I want to make the Best 2D Indie Platformer...

Or at least, I want to be in that conversation. And I think there's a non-zero chance that I might actually be able to pull it off.

I have always had lofty goals with Strata - my 2D Speedrun Platformer that I've been working on entirely solo since christmas 2021. When I say my goal is something like "Best Indie Platformer this year", what I mean is that I want Strata to be talked about in the same breath as behemoths like Super Meat Boy and Celeste. Despite their charm, polish and breadth, what makes these games (and others like them) special is that they created a 2D Platormer controller that was unique and compelling. Building an entire game that size around a character controller like takes years of work, millions of dollars and more collective talent that one humble music graduate could ever hope to achieve, that scope is not and will never be realistic.

But what I can do is make something that is deeply impactful within whatever scope I can manage. 

I already have a character controller that's unique and compelling. In terms of raw controls I do genuinely find Strata to be as deep, and as rewarding as Celeste does. But building a player is one thing, it's another thing entirely to build a series of challenges that gets the contextualises that system as well as my inspirations do.

Both the journey and the game have already been impactful, it's wonderful to have a community and blessing to have passionate supporters at my back. 
In the short term,
Strata will be moving to a sort of informal "seasonal" model for its competitive speedrunning scene over on Speedrun.com. This is because I still want the freedom to polish and refine existing levels and mechanics, as well as adding more levels in the future. So whenever a major patch comes out that significantly affects the speedrun, I'll archive all the previous runs, which means your place on the leaderboard will be set in stone for that season. 

In the long term, 
I'm gonna keep focussing on polish and scalability for now. In the future, basically as soon as I can afford to, I'll be bringing on an artist as fully-fledged second member of the team, and together we will build my vision for the world and story of Strata. I'll release sporadic bits of gameplay all over the place, but you'll hear almost nothing about the narrative for the next two or so years.


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