It's Live!

Enfora Star has been released!

For two years, I worked on this project and finally I got to press the release button on Steam. It was an exciting, but somewhat unrealistic moment.

I was relieved, but at the same time I was very nervous. I was only hoping that I had tested enough and the game would not crash. However, it seems to be very stable.

So with a few lines of code, a few pixels here and there, and in two years you get from this:

to this:

Last minute updates

The end of October and the whole of November has been a bit hectic. Many test builds and test runs have been run, and every time I seemed to find a new bug.

But, even so I managed to add one last thing to the game, and it was the enemy detector icons. So now player can see enemies not just from the minimap, but from the edge of screen too! This helps a lot with finding the enemies from the map and hunting them down.

Otherwise, I have just been doing bug fixes and improving already existing features.

But I think I should do a small recap how this all started. If you have followed this blog or just want to read how the game ended up. Skip and scroll a bit down!

How the journey began?

Let's do a short recap of when and how the project started. The very first code pieces I wrote for this game actually go back to 2020-2021. Back then, the project was named Top Shooter. The idea was to create a simple top-down shooter, with simple geometric shapes. I created movement, shooting, dash, minimap and enemies for the project and after that it was "forgotten", and it was like that until November 2023.

I had worked on another project for a while, it was a horror game, but I started to notice that a 3D game could be too much work for the first commercial game. Then I remembered this old Top Shooter project.

I struggled a bit to figure out which one I should continue, and in the end, I decided to go with Top Shooter, now known as Enfora Star.

Did I make the right choice? Maybe not, because horror game could be much better commercial game as a solo-developer, from the marketing and sales perspective. So maybe I did my first mistake there, but I don't know if I would write this release post today if I had made that choice.

But, Top Shoo... I mean, Star Defend... Enfora Star, is now released and has evolved a lot from that starting day.

The Blog

At the end of 2023 I was thinking that I should start marketing this game early on somehow. Social media was not really my thing, and it was too early to think of Steam pages. So I thought, devlog or devblog would be a nice middle ground.

I did not want to pay a monthly fee though to any blog services, and I had worked as a front-end web developer for a while. So I decided to create my own web page for this.

And that's how this blog was created! The only thing I had to buy was a custom domain, but that was very cheap in the end.

Was this blog a good idea for marketing purposes? I think not. I do not track traffic of this website, so I do not have any specific numbers how much people visit here. But, I think the traffic is very minimal.

I also noticed very soon that if you want to keep a devlog of your project you really should put a lot effort for your posts. I think sometimes I just put in the minimum effort for the posts, even though I just published a post once a month.

So maybe in the end, not the best way to market your game. At least now I know, these blogs really take time and effort.

Let's end the history lesson, and start from the successes

First of all, I made a game! And 98% of it is self-made. My wife made one graphical asset to the game, so all the credits to her for that! I also debugged one regex issue with AI and asked for help to create that regex, so some points to the AI too! Before you judge, go and try to figure out regex things yourself! ;)

And in general, solo developers don't make their own music, but I did, so maybe we are even.

Second, the game is really close to what I had planned. Of course, many compromises and plan changes were made. But overall, the game feels as planned.

I really tried to get old school retro game vibes, and I have heard that Enfora Star really gives them.

I also founded my own game company, Haapa Games, even though I have to work on a day job too.

Learnings

I learned to do basic-level pixel "art". So in the future I think I can do simple pixel art games and get better at that. I have also learned to create some sort of music with FL Studio.

Today, I know how Steam operates and how to handle a game project and timetable my doings. So I think I have grown a lot from the starting point as a game developer.

I also now recognize the importance of scope in the projects. This is really, really important, especially, if you work alone. The next project will be much smaller, and I will not work on that for two years. One year maximum, maybe less.

And do some research before you start your project! I noticed too late that Enfora Star might not get much interest from the masses. But maybe more on that in the "Failures" chapter.

I spent a long time testing Enfora Star. Over three months, and I think it was a good call! So take time when doing your testing!

Failures

So I already mentioned that Enfora Star did not catch much attention from the masses and that seems to be the sad truth.

I really didn't get much attention from Reddit, X, BlueSky, YouTube or anywhere, and the main reason is unknown to me.

But I think one reason is that the game is not so appealing compared to other games in the same genre, and I mean graphical things.

Some people even compare this to free flash games, but I'm not sure if that's a bad thing? Because in the end, I was looking the retro-ish vibes, and for some people, those games are "old-school".

Maybe top-down shooters are somewhat oversaturated for now. As I said, why I didn't go with the horror game... ;)

Marketing is also not my strongest point, and I still kind of hate posting things on social media. I have gotten a bit better at that, but I don't know. I could go without them. And maybe this is one reason why my posts don't get much attention(?)

But, silver lining: I once said to myself during this project, that even if this game only sold one copy, I'd be happy. So, well.. :)

So marketing was, and still is, the hardest part of the project. Maybe the artistic things like drawing too, but I enjoy doing my own style now and I'm eager to learn it. So it doesn't feel such a chore.

Godot Showreel 2025 was also a failure and disappointing for myself, because I was really hoping to get in there. Well, maybe next time!

The End?

So is this the end of this blog? I think so. I think this blog has done its part. Enfora Star is released and there is no purpose anymore to update this blog. But, I'll keep this here at least for a while as a memory!

I want to encourage you to try out your own game projects if you have one! Don't quit your job, you'll find the time for the project elsewhere. Just remember, it is never going to be easy, but there are a lot good times and remember to have fun!

Thanks to you all who supported me on this journey! Thanks to all Alpha and Beta testers, and my wife for helping me to get this done!

Keep building up games, indie game scene is really thriving right now! And if you like retro-ish space defender shoot'em ups, you know which game to try out! ;)

Farewell, and Happy Holidays!

Thanks for reading!

Teemu, TheAspen

PS. The about page have been under constructions for all these two years, and I think it will stay on that way. ;)