Yet Another Game Development Blog
Why I’m writing a game, why I’m writing a blog, and what I hope to share along the way.
Game development is as old as software development. Many of the earliest applications of computing were to create entertainment, both for the edification of the developers and to explore the new and exciting world of computing. Much has been devoted to theories of design, engineering, development, marketing, distribution, evolution, philosophy, and every other aspect of game production. If we were to collect all the many writings, blogs, articles, books, stories, videos, college courses, and other materials related to game development into a single place, the count would easily be in the millions.
With so much existing material already available, why write my own game development blog? I don’t aspire to produce the best works on any topic, the perfect solutions to any challenge, or even the most engaging dialogue on current topics; instead, I wish to share my journey in developing a fairly large and complex game so that, hopefully, some of my experiences can inspire others. I aim to provide solutions where I can, and examples of what worked for me (and what didn’t!) in order to help, entertain, and educate.
In short, I hope to do what most writers hope to do: to share some of my experiences, to delight and inspire, and to create food for thought through my words.
This brings us to the question of why I am choosing to develop a game. There are both long and short answers; the short answer is that with the global pandemic in 2020, I had a lot of free time, and developing a game seemed like it might be fun. The longer answer requires some background.
Why Develop a Game?
I have been involved in software development and engineering for more than 20 years. My experience is broad, including research, startups, established corporations, and side-projects. As most people who have been in the industry for this long can attest, each challenge brings with it excitement, a chance to learn new things, and an opportunity to demonstrate to myself that I can continue to overcome obstacles and deliver a solution.
This is not the first time I’ve written and published a video game. In the early part of the 2000s, when I was much younger and still new to the industry, I joined a group of ambitious individuals who wanted to create a “modern” (at that time) homage to the classic dungeon-crawl role-playing games of the late 1980s, such as The Bard’s Tale, Might & Magic, and Wizardry. Having been a fan of that era of games myself growing up, I was excited to help out, and being the only real software developer in the group, I took the lead in building what would become The Devil Whiskey, which was self-published in 2003.
Back then, there weren’t many established game engines, and those that existed were expensive. The “free” options were difficult to use, and I was young and didn’t know any better, so we built the entire game from scratch. This ended up being a monumental task, one that taught me many lessons in my early career, especially since the entire project was done on the side by all of us — we each had day jobs and families, and we managed to somehow do this, too.
While it was definitely a group project, with many contributors, the vast majority of the code was done by three people. If I’d known how much work it would be, I wouldn’t have done it, but in the end, I’m glad I did.
Today, of course, things are very different. The wide availability of quality game engines, including both Unity and Unreal, and the huge variety of available content for purchase opens up doors that were simply non-existent 15 years ago.
I’ve been experimenting with Unity for a few years now, and when the global pandemic hit and I found myself with a lot of time for a hobby that was necessarily tied to my home, the idea of revisiting game development seemed fairly obvious. By leveraging Unity, the Unity Asset Store, and my newly found hobby time, I felt like I could single-handedly build and publish a game that I could be proud of. I still have that ambition.
As mentioned earlier, growing up in the 80s and early 90s meant I played a lot of the classic world exploration- / dungeon crawl-type games. Everything from The Bard’s Tale, to the early Ultima games, and most of the original Gold Box D&D titles were a part of my childhood. While my friends had NES systems, I had my PC, code wheels, maps, physical manuals, and graph paper.
My ambition, then, is to build a title that harkens back to some of those classic titles, but using a modern game engine, some updated mechanics, and relatively high-quality visuals. This is a tall order, but describes my goal for Magic of the Realm: Adventures (which we will refer to as MOTR:A).
A Brief Description of Magic of the Realm: Adventures
When I began the serious effort of building a coherent, complete, and publishable game, it was firmly in the realm of “hobby.” The goal was to have something to work on, with lots of different dimensions and aspects, that could keep me engaged and excited over the months of house-bound time to come.
Since it had to be interesting and fun, I resisted much in the way of structure, and started out with only a loose idea that MOTR:A would be a party-based game with turn-based combat, 3D “live” navigation, and the feel of the old dungeon-crawl games of my childhood. It has now been six months since I started work on MOTR:A, and I have a much more refined view of what I am building.
Magic of the Realm: Adventures is a world-exploration, character-development role-playing game. The focus of the game is on the exploration and discovery of both the world and the various storylines within it. Development of your character is through advancement and acquisition of skills and attributes, in a statistical manner similar to most tabletop role-playing games.
The game proceeds with a party of up to six characters, with any one of them being the “primary” at any given time (this dynamic is, in some ways, similar to many modern party-based role-playing games). Like many of the classic games of the 80s and 90s, however, each party member is a blank slate that can be built to the player’s liking. There are classes that define a focus for each character, and establish guardrails for development, but are not as restrictive as classes in a classic Dungeons & Dragons setting. Finally, as Magic of the Realm: Adventures is focused on how magic works within this unique setting, there is a special game dynamic for the magic system that will be revealed early in the party’s adventures.
The goal of the game design is to encourage players to explore the setting and the storyline, extend the abilities of their party, and ultimately “save the realm” in some way.
Turn-based combat removes the need to develop “twitch” reflexes and mechanisms to accelerate combat will reduce the redundancy and tedium common with dungeon-crawls that have complex combat systems. The goal is not to have a fast-paced game, per-se, but to keep it fun for modern audiences.
The setting is a typical fantasy setting, with a common, romanticized “medieval” semi-feudal governmental structure, several playable “races”, and the usual assortment of monsters and enemies.
While there will undoubtedly be some unique aspects to each part of the game as we go forward, the template is familiar to anyone who has played western RPGs in the past 40 years. There will be a heavy emphasis on exploration, and so a diversity of dungeons, caverns, mazes, etc. will be provided to keep the player engaged and help drive the story forward. In addition, a number of side-quests, NPCs, and social elements will allow the player to engage with the world and learn about both the history and the “present day” of the setting.
I will note, at this point, that I am taking care not to provide spoilers just in case I do finish this game and some of you wish to explore it. In future posts, when discussing spoilers I will clearly identify them as such, and tag the article appropriately. In general, however, I will try to avoid details that would ruin particular story points or surprises, and since the goal of this blog is to discuss my process, challenges, and solutions, details about the storyline should not come up very often.
The Journey So Far
There will be a number of articles in the future about the steps I’ve taken to-date, the challenges I’ve met, and how I’ve resolved them. With that being said, this introductory article would be incomplete without a description of where I am so far, and at least a brief synopsis of the core choices that have led me here.
It has been approximately six months since I began serious work on Magic of the Realm: Adventures. My original decision to use Unity has been positive; the tooling is very good, and though there are some rough edges (which future articles will discuss), the simply massive availability of high-quality artistic assets in the Unity Asset Store has been a major boost.
One key admission is that I am not, nor have I ever been, a talented visual artist. This is the one area that has most influenced my ability to build a game entirely on my own at this point (or, nearly so) — the ability to purchase high-quality artistic assets, including 3D models, textures, audio, and even some simple scripting components for relatively low prices has truly enabled this entire process.
Some people will fault my use of asset store assets and may think of my final product as looking “generic” or “unfinished” as a result. I would respond to that view with several points:
I am not a game studio. I am a single software engineer building a game as a hobby.
High-quality assets, used together with an eye for consistency and with enough work put in to make them really look good, are not uniquely available to AAA game studios, provided you are willing to accept that others may have some of the same assets you do in their titles.
If the game is fun, so what if some of the content appears a little “generic?”
Overall, the key point is that while I am spending some money buying assets, I would not be able to complete the project at all without them. And with them, I can not only complete and publish what will be a rather ambitious game, but to do so in as cost-effective a way as possible as to avoid the need to sell many hundreds of thousands of copies to make back my budget.
The subject of asset store assets, how to utilize them well, and what I’ve done to make them appear more integrated, will be addressed in more depth in future articles.
As of the publication of this article, my overall status is as follows:
- I have completed prototyping of many aspects of gameplay, and am refining the design as I learn.
- I have completed the first pass of key pieces of content, including some areas of the main city and the majority of the terrain components.
- I have integrated many of the core technology components I intend to use, including weather and day/night systems, some core AI mechanisms, player and game state management, and inventory systems.
- I have decided on other technologies to use, such as dialog management, scene management, and UI components, though many of the actual integration tasks remain to be done.
- I have developed the core storyline and have begun the process of drafting the story in a multi-branch storyline tracking system.
At a guess, as of early Fall, 2020, I would place myself at 20% complete, with a tentative release timeline sometime in mid-to-late 2022.
What’s Next?
I appreciate you reading this far. Even if all you did was skim this post, I appreciate you.
As I stated in the introduction, my goal is to share my journey, share my learnings, and, if possible, inspire others. Over the coming weeks, months, and years, I will be publishing articles about the past work I’ve done, decisions I’ve made and challenges I’ve faced, as well as the current issues I am facing, and my solutions.
Some of these articles will be deeply technical, such as a future article where I will describe my AI model in detail. Others will be philosophical, such as my treatise on purchased assets or discussion of game design philosophies. Many will likely contain both philosophical and technical elements, and hopefully all will be helpful. Follow me as I build yet another independent game, and write about it in yet another game development blog.
