglycemia, or diarrhea, or depression…. OMG??? digestion makes for a Sweet Battle! We don’t even have a video yet for Sweet Battle.
I am doing this for Tom. I’m doing this for Max Tibbits, who is coding Sweet Battle, he’s currently working on the UI element that will show the player which meal is coming next and how long till it hits the mouth….! I’m doing it for whomever we find to draw some glucose, fructose and galactose molecules, their receptors, their digestive enzymes and makes it all look gamey, useful, approachable and cool. I am doing it for you, too. You Molecular Jig fans who have been so patient.
I’m committing to working Saturdays and Tuesdays (after work). On these days I will be designing the game levels, researching the biochemistry, working with Max to create a task list that will suffice to create a new testable build without being too much, and working with a science communicator to create a set of deliverables that will make Amylase and Glucose look cool while functioning in our Unity scene…I will post videos of me ranting about what makes a fun game, why biochemistry is so fun, and most likely I will rant about why understanding the fundamentals of biochemistry are so vital to every single human being. (Spoiler, it’s because it’s your body!)
We don’t need a huge amount of money to make a game. a Patreon with 100 people contributing $3.50 each month would be enough to keep my tiny team busy for all their available hours. None of the money will go to pay me. I’m in it because I just can’t seem to stop!
I love you all. Thank you for your support. I will be back here in a few days to announce the Patreon page. I think I have finally figured out how to stream games Twitch @Melanie_MolecularJig. I will post videos at You Tube, And yes, I will eventually share Tom MIller’s amazing biochemistry game tunes.
Sounds exciting–Go Melanie and team!