Hello, dear fans and supporters of the Ambient Project.
This is Dreamy speaking, the lead and sole programmer, game-designer,
modeler, lead level designer, UI designer, lead VFX designer,
lead writer and the project manager of the game - Ambient White.
Many positions eh? When I started this project, I was foolish enough to believe one person could
occupy all of those and many more positions and develop a game of the quality our fandom deserves.
The game called Ambient White was the dream of an 18-year old kid, filled with passion...
a lot of passion dedicated to the fandom he loves and the idea,
the visualization of which you’ve seen a lot on this channel.
This kid was experienced enough to produce parts of the game, but not aware of the scale of such a
project and the time it would take to turn this vision into a finished product. Well... maybe
he was aware of how hard it would be. But that didn’t stop him from doing everything by himself.
His... my determination might have been the whole point of this nickname “Dreamy”.
And I am still Dreamy. A lot has changed in the last 6 years. I’m 24 now, and I am still Dreamy.
Since I started working on the project I have been learning every single day about how to make games,
and encountered many challenges in the development of this project.
Many technical, concept and game design issues were new to me and the ALBD team, and hard to
manage with people across multiple time zones with different lives. That said I’ve acquired extremely
useful, inspiring but harsh and unforgiving experience in managing a team of volunteers.
The ALBD team and I have been through many different cycles of development,
producing amazing work, but often ending up with very rough and unfinished sections of the game.
Well... to be fair, the actual game part with all of the gameplay and visuals was 95%
on me, because we didn’t ever have any level and game designers except me
and programming with volunteers was a faulty practice. Anyway,
I’ve finished college and obtained a degree in game design, I’ve worked in an interesting
variety of studios and teams and for the past year specifically I’ve been developing and managing the
production of Ambient as something as close to a professional as I ever was.
As I said in Ambient Update #7.01,
currently the major part of game concept, music as well as a big part of gameplay
functionality are ready in the game. This is a big achievement of the A Little Bit Different
team, which showed the talent and the potential of our fandom. However this project is still far
from finished. A huge chunk of features, levels and models which are the bare minimum to make a
game people would be happy to play and experience still needs to be developed. And unfortunately,
we always had trouble finding volunteers or hiring people for that kind of work. At this time I,
Dreamy, am the only person in the team with enough skill to work on these parts of the game.
For the past year I have been working on the game part time and the development has been going slow.
The good part is: the development was going with a heavy bit of planning beforehand
and I have then been compiling a lot of progress data.
Although this data wasn’t fun to look at, it gave me a lot of things to think about in terms of
the big picture of the development of this game. Progress was slow,
but we kept pushing for simpler, faster solutions to release the game closer to the desired date.
The budget our team receives from Patreon is truly an amazing example
of the dedication and the love the Brony fandom has for art. However,
unfortunately, it is still barely enough to be a salary for even one skilled game developer.
Nearly half of the Patreon budget we had was used to pay for external content and as a reward to
some teammates. The second half I used as a salary for my part-time work on Ambient. When I wasn’t
working on Ambient, I was studying for college, and then I was working at game-development jobs,
mainly as a project manager - a skill that I was happy to learn while working with the ALBD team.
The good outcome is: I’ve acquired extremely useful experience that gave me
an opportunity to look at the Ambient Project from a much more professional perspective.
The bad outcome is: I’ve ended up in a very busy work environment,
managing a huge team, ending up with less than 2 hours of free time after work
to… work on Ambient and have no personal life at all. First: that’s not enough time to work
on Ambient. Second: that’s not enough time to care about my physical and mental health.
Last February, I was hired as a project manager for a big game development company with a game in
development that is extremely advanced compared to my barely functioning production of Ambient.
This game company is developing a game of greater scope than Ambient, but similar in many ways.
I’ve been managing many production pipelines for a game development studio and that made me
look at Ambient realistically. Also, a stable job gave me the opportunity to plan far ahead.
Right now I'm going to explain to you
the Reality of the Ambient Project. The scope of Ambient White is very realistic
and not hard to achieve. BUT not for a team of volunteers. Ambient White needs much more time,
financial and human resources, and multiple people to manage the workflow. It needs people, for whom
Ambient is a primary job with a salary which lets them live a happy life to fuel their passion.
However, if things keep going the same way, Ambient.White will not be released for years
on end. It's simply about the realistic size and the complexity of the game:
experience in a big company has shown me that this kind of project needs many people working
full time to be produced properly. By my estimates, Ambient White needs at least
$800 000 for us to fully develop the story, features and visuals of the game.
There is no easy, legal or promising place to acquire this kind of budget.
But I am a game developer. A very experienced one at this point.
And there have been much simpler games that had millions in profits.
The ALBD team has connections with many talented people and considering the experience we had,
it really is very easy to make a good game, much smaller in scope but one that will inspire,
give lots of fun and a deep emotional journey to its audience. Making a good game is one thing,
but selling it is a process that requires another type of strategy. And fortunately,
there are some very promising plans and ideas that we have been having in our minds for a while.
And I’m very excited about putting them to practice, releasing awesome games and
acquiring a budget for a professional studio. The studio that will be able to make Ambient White.
I am still Dreamy, a person determined to complete the project I have put so much love, care and time
into. We are still the ALBD team: those who create worlds with our passion. We are the ones who are
creating a game so many people can’t wait to play. But we are not fools. At least not anymore.
There is no realistic way for us to complete the Ambient project with our current resources.
However, there is a promising path ahead: the one in which we start getting a budget
for the production of Ambient.White by doing what we do best: creating games.
Smaller games, the kind of games that are also full of love and passion but possible to do
by our current team in less than half a year. I had experience in developing
games of this size and I am capable of creating plans and following them,
while the ALBD team is capable of creating beauty and bringing worlds to life. The last part is for
you to trust us. And expect the release of Ambient in 2025, when the ALBD team releases simpler and
successful games, forms a studio and starts the development of Ambient roughly in 2024.
Starting today, the Ambient Project is frozen, as we reform our patreon page
and the website to showcase more games of our growing studio. It's your choice
to trust our next path or not, based on the stuff you’ve seen from us before.
The truth is: by supporting A Little Bit Different studio,
you get us closer to the future of Ambient.White being released in its best possible shape.
As they say, Rome was not built in a day, and I hope I gave you enough reasons to
believe that the fantastic world of Ambient needs time and attention too.
But Ambient is not only our project, you are taking part in its future too,
and your opinion matters. So to understand what you think about such a big change of course,
we will include a form in the description,
where you can leave your take on how to approach the complex production of Ambient.
Meanwhile, if you want to see where A Little Bit Different studio goes,
follow our social media, check out our website every now and then
and expect more updates about our upcoming projects by next winter.
Okay then, wish us luck, and let this journey take a new turn:
growing A Little Bit Different studios to the extent worthy of the Ambient Project.
Oh, no, wait. One more thing.
We are going to release a new demo of the game very soon
along with the video on this channel that will show one of the most polished
parts of the game - the game's starting sequence.
Let this be the show of our determination, we will give this game a start, so in the
future we will do our best to give this game a continuation and a desired perfect ending.