Here’s the plan
I Am This Castle will require separate stages of development to complete.
As a Canberran, I am enormously proud to say that the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government supported me by accepting my grant application for Stage 1 of the game (the script), which allowed me to outline the entire story, and write the dialogue for the first Act of the narrative - enough to prototype the game.
Project planning the game will be an iterative process with multiple discrete bodies of work, and the dates provided are indicative until the project plan for each stage is finalised.
Stages with dates marked as To Be Confirmed (TBC) indicate the date range is an estimate only, calculated by me.
Project plans are most likely to be agreed through a grant deed of agreement with a government agency, or a contractual agreement with a publisher.
-
As a narrative-driven game, the story needs to be comprehensively written, workshopped, reviewed and finalised.
The pre-script source material for I Am This Castle is my own life story as a trans woman, which I distilled into a live community presentation in May 2022. In May 2024, I received the recording of this event, which I am in the process of preparing to share. The script of the game is a fictionalisation of my life. I am converting my real life experiences into a fairytale of analogies and metaphors that will entertain and emotionally move players from all walks of life.
I engaged fellow Canberra local Ylaria Rogers, of Heart Strings Theatre Company Pty Ltd, as a creative consultant to support me in workshopping and refining the script. Ylaria’s experience in directing and producing theatrical works for the stage has elevated the emotional engagement and creative delivery of the narrative.
Creation of the draft script was supported by the ACT Government and was completed between 29/01/2024 and 01/03/2024.
Work on bringing the script from draft to completion is ongoing.
-
I applied for grant funding to develop a prototype of the game in Unreal Engine 5, using the C++ programming language, while I continue to work part-time in the public service.
The prototype is a proof-of-concept of the game’s key, basic foundational elements which shows that the idea is technically feasible. The purpose of building the prototype is to provide evidence that the project warrants further investment and labour in order to refine the idea and continue its development.
-
If a working prototype is developed between January and June of 2025, then the next step is to refine and polish approximately the first 10 minutes into the first playable demo for playtesting and other distribution purposes.
Distribution of the demo would ideally be at physical games conventions across Australia, and through digital distribution online, such as GitHub, LinkedIn, Itch.io, Reddit and YouTube.
-
I expect to develop a vertical slice of the game in Unreal Engine 5, using the C++ programming language, while I continue to work part-time as a public servant.
The vertical slice is a playable demonstration of everything the game has to offer, refined to a level of sophistication such that a publisher who plays the game might agree to partner with me to complete major production on the game and support it through to commercial publication.
-
I expect to conduct major development of the game in Unreal Engine 5, using the C++ programming language, while I continue to work part-time as a public servant.
Major production includes all work required to bring the whole game up to, and in excess of, the level of refinement found in the vertical slice; major production is the completion of all art, design, programming, quality assurance, project management and pre-release marketing for the game.
-
I anticipate the publication of the game on a selection of digital distribution platforms in January 2028, such as Steam, the Epic Games Store, and itch.io.