Wow!!!
What a wild and triumphant ride. I think it's easy to say now that the game is an incredible success, looking back at the outcomes and legacy of it. I still get fan art and mail about the game - it's obviously continuing to resonate.
The part that I'm happiest about, though, is seeing the people who helped me to make this go on to do amazing things - multiple of the writers on this game are now narrative directors or senior narrative designers on bigger games, and some of the things they work on make me green with envy. I'm not going to list everyone here because there's a lot and I've put up the posters.
The music, composed by Ryan Ike, is constantly mentioned when people are talking about their favorite video game tracks. Until it was reprinted recently the vinyl was going for like $300 on discogs! I think we're still probably one of the few games with an original gospel song on the soundtrack.
The art crops up everywhere too, Kellan Jett's amazing work there really helps the game to stand out, plus the realization of that in 3D by Lauren Cason, and the continuation of that work from Serenity Forge, plus contributions by several other talented artists.
And it's not just them - one of the voice actors (a first-time video game performer!) is in the middle of a world concert tour, filling arenas! Glad we could be such a launching pad for him.
But actually I'm really proud of everything we made. What a weird cool important game. Thanks to the talented writers, thanks to Laura Michet for being an incredible editor and more, thanks to Serenity Forge for all their hard work with the original title and the console release, and thanks to Good Shepherd for publishing a bleak narrative game about the failures of the American dream.
I was (infamously, unfortunately) down about the game's commercial prospects soon after release, but while it's true it didn't make me independently wealthy, it's actually been a very successful game even in that metric - certainly far better than the vast majority of games, and better than I think I should have expected!
I wrote a post-mortem a few months after it came out but that was incorrect; it should instead have been a post-partum because the game continues to be played and loved and discussed, even five years after its release. And it might very well keep being played for another five years.
Thanks, everyone! I hope you find what you're looking for.
It's not anything I haven't said before but it's all collected in one spot and wrapped up neatly.
