The Side Project is a game made in the prototype of Profectus (tentatively known as The Modding Tree X) by The Paper Pilot and released in 2021. It follows a developer who tries making a side-project game during spring break, though it ends shortly afterwards but you still keep developing. It's short and there's not much content, but it does provide interesting tidbits for TMT fans and an early look at Profectus before it became widely available.
The game can be played here
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This game provides examples of:
- Emoticon: The :) and :D emoticons pop up at two points.
- Export Save: You can press a button to export one of the 20KB+ save files and another to paste it back in.
- Money for Nothing: All the money you get has absolutely zero use, unlike the other meters.
- Ninja: The developer thinks the game should be about ninjas rather than robots, but then finds that ridiculous.
- No Fourth Wall: The second half of the game is mostly a conversation between the dev to the player regarding this game, Lit (2021), and Kronos.
- Screwed by the Lawyers: In-Universe, the developers thinks Nintendo would sue him if he tried making a Pokémon fangame.
- Shout-Out:
- When considering a game based on the development process that follows a path of a developer over time, there's a link to The Beginner's Guide's Steam page.
- The developer settles on making Pong.
