Where We’re Going…
Originally published January 1st, 2021
…we need a lot of roads, actually.
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Heck of a year, huh? I'm not usually the type to say “oh, this year was dreadful but next year will be better.” But this time, I absolutely think that. But for what it's worth, I do genuinely think 2021 will be better. I mean, it'd be hard to be worse than 2020, wouldn't it? For the first dev blog of 2021, I thought it'd be good to look back on 2020, see what's happened, and then look ahead at what 2021 is expected to bring. For me personally, it's hard to talk about this year without talking about the release of my game, Impressions. So, I suppose we should begin there.
Ah, Impressions, released back in February of 2020. That feels so long ago. I have a full postmortem blog planned for next month in celebration of this game's release, but I thought I'd get some early thoughts out there on the game's reception and how it has affected my thinking towards game development. As far as reception goes, the game has thankfully continued to be enjoyed. Most every review of the game has been positive. I'm sure it being free helps this somewhat, but it's still nice to see your work enjoyed. There is the occasional negative review here and there, but I have simply used the input from those to hopefully make future games better. That's what reviews are for, at the end of the day. What worked? What didn't? Take that info, and use it.
The game was the first that I've released while developing two games. Future was (and still is) also in development during this time. In some ways, this has worked out well. I knew Future was going to be a big one, so I've worked on making smaller games to break up the pace a bit. And truth be told, who knows if I would've tried to make Impressions without this structure. By the time I would've found time for it, it wouldn't...work. Impressions is very much a product of its time, something I'll touch on more in that postmortem. But simultaneously, developing two games at once is a double edged sword. Both projects would take longer than one would expect, and in general the development for both is slowed down as attention is divided. Had I focused exclusively on Impressions development, the game would have easily made a 2019 release as opposed to an early 2020 release. So with the game's release, I've learned a lot more about my current method of making games.
It also helped me learn more about the tools I work with and ways to accomplish certain tasks. One of my favorite technical aspects of Impressions is that the game only takes place between three scenes – the main menu, the “game” scene, and the credits. Truth be told, I probably could have lumped all the scenes together. But at the time, it was just easier to separate them and have them carry data from one scene to the next. I also learned how not to make a dialogue tree. The dialogue system in Impressions works, but it often felt like sculpting with a brick. Sure, I managed to make the sculpture I wanted, but I could have given myself better tools.
I'll go into much more detail over the Impressions journey in my next dev blog. I know, how cruel of me to do the whole “carrot on a stick” routine. But this blog is supposed to be dedicated to recapping the previous year, and it makes more sense to get into an Impressions deep dive when we're closer to the game's anniversary. As mentioned before, Future was also well on its way into being developed. Apparently, according to my development log (my record of work done on a certain day), Future was having its fourth major area blocked out by the time Impressions released. Given that there's five major areas and the two games were being developed simultaneously, this sounds like a slow rate of progression. And, well...you're not wrong. Like I said before, the two games were being developed at the same time. Plus, the worlds the player will visit in Future are rather large. Quite frankly, it's too large of a project for one person to handle by himself. But I'm doing it anyway because I'm crazy and I do love a challenge. If I focused exclusively on Future, it'd be much further along. I'm not saying it would be released anytime soon as of this writing, but it'd likely be a lot closer to that if I focused solely on it.
Since February, Future has seen a lot of progression. All its major areas have at least been blocked out, and two areas have a first pass of visuals in place. In addition, all the game's mechanics are in, albeit in a basic form. There's still a lot of touching up that those mechanics need, but it is playable. Additionally, a month after Impressions released, I began work on an RPG because I just don't know when to quit, apparently. Well, I say “work” but no coding really took place until late March, about a month and a half from Impressions release. Until then, I was just getting basic design together. Even after I started opening up Unity and began working on the prototype proper, I was still sometimes taking pencil to paper and designing characters or writing down design ideas. In addition, I was also taking a lot of time studying up on games that I felt would be like my RPG.
According to the development log I keep, the RPG has only just recently reached a stage where every major game mechanic was in place. How recent, you ask? The game reached this stage in early November, just a couple months before this dev blog was posted. A surprising amount has happened since. The game has been acting as something of a guinea pig for my 3D modeling practice. Some of my earliest models are going to be found here, and while I think they look good now I dread to think of how I'll feel about them even a year from now. I'm open to redoing some models as time goes on, but it's usually best to avoid redoing work as much as possible. Conundrums like this are why games take so long to make…
As far as goals for 2021 go, I'd say it's pretty straightforward – continue working on these games. I highly doubt either of these titles will be released in 2021, but I definitely want to get them in a state where they can be presentable. In particular, I really want to see Future get more fleshed out, possibly even develop it to the point where the game has its content in place and is mostly in the testing phase. In other words, I'm hoping that Future will be in a position where it could release in the first half of 2022. But please don't consider this a release date announcement, it's anything but that. This is just what I'm aiming to do this year. Another goal of mine is to finally update this website to act as a central hub to all my games, whether than a site specifically for War Ender. I know I've been talking about doing this for a while now, but I have every intention of finally doing so this year. The particulars of this will be discussed another time, but I know I want to try and time it so that it's unveiled about the same time as one of these games reaches a more presentable state.
For now, since the goal is to introduce the new site at roughly the same time as a boat load of new info for a game comes, I will likely start working on the design of this new site sometime within the first few months of the year. It'll depend on how quickly reaching that “presentable” stage comes. If I think it's going to come sooner than expected, than I'll start work on the site sooner. Same applies if I think it'll be later. Either way, I don't intend for the new site to be much more than a side project until time comes to really get it ready. Hard to say when to expect to see any of this, but considering I really want to show off a game in depth sooner rather than later, I would say we can try to see something of this within the first part of the year.
I suppose with no game releases coming this year, 2021 could turn out to be a quieter year for me. But then again, perhaps it's the promise of a couple new games incoming that will keep things lively. Properly showing off these games will certainly be exciting for me. It feels like it's been forever since I've been able to really show off my work in great detail. It's certainly been some time since I've gotten to show actual gameplay footage of a project, and I've been hungering for another chance to be a showoff and drum up a little hype. But, that will come when it does.
Happy new year!
-Lance T.
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