Ye Olde Gaems – What is it?

Ye Olde Gaems will be a collection of 9 retro styled computer games. Loosely inspired by home computer and arcade games made in the 1980’s and 90’s, some of them will seem familiar but with added twists.

Each subsequent game is unlocked by completing certain challenges in the previous game. For example, the second game Bread Boy is unlocked by playing the first game Sillipede and growing all the flowers around the edge of the ‘garden’. Sillipede is a cute snake/centipede style game.

All other games will be kept as secret as possible during development so as not to spoil the surprises. Other games already in development include an arcade shooter, a driving game and a point and click adventure. Themes and characters from some games will be making cameo appearances in some of the others.

The first game Sillipede is already completed and Bread Boy is a few weeks away from being finished. Once the whole project is complete it will be made available to buy, at a low price, on PC, via Steam and maybe other game distribution services.

SILLIPEDE – Short Gameplay Video including my rendition of Green Sleeves. The full version of the music has an added ‘verse’, in keeping with the hundreds of years old tradition of the tune being modified by the performer, to suit their needs.

BREAD BOY – A still image showing Bread Boy throwing a slice of bread to a customer

Ye Olde Gaems – Why is it?

I started trying to get my son interested in coding during the pandemic lockdown and this rekindled my own desire to make games.  I have been a hobbyist game maker for over 30 years and have always been at my happiest when making things, whether drawing, painting, wood carving, composing music or coding. I take great pleasure in finishing a piece of work and even greater pleasure when somebody else enjoys it too. 

I see this more as an art project than a technical project but each game needs to be entertaining, amusing and fun to play. I will be sure to not lose sight of that.

Sadly, my little boys mum (my wife) passed away suddenly when my son was only 4 years old. I have been mum and dad to him for 5 years now and wish to continue doing that for as long as possible. He is very critical of my work and will be involved in the project, to varying degrees along the way.

I always had the desire to be involved in the games industry but never had the opportunity. Hopefully I can now create something that I can be proud of and that other people can take pleasure from too. 

Ye Olde Funding

The amount required to fund this project of 9 games is simply the minimum I would require to enable me to spend 5 days a week, for 3 years, to finish the project. 

Nobody else is involved (except my son, as mentioned earlier) and there are no plans to employ anybody else. Because I have all the experience and the minimal equipment required to produce all the graphics, code, music and sound effects, I don’t have any overheads or need to buy anything specific to complete the project. All elements of the project so far have been produced on a modest PC and the only other tools required, for the music production, are instruments that I own or can source for free.