Three months ago, the adventure began. As of today, it’s been 90 days since Frosty Dog Games (FDG) was officially incorporated! 🎉
It feels like just yesterday I was filling out the initial paperwork, and now we’re already marking the first major milestone in FDG’s journey as an indie studio focused on creating and delivering fun casual mobile games. This three-month mark doesn’t just call for a celebratory dog treat, it means it’s time for the next 90-day planning session.
Shifting Gears: From Goals to Quests 🧭
In my last planning cycle, I tested the waters with a system of Quests instead of traditional business goals, and it’s been a fantastic change of pace! It suits the nature of game development and keeps the energy high.
Last quarter, I set four primary Quests. I’m happy to report that three of those are complete! For the fourth, I made a strategic decision to pivot away from it entirely to concentrate all my resources and energy on our first title: Odyssey (working title).
The decision to focus now comes down to prioritizing what I know I can deliver with high quality and by when.
Odyssey: The Core is Complete! ✅
There’s also good news on the development front: Odyssey, our first title, is well underway and the core game loop is fully playable on both iOS and Android devices. There’s still a huge amount to do, but it’s been an invaluable testbed for understanding the mobile development pipeline for FDG.
The next major milestone for Odyssey is focusing on the ‘meta’ elements—the features that build the community and structure around the core gameplay. This means adding backend support for:
- A user login system
- Leaderboards
- Achievements
- Critical player tracking and analytics
The Road Ahead: Alpha, Beta, and Launch 🗓️
This next phase is going to be a sprint!
My current target schedule is aggressive but, on paper, achievable:
- Alpha Build Ready: By the end of this year (December 2025)
- Closed Beta Test: Running in early 2026
- Game Launch: Scheduled for sometime between April and June 2026, strategically timed to fall after the start of the new tax year.
This ambitious schedule is the primary reason for the pivot. Our second title, SnAFL (working title), is a passion project—a much bigger and more ambitious game that would demand a significant investment in both time and money. It’s a bit too large for a first release from a one-person studio, and I want to keep our timeline realistic.
Odyssey is serving as the perfect stepping stone and testbed for all the fundamental systems (like the backend support we’re building now) that will be crucial for a larger project like SnAFL in the future. By launching a smaller game first, we can test the waters, refine our processes, and build a solid foundation. Hopefully, we’ll gain some credibility along the way too which will help secure funding for SnAFL and beyond.
It’s going to be a busy three months of Questing! Wish me luck! 🤞