Seraphine Software is alive!

After quite a bit of planning, backing-and-forthing, very quickly learning new skillsets and navigating the bureaucratic steps it takes to form a company, I’m very proud to announce that Seraphine Software is now alive and kicking! We’re still in our very early stages of development, getting everything off the ground and running, but we’re already working at quite a solid pace. As our momentum builds and all our core infrastructure matures, more posts will show up on this blog detailing what we’re up to and how things are going.

I’m going to be posting to this blog semi-frequently to document things as we develop, grow, and expand. I’ll also be using this as a development blog from time to time, going a little more in-depth on some of the projects we have cooking. I also wanna use this as a space to introspect a bit, on myself, and on Seraphine, and give some perspective onto the thinking that goes into the ideas Seraphine is based on. I think the transparency is good. Maybe when we’ve got a higher headcount, it won’t just be me updating this, and we’ll be able to bring in other voices to talk about how things are going, and what we’re working towards.

I’ve learned a hell of a lot in the process of getting this up and running. I’ve wanted to create a game studio since I was a very little kid, trying to figure out what the hell an if statement is. It’s easy to push it further and further away into the future, telling yourself that you’ll do it when the time is right, or when you’ve gained a little more knowledge, or a little more experience, but if there’s anything I have learned from the point I made the decision to kick this into gear, up ‘til now, it’s that there really is no ideal time. So if I can pass any useful knowledge on from this blog post, it is that if you are interested in building something - go do it now!

I’ve also found myself at odds with myself a bit in regards to talking myself in and out of things. It’s very, very easy to poke holes in things before they are anything other than just a notion inside of your head. It’s very easy to be afraid of manifesting a thought in your head into a reality. There’s a quote I think touches on that quite deeply from David Foster Wallace:

”The perfectionism is very dangerous, because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything. Because doing anything results in— It’s actually kind of tragic because it means you sacrifice how gorgeous and perfect it is in your head for what it really is.”

I think about this quote all the time. When you create something, you’re effectively trading the ideal representation of it that exists in your head for the reality of what the idea manifests itself into when it’s realized, and that trade can be a truly terrifying exchange. Sometimes it feels cliché when people say that creativity requires bravery, but I think on some level this is the notion that that idea is kind of getting at. I’ve definitely had my moments of fear, but I think that’s the right way to feel when you’re doing something like this.

So if I can pass anything of value on, it’s that you should absolutely make that exchange. A half-beautiful realized thing you can hold in your hand is worth a million beautiful ideas inside of your head.

I’m excited to pass on more information as the days and weeks and months roll by.

— Alex