Devlog 1: Game Development Hell

History

Unemployed, therefore, Gamedev

"I could have made a better game", is something I often mutter after I finished playing certain games. I really like the idea but I bet if this feature is tweaked in a specific way, it would be better. But I had never acted upon that impulse. I imagine I would be able to make a better game, had I the time and money. I never tried until I am laid off from my old job.

After I got laid off, I have a hard time finding a job (this is during the covid pandemic). As a result, I start to think about becoming an indie game developer because I have coding skills and I am somewhat familiar with the game development pipeline. 

Visual Novel

But first, I decided to start small in my gamedev journey. I decided to learn Ren'Py and attempt to make a visual novel. The problem is that my writing experience revolves around writing reports and not fictional story to be enjoyed. As a result, it took me a lot of time to make a story because I don't know how to make a good fiction story in the first place. 

Finally, I finished a piece of writing that I felt good about. I then try to get feedback to make sure that I am not the only one who feel good about it. I submitted my story on a subreddit called " r/destructivereaders", and there I found out that my work is absolute dogshit. Something actually normal when writers do not have prior writing experience on their belt.

I take their feedback and find resources to help me write better stories. It took me months to finally wrote something serviceable and there I found out that writing good prose that would hook readers would be very time consuming. A game that mainly revolves around text would not be wise for me. Although my writing skill is better, I am much more confident in my coding and game design skills. 

My Big Dream Game

Consequently, I took what I can learn from Ren'Py and jump straight to Godot to make a more interactive medium. Not visual novel, but game with mechanics. Note that I originally want to make a small game in the form of a visual novel. Because I am not very confident in my prose, I decided to go straight to make my dream game, as opposed to a smaller game, like that aforementioned visual novel. 

It was not the wisest decision.  I really should have used my Ren'Py skills to make a quick game prototype. It would give me a habit that would push me to develop a dream game that would drag on for years.

My dream game was a game inspired by Puzzle-Quest. It's a match3 game combined with RPG Elements. I still have fond memories of that game I played since I was a kid, and I have dreamed of making my own take of that genre.

Game Development Hell

I overestimated my game design and storytelling skills that resulted in many aborted works. I can't communicate my idea clearly to the artists and the plot keeps on changing because I didn't have a solid grasp on my writing skills yet.  I also need to learn about GDScript as I go, which slows down the development.

However the most crucial aspect that caused this game to be stuck in a development hell is my rusty work ethics caused by the long-period of idleness not helped by my recent unemployment. My eating disorder that causes me to overeat which leads to me feeling bad afterwards also contributes. The aftereffect of overeating caused me to lose interest in developing game. I instead became more focused on exercising to burn the excess calories that my undisciplined eating habit brings.

Noticeable Improvement

Although it is in game development hell, my skill in storytelling as well as programming, slowly but surely, improves. Watching video essays on bad and good books and movies help me understand the logical process in crafting an emotional story. As I develop my code in Godot, I am becoming more aware of how unreadable and inefficient my old code is. I began to standardize my code and makes it more organized.  

This month I have released 2 small games while working on Azeline. I released a small RPGMaker game for a game jam and released a small prototype for a card game. This gives me the confidence that I need to push through my main project.

Azeline

Regarding the current progress of Azeline, the road to a full release is still long ahead but I am confident I am capable of releasing a demo this week. What I have at the moment is:

• A functioning match3 system
• A functioning active and passive skill system.
• An AI that can make a match3 on its own, while also casting skills.
• A trading system.
• All the art and audio assets are mostly finished.

The demo will contain a prologue featuring the core gameplay loop, the story communicated visually through Spine2D character animation, a working trade system, and a food system.  Watch out for the demo these coming weeks. Well, I wrote to myself, so... Putera you better finish the demo this week!