What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
Vincent Van Gogh

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

So, the plan is to make a rogue-like dungeon crawler game, complete with power-ups, monsters, and a killer story. At least that’s the ideal because after these first few weeks I’ve been through the ringer. As much as I’ve been excitedly anticipating this course,I’m not gonna lie the learning curve has been WAY steeper than I thought it would be. To begin with, even though I’ve been researching design ideas, taking notes on my favourite games and starting some legwork with the art since this summer, I have NO IDEA what I’m doing.I mean outside of some computer science knowledge and a familiarity with unity and its more common functions I’m essentially flying blind. In these first few weeks I’ve learned that having a planned and comprehensive workflow is EXTREMELY important because without it you’ll find yourself going in circles (not to mention the issues I found within the actual work).Starting this project I’ve had absolutely no safe space, from coding to art the experience has been… humbling to say the least and yet also strangely interesting, endearing and fun.

Error Error Error

In making my game I’ve had the privilege of finding out why so many people hate coding and software development, put simply… it sucks. For example, in the game I need enemies, something simple to start with (I’m still learning after all). So I came up with a lil’ slime boy, all he’ll do is find the player make a dash towards him and then stop for a second to wind up another go, simple enough right? Wrong. It took a week to get it right and the worst part was that the entire time the thing holding me back was two lines of code that needed alterations.This roadblock was a result of inexperience, which is fine, I’m here to learn after all.That doesn’t however change that designing a program is minefield of, boring documentation, syntax errors, and confusing “Beautiful Mind” style flowcharts. That said as INFURIATING as it can be at times there is nothing in the world that can replicate the feeling of solving the problem. The satisfaction that comes from designing something, wrestling with the code for a while and coming out with something functional (and hopefully fun, but we’ll get to that), is immeasurable. Not to mention that since I’ve spent the most time on thisI feel like I’ve learned way more about coding in these few weeks than I have at any other point in my life.

Beauty is in The Eye of the Beholder

One thing I was most excited for when starting this project was the art. For the last few years I’ve been making smaller pieces, some for my Instagram and some for commission. However, that was all 3D art made in blender, this would all be 2D pixel art. That however didn’t deter me, in fact I think it made things a lot easier. For example,I could make UI (User Interface) really easily, I could draw up a character and transfer them into pixels easily, and animations… well that was the one downside. While it allowed for a simpler art style, working in 2D meant that everything I did had to be done by hand, no computers helping me with tweening or tile maps. I was fine with this at first, but then I realized I don’t have the time, especially with the time it was taking to code, I just didn’t have the time or stamina to do that art by hand. If I did I might not be able to finish the coding in time and I’ll end up with “not a game” so for now I’m shelving it, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there… hopefully soon!

Mission Report

So at this point I’ve finished the character movement and basic combat, most of the abilities, the groundwork for the dungeon rooms and one enemy. I’m starting to sweat because there’s still much to do but I’m more confident in my skills, now more than ever. My goal will have to shrink to a much less lofty game but my mentality is that if I can make something fun then it’ll all be okay. Oh! Did I forget to mention that I have no ideaif this game will be fun or not? Or that I WON’T know till finish a demo and get someone to play it?… yeah… can’t wait.

Stay tuned! There's more to come...