Drake Hollow was the second full title from The Molasses Flood.
Drake Hollow was intended to accomplish a number of things. First I was interested in exploring the mechanics of the survival genre in a way that removed the direct impact on the player. Thus was born the idea of a game in which you need to manage resources like food and water, but they are abstracted a degree away from the player themselves. Additionally, we wanted to make a game that engaged players for longer periods of time than The Flame in the Flood, and felt that multiplayer would be an excellent way to expand the scope of the game and our capabilities as a studio.
Overall, while Drake Hollow never achieved the recognition given to The Flame in the Flood, it did accomplish a number of key goals for us. It proved that we as a team were capable of bigger things, it allowed us to grow the studio, it both sold and reviewed better and had much longer average playtimes then our prior effort, and ultimately kept us on a path that led to our next much more ambitious project.
During the development, I was both the Studio Director & Game Director on the title.
Developed the initial concept and IP
Built gameplay prototypes and devised a core loop around growing and protecting a village of mandrake inspired critters
Ushered those prototypes into shipping quality features either directly or in collaboration with the team
Tuned and balanced all systems
Pitched the concept, secured funding, negotiated partnerships including a Game Pass agreement with Microsoft
Managed the hiring and growth of the team from a seed group of 3 to a core team or 11
Managed external partnerships with funding partners
Led post launch support and development of additional features based on user feedback & reviews