It's been a while since I've wrote a blog here, so I figure I'd go ahead and share my current plans as far as game development goes.

As the title suggests, I'm going to be developing commercial games under the name of Uyamau Games. Uyamau Games will consist of only me for now. I'll commission any of the artwork/music I don't have the talent to do myself. In the future, I'd like to have some talented artists become a part of Uyamau Games. But we'll see if it ever gets to that point.

Uyamau is Japanese, meaning to show respect or to honor. The reason for this name is because of the 3 principles I'll abide by in order to respect the gamers.

No DRM

DRM historically has only made it harder for the customers who legitimately purchased the game, and not the pirates. So no DRM is a no-brainer. Plus, I personally believe that people vastly overestimate the damage done by piracy.

No Paid DLC

Absolutely no paid DLC. That's not to say that there won't be DLC for any Uyamau games, it's just that gamers won't have to pay for it. They already generously bought the game, trying to milk them for more is just plain insulting. This also applies to "in-app" style purchases, such as players being given the option to buy some in-game currency with real money. Absolutely horrendous.

No Sequels

Most games don't need full sequels, they just need updates and/or DLC. There are only two exceptions to this: Story-based games and games in which the sequel fundamentally changes the gameplay mechanics in a significant way. But even in these cases, Uyamau Games won't resort to sequels. Our story-driven games, if we genuinely feel the desire to continue their story even further, will receive a free update containing the continuation of the story. And games where we feel the desire to significantly alter the gameplay mechanics, will recieve the new mechanics in a free update but retain the old mechanics in some sort of "Classic" mode.

Anyway, that's the philosophy behind Uyamau Games. Uyamau's first game will be called Crimson Core, and it'll be for the upcoming OUYA console (which I'm surprised nobody's talking about on here btw), and will be 100% free, no strings attached. I figure that the console's already got a pretty solid theoretical install base of over 40,000 people once it comes out. If I can get even 10% of those people to try Crimson Core, then I think Uyamau Games will make a strong impression on them, which I hope will prove beneficial later on when I start releasing commercial projects under the moniker.

Crimson Core is going to be a story-driven 2D JRPG-style game, throwing the player into the lives of three separate characters with very separate paths: A farmer who is also a loving husband and father, a young soldier who believes in standing up for justness, and a convicted criminal with a deplorable past. But one thing ties them all together: Their desire to find the Crimson Core, a mythical object which is said to grant any one wish… in exchange for the wisher's life.

Crimson Core could very well be my magnum opus. Which isn't saying much, because well… I don't have any significant completed games. But Crimson Core is different, parts of its story are very personal to me. I'm definitely seeing this thing through to the end in some form or another.

I already have lots of ideas for projects after Crimson Core, but I won't go into detail as they're still just vague ideas floating around in my head. Once I'm close to finishing Crimson Core, I'll start fleshing out these ideas in detail. For now, Crimson Core's my primary focus.