January 26, 2023 marks seven years since the moment I’ve left my job and decided to work for myself. At the moment of writing this, the company consists of eight people. You can find my last year’s summary here.

The Data

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Luna’s Fishing Garden has broken even in March 2022 and started turning in profit. Merchant of the Skies sales has decreased and dropped under sustainability range for the studio of this employee amount.

We’ve released Lazy Galaxy 2 in March 2022 (broken even and started bringing in profit) and Crown of Pain in Early Access (published by us, made by another Indie developer from Latvia; still in development) – but no major releases means that we essentially had to live from our savings.

I’ve started providing contracting services both from the studio (allowing developers I know take on small tasks) and by myself occasionally: but it’s not the main part of studio income.

Stories from the Outbreak

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Most of the year has been spent working on Stories from the Outbreak by all members of our team. This is closest I’ve been to dabbling with how “big studios” do things: the project has been in development for roughly 1.5 years (ready to be released on Mar 31) and had 10+ people working on it at some points.

When it comes to production quality and gameplay balance: this is going to be our best game so far.

I could not do as much programming as I used to do before, because I assumed the role of the producer, making sure the tasks are properly set and the team has everything they need in order to complete the game.

It’s both exciting and terrifying to work on something for so long without knowing the possible results. We’ve agreed that this is our attempt to do something bigger than we usually do: try to see if we can make a big, expandable game with world lore and vast potential for content updates and additions.

Studio Plans

The thing that would make sense business wise would be to keep making peaceful/wholesome games. We are going to do that later. For now, I’m very happy that we decided to take a risk and see if we can challenge ourselves to make something that we wouldn’t typically make. This is also our attempted step away from the usual aesthetics-first formula: don’t get me wrong, Elena and Zane are doing a great job making art for the game, but this is the first time in a while when the main driving force behind the game was the focus on great gameplay, supported by great art, and not the other way around. Whether this works out or not is a separate question.

Being a head of the studio

My thoughts are still the same as last year. Leading the studio requires consistency which I’m not always capable of, so I have to force myself to do things quite often, essentially making it similar to the office job. I have my day scheduled via calendar, but I often feel like I’m going against who I am. Discipline matters, but at one point I do wonder if I’d be better off making games for a few weeks, then taking longer rests to recover: it’s not really an option when you have people depend on you. I’m still observing how I feel and what (if anything) should be done about this.

ADHD

I got my ADHD diagnosis in March, 2022. It’s almost impossible to do so in Latvia: adults don’t get it and one of the two psychiatrists I’ve been to told me “it’s a made up thing so that wallstreet bankers can get meth”. I got lucky for finding a neurologist that took my issues seriously. I remember being moody / easily upset / anxious most of life, but treated it as a given and learned to suppress it over the years in order to fit in better.

Getting evaluated and having prescribed stabilizing medicine makes a difference. I’ve been able to regulate my emotions better and my quality of life has improved. I’m able to concentrate on my work and handle the business much better, I attended a first few concerts in my life, can form deeper connections with people because I can concentrate on the conversations (well, most of the time), I can actually stay in galleries and observe the paintings patiently and I can deal with anxiety being around people and in the loud events now. I can take more risks because making a mistake does not drive your guilt level to “I’m committing the worst crime ever” when you don’t even do something bad. My sleep has greatly improved. Overall, it happened with a lot of pain and grief from understanding what I’ve missed in my previous years of life, but also with a lot of hope to what comes next (maybe I should make a game about it ?).

You can read more about ADHD here. This book is pretty useful if you want to understand whether this is an issue for you and whether you should get serious about being diagnosed.

If anything: treat your mental health seriously.

What is Coldwild Games about?

Some time ago, I’ve read this piece by Douglas Rushkoff. It resonated with me and it explains something that I’ve been wondering about since my early twenties:

“More than anything, they have succumbed to a mindset where “winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way.”

This is why Coldwild Games gives 30%+ game profits to creators and employees who worked on our games. If the year was profitable, I take out roughly 5-10% as dividends. If we ever make a mega hit, I don’t think it would make sense to get the money for me alone: it’s not a huge corporation, every member of the team made it possible for the game to succeed. Why should I be the only one who reaps benefits of success?

To me, owning a company means building a sense of home. I think this is what many people do not fully comprehend: to make something feel like home, you need to invest in it. It makes sense to support the society and environment around you. This is your long-term investment into building a place you call home. It does not make sense to become rich when hardworking people around you are struggling to make ends meet.

Due to Russian aggression in Ukraine and both internal and external issues appearing: whether Latvia is going to be that home and whether this model is sustainable – only time will tell. I know I’ll be happy making games alone, but ultimately it’s very rewarding to do it among insanely talented and caring individuals.

Till next year.