Introducing The INDIGO Initiative

Clinton McCleary
Aug 9
4 min read

In early 2019, Infliction had just launched on PC, and my mind was already asking, “What’s next?”

To shake things loose, I built a little VR sandbox called Think Tank. It was nothing more than a dimly lit bunker, concrete walls, Half-Life inspired pallet, a PC in the corner, and, most importantly, a dimensional gateway. Each world I created lived inside a cartridge. Plug one in, load it up, and the gateway would open to somewhere completely different.

The first destinations were wildly varied: a cartoon world, a creepy horror world, and a land where everything was enormous. My only goal was to rapidly hop between environments, soaking up inspiration for new mechanics or stories.

Then it hit me, the act of jumping between worlds was fun in itself. What if you could travel to different dimensions, with unique tools, to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles?

It was the seed of something exciting… and then Infliction landed a publisher. Console porting took over my life, and Think Tank went back on the shelf.

An Idea Rekindled

Five months later, I was at PAX West 2019, promoting Infliction’s console release. My first stop was an ID@Xbox event at Microsoft’s campus in Seattle. That’s where an investor group approached me out of the blue and asked, “Do you have anything else in development?”

I mentioned Think Tank. They leaned in, intrigued.

I wasn’t ready to pitch, but seeing someone else’s eyes light up over the idea flipped a switch in me. On the flight home, I filled my iPad with new notes, sketches, and puzzle ideas. I also wrote a treatment and changed its name to The Bunker.

Back home, Infliction console work continued. The Bunker… back on hold.

Other Projects, Same Spark

Over the next few years, I worked for my publisher on several titles. Infliction 2 was in the discussion, but it was tangled up in timing and availability. While I waited, The Bunker crept back into my thoughts.

In late 2021, I congratulated writer Jono Pech on finishing Trigger Witch. One message led to another, and soon I was telling him about two game ideas:

A horror game set in a deep-sea lab.
The Bunker.

We kept circling back to The Bunker. Before long, we were collaborating on its story.

Six Weeks to Prove It

Early–mid 2022, the Australian government announced a game development grant. I’d been making games without funding for years. The idea of real support was exciting, but there was a catch.

The deadline was six weeks away, and they required a playable prototype.

That’s when part-time development on The Bunker, now renamed The INDIGO Initiative, officially began.

Six weeks later: Success. Funding secured. But I was still full-time at the publisher, so INDIGO stayed a side project… for now.

From Layoff to Full Steam Ahead

April 2024 brought a wave of industry layoffs following the post-COVID investment surge and the early push into AI. My role was cut. It stung, but also freed me to focus on INDIGO full-time. At that point, the game was still in alpha, and my immediate goal was clear: build a demo for GCAP (Australia’s GDC).

Solo development started slower than I’d like. The combination of industry uncertainty and processing the layoff sapped motivation. One of the hardest parts of working alone is the lack of someone to bounce ideas off daily. Jono remained a vital narrative partner, but every other aspect of the game… That was on me.

Still, people had believed in this project enough to fund it. I wasn’t going to let them, my family, or myself down.

The First Demo & a Surreal Meeting

The GCAP demo came together with the help of some fiends testing it, rough around the edges and onboarding in need of work, but the core gameplay hook was there.

Then came a meeting I’ll never forget. Sony had booked a slot with me, but I didn’t know who would be on the other end until the day before. It was Shuhei Yoshida. As a lifelong PlayStation fan, I was inwardly losing my mind. Outwardly, I stayed professional. Shuhei was warm, engaged, and genuinely excited about the game. That meeting sent me home with renewed energy.

Reshaping INDIGO

Back from GCAP, I dove into reshaping parts of the game based on feedback and player behavior. It needed more defined guide rails and less open-ended wandering.

When the dust settled, I had a demo I could finally feel proud of. It was time to announce the game.

Crafting the Trailer

The process was simple but deliberate. Sketch thumbnails of each shot, make each shot, edit!

The cinematic opening took two days to nail. The rest was gameplay capture from the demo. With my trailer-editing experience, it came together fast, my first cut was 99% final. A few trims, some retiming, and it landed just over one minute.

Announcement trailer

Steam Page & Launch Day

A Steam page is more work than it seems. Banners, capsules, screenshots, text, everything has to be just right.

Being solo means doing the marketing too. My launch checklist looked like this:

Create new social media accounts:
a. TikTok
b. Instagram
c. Threads
d. Discord server
Submit the Steam page for review (I forgot this step, but they approved it quickly)
Set the Steam page live
Publish the YouTube trailer
Edit platform-specific versions of the trailer (Shorts, Reels, etc.)
Post across all platforms

The launch started quietly, until I sent the trailer to IGN on day two. They shared it, and just like that, visibility and wishlist numbers jumped.

One Week In

A week later, combined trailer views are around 50k, comments are mostly positive, and Steam wishlists sit at around 1,700. Not blockbuster numbers, but with such minimal marketing, I’m thrilled.

So… what’s next?

Right now, I’m building two public demos: