Space Beast Terror Fright exits Steam Early Access

After many years I've finally decided it is time to release this little thing I built called Space Beast Terror Fright.

I can't say I really know how I feel about this; maybe this is what a 7 year pregnancy feels like. If course I never intended nor imagined that I would be working on this for so long, but as they say life does tend to get in the way.

From the original Greenlight submission to getting amazing press right off the bat, getting Greenlit in 2 weeks, realizing that I needed to quit my day job, finding an office, growing the team, shrinking the team, switching to working from home, shrinking the team some more, being homeless, to being forced to balance continued development with other jobs in order to pay the rent.

Then came the day my accountant started laughing at me because I was too afraid to check my bank account; that was when I realized that this thing was sort of working out and that I could do this full-time (albeit on a shoe-string). That was the day I decided that I would either succeed or be left standing in a really expensive crater.

Honestly this whole trip has been a coming of age story for me as a game designer. I've been in the games industry mainly as a programmer for many years, but over time I realized that I really do have an insanely opinionated creative agenda which eventually led me to starting nornware and trying to take myself seriously.

But it has been the interaction with the SBTF community that has been absolutely instrumental in pushing the game far beyond where it all started. The experience of "pants down" development of a product that has been both constantly functional and slowly expanding over all these years has taught me the value of balancing my own vision with the needs and desires of the actual players. And ultimately it has been all of you who have finally allowed me to emotionally lay my monsters down and realize that this game really has been finished for years now.

I stand today as a much more confident designer / programmer / director thanks to all of you. And there are still so many games left to make; there are still "worlds in there" for us to explore together.

sincerely, /johno