Time’s passed and I haven’t made any public updates, but I’ve been busy. The limbo was resolved; I was a final candidate, but the job went to someone with more domain knowledge. So it goes! I could absolutely have seen myself doing the job and finding success in that career path. Instead, as I told the friendly (really!) recruiter, thank you so much for the opportunity, and I’m going to make video games now!

For the past couple of months, I’ve been focused on setting up the actual business of Null Band Games. This has also included meeting the bureaucratic benchmarks of the startup program by completing training, meeting with a mentor, obtaining quotes, setting up licensing and banking, and a whole lot of paperwork. I am treating this as a professional endeavor from the outset; this may ultimately be a successful strategy, but it certainly is time-consuming.

So far, I’ve completed, roughly in this order:

  • Entrepreneur Readiness Quiz
  • Skills Assessment
  • Support System Worksheet
  • “The Why” Worksheet
  • Vision Board/Vision Statement
  • Business Concept Outline
  • Target Market Worksheet
  • Competitive Comparison Chart
  • Competitor Data Collection Plan
  • Marketing Message Outline
  • Pricing Strategy
  • Marketing Expenses Strategy Chart
  • Target Market Comparison
  • Product & Service Description
  • Business Concept Feasibility Assessment
  • Business Model Canvas
  • Business Strategy
  • Business Plan

There have also been a few LinkedIn and Zenva Academy courses to add to my overall understanding. I’ve accidentally done hours that would count towards my project management professional certification, if I had it.

I also worked on the Advent of Code 2025 for a bit, which was a fun distraction. I’m sure not many people tried doing it in GDScript.

Within that, there hasn’t been a lot of time to actually focus on working on the game. I’m OK with that as I’m creating a foundation that supports the actual game development. I am proud of the Business Plan; it’s quite thorough and well-researched.

So, what’s next? A fair amount. I’m still doing some back-office work, hooking up the wires behind the domain, setting up project management, and getting started on a formal Game Design Document (GDD) by the end of January ‘26 before I make any more progress on the prototype I was working on. That way, I’ll have thought through the core mechanics, hooks and differentiators before I jump into the increasingly crowded roguelike deckbuilder space.

Thanks for your curiosity about this. I knew this process would be hard, and it is, but so far it hasn’t been a wall, just a long slog. I put this in the same mind space that I do open-source software - “the cost of open-source is time,” and I am spending a lot of time on setting up the business. I am going to take a swing at doing my own marketing, although that is going to be my weakest point and the most likely reason I would work with a publisher.

I’ll do my best to be transparent about how this is going. When I get a bit closer to having a coherent product, I’ll set up a Discord. In the meantime, I’m on Bluesky if you want to follow more casually.