Game Development Diary: April 2019

After committing to making a game, I’ve decided the best approach to keep myself motivate and on track is too write a diary on my progress. This diary will be a monthly thing and will cover various aspects I discover about the process of making a video game and the things I learn along the way.

Of course, in doing that, I’ll probably end up revealing a lot about the game. At least, more than I should for people who don’t want “spoilers,” but I can assure you that the kind of game I’m making won’t be overtly story driven and will rely on gameplay.

The premise

As discussed in the initial announcement entry, I’ve decided to create a Metroidvania style game that relies on action rather than narrative to keep the players interest. Just like one of my favourite game series of all time (at least it was until they forgot what made it awesome), I want to rely on the atmosphere to tell the story just like how Super Metroid did back in its day.

I’ve even been thinking about how I can convey everything using as few words as possible, at least, as few human language words as possible. Part of the experience I want to create is for you to be transported into an alien environment where there is no human presence, not even the playable character itself.

The challenges

Currently, I’m working on the sprites for the playable character and it is progressing pretty well. At least, now it is… with Metroid being the main inspiration, the design of the playable character was starting to a look a little too much like Samus’ power suit at one point. Thankfully, it ended up sorting itself out once things became a little more refined.

The big challenge which I’m saving for later is the colour of these sprites. At the moment I’ve created the sprites with simple shades of dark grey in order to get an outline of the shape, but that will end up changing over time. I’m thinking, once I work out the style of what the environments are going to look like, then I can figure out how to colour the player character so that their presence in the environment stands out naturally.

Along with the sprites, I’ve also been creating a list of player capabilities and power-ups that you can acquire. As I’ve been figuring out the look of the character, I’ve also been coming up with ways of creating little gameplay elements such as using small drones to explore or for combat that will differentiate the way you play the game.

At the moment, I don’t have a title for this game and I don’t even have a project title… these are things that will come later once I have more to work with.