I'd like to start off by saying that these journal entries will be pretty informal, if I was to ever write on more specific topics I would approach it as if it was an academic paper, but this isn't that, so I won't.
I'm starting up a dev log/journal to track my progress during the development of my next project. It's a solo endeavor right now but that is open to change if I meet the right people. The project as of now is still in its early stages, it is a 2D, high fantasy RPG, created in the unity engine. The entire universe, its cosmology, and metaphysics will be an entirely original creation by me. I understand this is no small thing. I personally took it upon myself to develop this world enough to start drafting before I began proper development on this project. That journey warrants its own entry as it was honestly, a very spiritual experience. For those of you not in the know, I'm a systems designer and a gameplay programmer by trade. At least in terms of my primary game design skills. So that means that most of the programming side of things is pretty much up to me. And not to toot my own horn but so far, so good! As of now, I've gained access to a catalog of premade assets, I'll have to make some of my own or commission more further down the line, but for now, these serve my needs perfectly. Here's a link to the artist's page: http://finalbossblues.com/
I'm prototyping right now, so far I have character movement and the early stages of a dialogue system in place. Hopefully, by the next entry (I'm hoping to smash one out once a week) it'll be completed, at least as a prototype and I can begin working on the next system after that, which will probably be a Quest system or something else that catches my eye beforehand. You might also be wondering about the title, as of now, EITE is a place-holder anagram for the title. Once the title is in a more solidified state, I will reveal it, but on the off chance the title remains, I'll keep it close to the chest until it's time to release. Here are some (super rough) sketches I've done as impromptu concept art, I'm an amateur illustrator also so this allows me to include visual representations of my work which is honestly very exciting and fun.
As you might be able to tell from the sketches, there's going to be a lot of insect imagery. I remember reading the transcript of an interview with one of my favorite Japanese illustrators and he mentioned something to the tune of "...when I was illustrating him, I kept the words sadistic and huge in my mind". I found it really interesting, to either make the keywords or terms of what you want to convey in your mind when creating something, be it an illustration or a game.
To this end, I keep the word "Alien" in my mind, which is where the insect imagery comes in. There will be other races in the game of course with their own unique lore, architecture, and culture but this insect race was the first one I drafted. So now it's acted as a seed from which all of this has grown.
So, there it is, this is the new journey I'm on, I may take on other projects with other groups as well, we game developers need to keep busy, always moving. I will also release the game design document created for this game after its release, the bible for it will remain within the confines of those who work on it. I like to take on Tolkien's approach to mysteries in his universe where even he doesn't know some of the answers to questions, or at least to answer questions with more questions. In short, I don't want to give anything away and leave a lot up to player interpretation and inference.
Wish me luck and thanks for joining me!
Marc.
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