Project Idle

When I first hired a freelance artist, I made the decision too quickly after an icon test that was not representative enough. The first full screen did not meet the project's quality bar. I explained the issue clearly, ended the engagement, and accepted the lost deposit rather than continuing in the wrong direction.

I then tried to develop someone in-house by inviting a junior with an architecture background to learn game art while working for three months. The next attempt with a fine-arts student showed stronger drawing skills, but the concept work, speed, and collaboration style still did not fit the team.

With each attempt, I made the portfolio review deeper, created tests closer to the actual product, and stated expectations more clearly from the start. The process eventually helped the team find a suitable artist and changed how I recruited specialist roles afterward.

P1 was fully remote, but the coordination speed did not fit a product that was changing constantly. In late 2024, I spent approximately one week planning to move the core team to Ho Chi Minh City after Lunar New Year. The initial annual budget of approximately 90,000 USD was reduced to 60,000 USD after the team and mentors raised the risk of scaling too quickly.

The core team included me, a Unity developer, a UX designer, and an intern or junior game designer; we recruited the artist in Ho Chi Minh City. After Lunar New Year 2025, the Unity developer and I moved from Hanoi, set up the studio, and began working on-site. I handled the server and game logic directly while the developer owned the Unity client. This setup helped the small team move quickly, but it also showed me that too much knowledge was concentrated in one person and needed to be documented as the team grew.

In mid-2025, the team spent three months learning and testing a 3D pipeline, but did not produce output that Project Idle could use immediately. After reviewing the time and capabilities available, I stopped that direction and brought the team back to finish the 2D version.

Although it did not contribute directly to P2, the R&D gave the team experience with models, animation, scenes, materials, and shaders. That experience became useful when the next project moved fully into 3D. The larger lesson was that every major experiment needs a time limit and clear stopping conditions from the beginning.

While finishing the MVP, I experimented with a PvE boss mode built around a five-character party, inspired by Cult of the Lamb. It sat outside the core idle loop, but attracted more interest when the trailer was released.

Feedback showed that the target audience wanted to participate directly in combat rather than watch characters fight automatically. Although the Idle RPG was relatively complete, we chose not to keep investing simply because the product had already come this far. Project Idle ended at P2.5; its PvE boss concept and 3D experience became the foundation for Lunacia: The Original Dream in early 2026.