Tyler Hillis

Hello!

For the past two-ish years I’ve been fiddling away at a game. Sometimes feverishly, other times absentmindedly.

Over the last eight-ish months, I really started to put my foot down on finishing the project.

As any creative can attest, getting trapped in the project graveyard is both common and maddening. So with this project, I said, “Nah, this one will see the light of day.”

And so it has!

FRENETIKA is now on sale on Steam and Itch.io. It’s a dark-fantasy roguelike fps. It’s pretty dang cool, if you ask me.

My career goal ever since I started working in the video game industry is to transition into design. However, without a robust portfolio, that goal is extremely tough to achieve. So making, finishing, and publishing a game was part of my plan to build out that portfolio.

I also managed to squeeze in some of my other interests into the game. Specifically, if anyone has followed my blog before, I like to write. And so, in the game, you can find lore pages hidden throughout the levels. Each one unlocks three chapters of a prequel Novella to the book. And if you find all five pages, the entire Novella will be unlocked in .epub format so that you can read it as an e-book outside of the game!

There is also an exciting update to the Novella that I’ll be talking about soon.

Back to the game itself, it has been a super challenging, rewarding, and exhausting project. I learned more about game design and programming than I have in the seven years I’ve been working in the industry. I collaborated with some awesome creatives that added their own flair to the project. And I did all this, while still working 40 hours a week and raising a terror of a toddler (not actually, he’s amazing in every single way…but he is in his toddler phase, so the terror title is warranted).

Finishing something – getting it out of the project graveyard – is a thrilling feeling. It erases those lingering doubts that constantly tell me I’ll never make anything worth while. It proves that I can make something, and that you just have to stay dedicated and work through the hard times.

FRENETIKA is far from a perfect game. But it’s a full-fledged video game that I made. And the next one will be better.