The solo developer behind the anime-styled Cyberpunk JRPG Jack Move, Edd Parris, has been developing games for more than a decade. Most of his early work was small-time games, developed to be enjoyed by his fellow community members. This changed with his newest game, a futuristic Cyberpunk RPG called Jack Move. Parris would take on personal and professional challenges to bring it to the public. The trials and tribulations of developing his first commercial game took him through long part-time periods and moving across the world to eventually find a publisher and a great team.
So Romantic was established to accommodate the transition from a hobbyist to a serious game developer. Parris' turn-based role-playing game, Jack Move, had been in the works for years, and new opportunities in life finally pushed Edd to make the jump to the unknown and commit to finishing his first commercial game. First, he had to figure out the team that would help him scale the game into a polished product. However, this also meant he needed to find a publisher and secure funding. Game Rant spoke to So Romantic's Edd Parris about the drawn-out development process and challenges of being a solo developer.
Jack Move Started as a Hobby
Parris had been working at a marketing agency making websites and engineering backend systems but wanted to see if he could find a way inside the game industry. He had developed a few small games for his friends and the gaming community in his hometown of Brighton, UK. However, there was no clear avenue for him to switch career paths. Hosting game jams and running events was a way to try and get a foot in the door. One of his games, Bubble Tennis: Infatuation, was developed for a community event called Games by the Sea during the country's premier game developer conference not unlike GDC, Brighton Develop.
No opportunities arose directly from the events, but Parris still had Jack Move, which he had been slowly developing. Ever since first posting on TIG Source about the game in 2013, Jack Move was getting bigger and better, little by little. The scope of the game was much larger than his previous works, but it was still a one-man operation that had limited resources. Evenings and weekends were the only time he could focus on either coding or preparing the game's pixel art. However, a new turn of events would force Parris to consider a radical change in his life, and it had huge implications for Jack Move, too.
Jack Move Goes to Taiwan
Parris' then-girlfriend, now wife, was moving to Taiwan after completing her master’s degree. This meant that Parris was facing a serious decision. Moving abroad would end his day job, but would also allow him to properly focus on developing Jack Move. Earlier that year Parris had shown the game to a few indie game publishers, and the feedback was encouraging enough that he wanted to pursue it further.
The move from the United Kingdom to Taiwan meant that the transition to independent game development was finally fully realized. This also meant that Parris had to use his savings to fund the initial push to finish the game. After all, he now needed the talent to create Game Boy-like pixel art animations, music, sound effects, and polished story. The transition didn't happen without issues, though. While Parris was happy with all the freelancers he had hired, some were busy and replacements had to be made.
"Then I found this guy whose stuff was so cool. His style of animation and style of pixel art was so different from anything else I'd seen... I knew I wanted to work with that guy."
The biggest setback was running out of funds. Not being able to hire more creators meant that the development would halt. Parris would have to take an unplanned break in development. A year after running out of money, there was a break: Parris found a publisher in HypeTrain. It meant that he could finally hire people to work on the project full-time.
The core story that was written by Parris was enhanced by Amalie Kae. Another key acquisition for Parris was animator Joe Williamson, whose work was a perfect fit for Parris' desired unique anime art style. Two long-time friends of Parris, Adam Hay and Charlie "Fracture" Fieber created the sound effects and music, respectively.
The Last Push to Publish Jack Move
Initially, Parris wanted the game to launch on PC and his favorite current-generation console platform, Nintendo Switch. He had fond memories of Game Boy RPGs, and publishing his game on Nintendo's newest handheld was a big deal. He had spent countless hours porting the game to Switch, making sure it ran smoothly at 60fps. The publisher also wanted to bring the game to more platforms, giving it an even better chance at success. This made sense to Parris, and it was determined that the game would launch on all major platforms.
The future of So Romantic would largely depend on how well Jack Move would do, and a broad release gave the best chances of securing the studio's possible upcoming endeavors. After years and years of development, although not quite a record-breaking launch delay, it was important to make as much of an impact as possible.
"The most stressful thing is that you don't want people having a bad time. I need to fix this as soon as possible and get it out as soon as possible."
In 2022, the team at So Romantic entered the last stressful stretch before releasing the game. Parris wanted the game to be perfect, and the idea of someone not enjoying the game was fueling the late patching sessions. Nintendo's unpredictable approval process didn't help with the release schedule, either.
However, in September 2022, over nine years after the initial Jack Move post addressing the indie game developer community, So Romantic released Jack Move for PC, Nintendo Switch, and all other major platforms. As odd as it was for Parris to see other people playing his game, and stressful to think that some might encounter bugs, it also was the first time in years he could finally breathe a little.
Jack Move is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.