My initial plan was to post on this blog regarding translation, music, and so forth, far more often than has proven to be the case. That said, my recent work developing a game with a small group of friends and colleagues has given me plenty of desire to write about our progress, so perhaps it’s time to turn that around!
I’ve spent a good chunk of the past four years learning C# and Unity, and the process has been both incredibly edifying and a great opportunity to branch out skillwise. I’ve built a number of prototypes, done plenty of experimenting, and read several books on game design and other processes, but our project has been a great opportunity to bring those skills together to actually create some art.
From the outset, our motto was “limited scope.” One hears that advice often directed at budding developers, but that’s likely because it bears repeating. Our 2D game is designed to feature dialogue interactions, a very limited quest system, and a limited inventory of objects for resolving situations. We’re aiming for something no more than 45 minutes to an hour long, and have adhered to a limited scope mentality as we’ve written our story documents, design documents, and other materials. And even with those (relatively) tight constraints (and my own years of experience in the industry assuring me it would be the case), it’s still impressive and humbling just how much work goes into even a simple game.
Over the course of the next few weeks, for both my own record-keeping purposes and to give a window to anyone who might be interested in dipping their toes into independent development, I’d like to talk about our design process and my own work building our game in C# and Unity through a series of posts. I hope anyone who drops by this space finds them entertaining or, even better, useful!