Project Overview
The Creation of my game
In early August of 2022, I started the journey of creating a game that I genuinely want to play, as well as a game I’d want to play with friends. From all of my favorite games, there is a consistent theme that I really enjoy, and I wanted to implement all these mechanics, systems, and ideas into one cohesive game!
Game Identity
A mechanically challenging, progressively difficult, 1-8 man RPG game with a core gameplay loop of defeating bosses and enemies while getting stronger through character progression.
Design Pillars
Leveling Up:
The player’s goal is to get stronger and stronger to overcome their challenges. These challenges will be in the form of difficult boss battles with mechanics to learn and conquer. The player will be able to level up through crafting items from professions, slaying enemies for gear, and spending currency in the town to get stronger items. Experience will be earned as you play, unlocking further abilities through your talent tree.
Class Fantasy & Customization of Skills:
The player will be able to customize their loadout in a way that allows them to express their class fantasy in a personalized way. This can be difficult to balance, however, this is a challenge I’m eager to take on. If we take a game like Path of Exile, World of Warcraft, or even Borderlands, skill trees are a wonderful way to give players a chance to make personalized and exciting builds. You can even try whacky combinations that might not be optimal, but fun! If you want to be a spellcaster who is half summoner, half healer, then we can make that happen! You may not heal as much as a pure healer, you may not deal as much damage as a pure dps, but if you overgear the fight and want to help your buddy out on lower difficulties, then you should have the freedom to off heal and play the way you find most enjoyable in the content that allows it.
Combat:
Combat will be in a 3rd person over-the-shoulder shooter/caster/slasher depending on your characters class. Melee Weapons, Magic, and Ranged Weapons will be used to slay foes, relying on a free-camera aim system where the player must aim at their targets, or they can choose to lock onto a target for ease of access as well. This targeting system will be useful for bridging the gap of accessibility issues, or for simply making it easier to stick to your target if you prefer to play that way.
Professions/Crafting:
Players will be able to progress their characters through professions as well. These professions will have their own skill levels that level with the character, as well as serve as an activity a player can do outside of the raiding environment, say when their friends aren’t online, or watching one of your favorite TV shows! Craft combat items, potions, armor, food buffs, and more! Prepare yourself for the adventure ahead by exploring your options in professions.
Blog Format
This blog is going to be raw, and organic. This is where I express my true thoughts on the project and you get a glimpse into the design philosophy I hold. You can watch how I plan, think, and act on my project as it progresses each month, really giving you an inside scoop. I will reference games, concepts, and ideas from other games to paint a picture of my goal, and these goals are what I refer back to in the middle of the month when I’m looking to refresh myself of my vision. Each goal is written at the start of the month, and I review the previous month prior to creating my new goal.
2022 Goals:
In 2022, I’m really going to be looking into creating a functioning and enjoyable hub space for the player to be in. For me, it starts with building the world, but that also includes NPCs, Building Stations, and potentially your player’s home (Player Housing sounds fun, but hard!). It’s going to be a challenge, but I want this to feel like the place the player can really feel like he’s role playing in as well as in the future meet up with friends before running a raid. Thinking of spaces like Stormwind in WoW, the Tower in Destiny 2, or any location where the player can relax and do maintenance on their character before going into battle is the name-of-the-game this month.
Review:
In August I was able to get a lot of the foundation started. There is still more work to be done around the foundation, but ultimately, I started the project, created some basic merchant mechanics, and really dove deep into getting my Jira and Confluence started. I really believe that the documentation process is going to set me up for success in the development of the game, because I find that when I’m organized and can clearly write out and see my goals, I’m capable of accomplishing them much faster and I stay on track easier. I spent more time creating my documents than I did actually building the world like I had intended. I will most likely be moving a lot of the “goals” from august into September. Since I started in August, I should’ve started off by creating a solid foundation of organization before diving deep into the creation of the game. So now, I’ve created my Jira and Confluence almost 80ish% completed, stacked with graphs, metrics, team goals, executive summaries, a Game Design Document, Brainstorms, Weekly Notes, and more, I feel like I’m confidently able to progress in actual creation of the game. I still have many mechanics and features to add into the Game Design Document, and the documentation process will never be finished, but alas, I have my foundation.
The Goals for September are really to pickup where I started in my August goals. Currently I only have a semi-functioning merchant building, with a fella who doesn’t sell anything properly. I want to finish his code and get him working properly, and then I’d like to finish creating the town. The goal is to create 10/12 of the buildings I have in mind. This gives me just over 2 buildings completed per week. This is quite an ambitious goal, but to narrow it down for me, I’m going to focus on creating their spaces, getting basic functionality in there, block mesh each building out, and then once each building is created I want to start putting in the code to make their systems actually function.
Current Building Ideas:
General Store Building
Weaponsmithing Station
Armorsmithing Station
Enchanting Station
Alchemy Station
Fishing Docks
Cooking Station
Player Housing Station
Stables station
Tavern
Target Dummy Station
Go-Cart Field
I want to make them look pretty and stylish, but that’s all to come in the future. For now, I want to make the town layout look functioning and proper, feel what it’s like to walk from building to building, and set the stage for the world building. Once the buildings are made in blockmesh, I will start with the code.
If I’m being honest though, I really want to learn how to shoot fireballs and teleport around!! But I have to stay on task!!! Maybe next month I’ll take a detour into some Player Character basic Combat skills :)