I promise myself to devote serious time to game development every year and I am tired of letting myself down so I dug through all my unfinished, unplayable, overambitious games and picked something to actually release. I finally decided on Nightwork, a side scrolling pickpocket simulator I made in December of 2016.

In Nightwork you played as Basil (previously named Harold), a thief trying to make ends meet. Each level was to have a progressively more demanding amount of money needed, with you the player thieving from the other people hanging out on Basil’s street. Each NPC had five unique items that could either be sold, discarded, or in some special cases, interacted with. Every time you steal your suspicion meter raises, and once it reaches an alert, police would take pursuit. Getting caught was an instant game over.

I couldn’t get all the mechanics to work at the time, and to be honest, the writing was awful and some of my ideas for a “fun” pickpocketing game were a little underdeveloped. After a week of brainstorming I think I have a simple concept that would work well for a casual game that I can complete in six-months. The original was made in Adventure Game Studio, a free, point-and-click oriented engine but, as I’d like Nightwork to be released for PC and mobile*, Godot seems like the best choice for this project. I’ve also moved the game world from something loosely based on reality to be part of the world building I’m working on for my long-term projects.

So, right on the crest of this so called indiepocalypse I’m diving headfirst into the fray! I'm not sure how far I will take things with Nightwork specifically, but I hope to share the experience with you, potentially inspiring some others along the way as I have been by so many before me. :)