About RWK2's name
Several months ago, you said you were planning to avoid making a followup to this game an official sequel so that you don't have to share the earnings with Hamumu Games. Instead, you'd make it a sequel to Hap Hazard, albeit in name only. However, while I understand your reasoning, I'd advise against calling it Hap Hazard 2 for two reasons.
First of all, I firmly believe that a series should always stay true to certain core components. Disregarding this and slapping its name onto largely unrelated games can result in a directionless series that people have no idea what to expect from because it doesn't stand for anything.
Unlike most franchises that get this treatment (a good example would be Nintendo's Mario franchise, in my opinion), Hap Hazard 2 wouldn't even benefit from any brand recognition because Hap Hazard is one of your most obscure games and only available for Windows and Mac on your site, so the vast majority of people who'd learn about Hap Hazard 2 wouldn't even know the original game existed, let alone be fans of it and therefore interested in a sequel.
And even if someone who liked the first game downloaded Hap Hazard 2 expecting another game like it, they'd just be disappointed to find that it's really a sequel to a completely different game.
Second, while I can't speak for others, I personally don't like buying sequels to games I haven't played yet. Anyone who thinks like this would probably first look into the first game upon learning about Hap Hazard 2. This could result in various different outcomes, but most of them would be undesirable:
#1: "Hap Hazard 2? What about the first game?" *searches preferred platform(s)* "Oh, it's not even available here? Screw that, then."
#2: "Hap Hazard 2? What about the first game?" *watches video footage / plays the demo* "Eh, not my cup of tea. I probably wouldn't like the sequel either, then."
#3: "Hap Hazard 2? What about the first game?" *asks about it on the forums* "Wait, so I'm supposed to pretend the first game doesn't exist because it's nothing like this one? Then why even make it a sequel in the first place?"
As such, I'd suggest giving RWK2 a different name that doesn't imply it has anything to do with another one of your games.
First of all, I firmly believe that a series should always stay true to certain core components. Disregarding this and slapping its name onto largely unrelated games can result in a directionless series that people have no idea what to expect from because it doesn't stand for anything.
Unlike most franchises that get this treatment (a good example would be Nintendo's Mario franchise, in my opinion), Hap Hazard 2 wouldn't even benefit from any brand recognition because Hap Hazard is one of your most obscure games and only available for Windows and Mac on your site, so the vast majority of people who'd learn about Hap Hazard 2 wouldn't even know the original game existed, let alone be fans of it and therefore interested in a sequel.
And even if someone who liked the first game downloaded Hap Hazard 2 expecting another game like it, they'd just be disappointed to find that it's really a sequel to a completely different game.
Second, while I can't speak for others, I personally don't like buying sequels to games I haven't played yet. Anyone who thinks like this would probably first look into the first game upon learning about Hap Hazard 2. This could result in various different outcomes, but most of them would be undesirable:
#1: "Hap Hazard 2? What about the first game?" *searches preferred platform(s)* "Oh, it's not even available here? Screw that, then."
#2: "Hap Hazard 2? What about the first game?" *watches video footage / plays the demo* "Eh, not my cup of tea. I probably wouldn't like the sequel either, then."
#3: "Hap Hazard 2? What about the first game?" *asks about it on the forums* "Wait, so I'm supposed to pretend the first game doesn't exist because it's nothing like this one? Then why even make it a sequel in the first place?"
As such, I'd suggest giving RWK2 a different name that doesn't imply it has anything to do with another one of your games.
Comments
An artist doesn't get to control himself. The muse does all that. My muse has a particularly little fetish to her that I don't enjoy, but no game is allowed to proceed unless this fetish is satisfied: The game must have a cool name.
To illustrate how severe this is, when I first went to Popcap way back when, I also sold them the rights to "Solomon's Keep," which wasn't even a game at that point, just a concept. When Popcap bought out Dynomite from me, I specifically took a LOWER PRICE just to get the name "Solomon's Keep" back. Because without the name "Solomon's Keep" that game would never have happened.
So, to bring this back to Robot Wants Kitty...
For some reason, miss muse is forcing me to write metroidvania's in a science fiction universe. For instance, I've toyed with the idea of making "Solomon's Keep Jr" (funny, yes?) as a little 2D side scroller, and as a metroidvania... but this doesn't click with me. For whatever reason, it must be Science Fiction.
Okay, so... as many of you know, "Robot Wants Kitty" is a perfect metroidvania game theme. Hats off to Hamumu for coming up with it. It was so perfect that when I wanted to write a metroidvania, once again I got stuck, and DELIBERATELY TOOK LESS MONEY (in the form of Hamumu's revenue share) in order to do it "perfectly."
Well, right now, the muse won't let me do a metroidvania unless I use either "Robot Wants Kitty" or "Hap Hazard." She likes Hap Hazard. She digs the immortal space corpps guys, the green haired princess, and the robots and everything. She is not AT ALL attached to the gameplay of Hap Hazard (as indeed, nobody in the world except 2-3 guys are).
As another example, I DID start another metroidvania at one point called "Rob Rescueman" where you play a completely normal guy who comes upon random superhero clothes, each giving you a power, and until you've got all the skillz necessary to rescue your girlfriend. (See? http://i.magaimg.net/img/1fpa.jpg). Note that even though the muse "kinda likes" this idea, she's just not enthusiastic about it... so the game got maybe 10% done and then nothing.
So that's the story behind that.
However, since I am driven by the muse, and not by my own volition, you can try the following tactics on me:
1. Try to come up with a theme AND name (they work together) that the muse likes, for a RwK sequel
or
2. If you like the idea of Rod Rescueman, try to say so in a way that causes to muse to say "okay, you have permission to do this."
Carry on!
I assume your muse is also to blame for your inability to finish Solomon Dark?
Title: I Just Want a Sandwich