i’ve been busy!! and completely not online lol obvs
i haven’t talked about it publicly at all and i still won’t lmao. i won’t get into all the details and stuff until after i show it like on socmed (sigh) but i’ve been working on a game #project for over a year now so year 0 progress report: it’s done! kinda…
ok, it’s not done-done but it’s more than a prototype and is closer to a game-game which is crasy. that’s why i call it #project instead of #wip since enough work has gone into it at this point that it’s kinda not a #wip anymore? like all of the core systems are done and tested and working but it looks super uggo with placeholder sprites (thank you photopea) and only the bare minimum scenes and total lack of content and outdated code that need updating and test scripts and needs full playtesting BUT!!! IT WORKS!!! OVERALL!!! like i see it. i see the end point. like it works. :D it just needs the content and visuals now..
my original plan back when i started was to finish the entire code for the game first like the complete codebase for all chapters (since i plan on doing a chapter release) and then work on the content for each chapter and then build on that, etc. i realized earlier this year like in feb that this wasn’t going to work out becaaaause
2. thieves. i’ve read experiences of other devs who released their demo with systems /code that weren’t used in the demo but they were like finished or even unfinished and people straight up yoinked their shit by datamining and using AI to fill in the gaps and then release the game themselves. which is just like ridiculous but the common gamedev advice is to release only what’s necessary for each part of the game. so the demo should only have demo code / systems in it and that’s it. nothing that would be in the full game.
3. time. the main reason why i want to do a chapter release is because it would take me 12000 years otherwise to release the full game. like this gamedev shit is no joke especially for the genre #project is. so it was already taking me 5ever to what i thought it would take me. my dumbass thought that i would be at this point by the end of last year LOL.
sooooo i decided to only work / refine the game just for the demo and chapter 1 and split it into three parts / phases:
🔵 assets (the actual assets like sprites, etc. that would be used in the game) * i’m here now btw ^__^
🔵 post-asset (the remaining game systems and ui that should be coded with the final assets and things like NPC behavior, shadows, lighting, etc. like anything i would personally prefer to have the proper visuals to fine tune and code with)
the demo is a slice of chapter 1 they feed into each other so it makes sense to do both. of course, the first chapter has all the main / core systems of the game and stuff. so, first, i had to take a break from coding to figure out what the heck would be the demo, in the first chapter, in the later chapters for both the story and game systems. i ironed out a lot of the story and continue to. i would say the #project identity is a lot stronger and much more solid and defined than it was even when i last talked about it. and it’s not just the story like the characters have pretty much all gotten some kind of rework. even if it’s not visual, it’s been like some change. some characters have gotten it more than others (i feel like one is version on 3 lol) and of the main characters one in particular has gotten a overhaul in their character arc and motivation, etc. and i feel they are WAY more stronger like i’m not an amazing writer or anything i feel like the characters and the game overall is stronger. it’s so interesting again to go back and read my old posts when the game was in babby mode and like i thought it was close to solid then but so many things have changed.
and it’s not just the story but the game parts. a lot of systems i had to go and rework because after a year i had a better idea of what i wanted the game to be and make it less heavy leaning on other games (goodbye paper mario-isms in the presentation) which was a lot of work and took a lot of time but now #project is more distinctive (and more risky i guess but i’ll get to that when it comes lmao,,) and i like certain things i added quite a bit. 😊 like #project still wears its inspos on its sleeve but it’s now filtered through #project lenses so it’s still very #project. again, i’ll probably make another post later that goes into details but it will be friends only viewable since i don’t want to talk to much about it publicly especially when it’s not presentable yet. but soon.jpg
i DO want to talk about certain things i’ve learned from gamedev. i don’t really consider myself a gamedev because i haven’t released a game LMAO but it’s still been like a very difficult still fun experience. i mean i love video games and i love jrpgs so! and i’m making a turn-based jrpg so :D
REGRET ONE i reeeeeeally wish i did the core CORE game systems from the beginning. and by that i mean like the basics that’s in every game ever that you don’t really think about when you play. so because i’m not using rpgmaker and instead am making #project in unity i have to like build. everything. like rpgmaker does a lot of the background game stuff for you like the pause menu, the loading screen, the title screen, the general menu ui, etc. like sure you can tweak the visuals and stuff but the hardcoded behavior is like done already. working in a straight game engine like unity means you gotta make EVERYTHING. and i completely underestimated how difficult it would be to add “basic” stuff like pausing, settings, new game, continue, etc. like AFTER i built the game’s systems. i’m happy that i did the save system early on not because i knew better but because it made testing easier. even though i was still babby dev i knew that using playerprefs for saving probably wasn’t a good idea for something like a jrpg that requires more extensive data that needs to be saved and carry over so with a JSONUtility youtube tutorial help i made a save system that i have since updated but has worked very well! and i think it would’ve been like 10x harder to implement the save system too so late in development honestly because the basics gave me SO MUCH trouble. ESPECIALLY THE NEW GAME SYSTEM which is so. like i never thought it would so hard to figure it out. it took like weeks of trying and like three different iterations until i got one that was working AND THEN THAT ONE WAS LOWKEY BROKE TOO because when i got new computer that was faster / stronger with better ram than it exposed a fatal flaw with my new game system that i wouldn’t have caught due to how slow my old computer was lol until i did playtesting / someone else played it which is like awful. BUT it should be working now. also loading screens / scene transitions / spawn points gave me so much trouble. and i’m still sideying it. it’s working now but we’ll see.
REGRET TWO using placeholders for too long. i KNOW i pushed assets for later because i was learning c# and even though it was def for the best to focus on code over art i wish i had taken the time to put in visuals / sprites earlier. like for the ui for example. certain code i made was completely unusable because i was using barebone minimum ui that did not resemble AT ALL the actual ui i had in mind. and i had undo so much work because when nearing the end of phase one because that’s when i actually decided to use better more accurate placeholders for the menus, etc. and they were so much more helpful when it to visualization and figuring out how i want things to look and do. and i just wish i did it earlier instead of using plain white boxes and unity’s default buttons for everything. i do know now why ui/ux designer is like a whole job in the game industry because that shit is hard man. like unity’s ui system and implementation is like really obtuse when i first started learning it too? like i’m more familiar now because i had to be lol but it was a pain. i wish it was a bit more intuitive but i think my problem is that i come from a drawing background and my “intuitive” is likely different from the programmers who made unity as an engine. also i know i’m going to have to recode a bunch of stuff when i have the actual assets in game like my camera system so more work lol.
REGRET THREE i wish i started earlier lol. liiiiiiiike i know it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation (if i didn’t start the other site i wouldn’t have gotten interested in game design and learning php made c# easier to learn etc. etc. etc.) WHATEVER but maaaaaan. i didn’t really understand a lot of what went into games and i’m learning still (like i only realized a few weeks ago ork framework exists when i made my whole game from scratch dotdotdot anyway on the other hand, it’s likely for the best everything bar the dialogue system isn’t a premade asset but custom made for #project which allows for flexibility, scalability, etc.) but i thought it would impossible for me to make a video game to the point i never considered it but it’s not? it’s not like #project is amazing or anything but it’s working? i dunno, i wish i started this earlier like even just a few years ago or ideally earlier than that but on the other hand #project didn’t exist in my head at the time so it’s like siiiiigh. little disappointing. well, what can you do.
BONUS NON-REGRET dude i’m so glad i wrote the story before working on the game. i know most devs are like “game first, story last (or story never)” but having the story concept in mind before coding really helped shaped a lot of the game systems and narrow down the feel that i want even after i further refined / changed the story AND helped with scope creep (like deciding what can be cut and what should stay in). plus jrpgs should have a strong or at least some narrative.
SO what i’m doing now it working on the assets ^_^ i already have an idea for the overall art direction but now it’s time to like do the actual work of drawing everything akjfdkfjkd unfortunatelyyy as a solo dev i gotta do EVERYTHING and i couldn’t draw while i was coding. i’m super rusty but also learning spine2d for animation which i can finally afford lmao (thanks bro) since i’m not an animator. i’m still going to be using live2d but for the talking portraits and i think it will be like minimal animation like how the new fire emblem is using live2d which that’s how i was planning on making the talking portraits my game as well. non-gaming related life has been preeetty sucky. lol. like so much stuff. not great stuff. likely not going to be good in the future. but i don’t wanna talk about it. i just want to just focused on #project.
my goal is to present something later this year and the demo sometime next year and chapter 1 some time soon after the demo. i’m extremely nervous about showing it 😅😅😅 to be working on something alone for so long and now i’m going to like show it off to someone other than my sicko self. there certain aspects about the game mechanics that i wonder how they will be received and maybe i may change it but that will be first when playtesting comes around. marketing as a whole seems super daunting and most indie devs are super focused on it but i can’t show #project in its current state. but soon!!
(random: i keep calling it #project because #codename but also i don’t.. have a title lol. my previous planned title wasn’t going to work because it was already used by an anime? lol? and i suck at coming up with titles. i will have a title by the time i show it thoooo hopefully something unused LOL)
wahh so good to hear your update!! first of all, congrats on coming along so far for the game! i’m so excited to see what parts you’ve changed/refined…from your post alone i can see it’s a whole long journey…
and ofc as someone who knows nothing about gamedev, it’s lowkey crasy learning about some of the things you shared like i had no idea people were evil enough to datamine what was already coded but not released and steal it…but i guess if it’s possible someone out there will do it ;_; i already mentioned before but i think deciding to do chapter releases instead makes a lot of sense considering it’s a one person project. idk if you’ve considered it but once its released if the interest for the game grows as well as the scope you can also consider adding people to help later on too.
honestly i still think it’s impressive you decided to do everything from scratch with unity instead of rpgmaker like you definitely leveled up a lot skill wise by taking that route. i feel it never hurts to actually make it yourself so you actually understand what goes behind it/what makes it work. all your hard work will def pay off in the long run!
and also i totally understand the disappointment of not starting earlier, i think every creator goes through it…but the fact that you started a year ago to get to where you are now is a huge tbh! i think as long as you end up starting on the project at some point, it is never too late^^
so cool that you’re in the next phase now, i hope you can get into the swing of things with drawing! i’m also excited to read about what you learn for animation! your observations are so insightful and fun to read. i know it must be daunting to share something that you’ve kept to yourself for so long ;; when the playtest rolls around, i think receiving feedback from friends hopefully will ease the anxiety a bit before you have to share it publicly on socmed. i can’t stop saying it but i’m so excited for youuu!!! this is such big news i’m so proud of you ;_;
(i’m sorry to hear that the other aspects of your life is not as a good, i hope things become better for you. idk when you’ll update again but i’m always wishing the best for you and that you take care!!)