Table of Contents

Overview

The GameDev.TV has come and gone which means it's time for my first project debrief! First we’ll cover the timeline for the project, then I’ll talk about my thoughts on specific happenings during the project, and finally I’ll show the results of the game jam and what I want to improve on for future projects.

Project Timeline

Day 1 - Theme revealed & Initial Ideas:

• Theme was revealed at 2pm PST, “Tiny Worlds”
• Had several ideas:
  • Keeper of Fae village
    • Villages are hidden behind fae doors you see on the trunks of trees
    • You are the keeper of the village and thus are in charge of taking care of the villages residents
    • Couldn’t decide between combat focused game where you go out to gather things and fight whatever is out there that’s stopping you from getting the items or mundane exploration to seek out and find these items
  • Snow globe related ideas
    • Some thoughts my wife had about possible themes when I chatted with her about my ideas.
    • She suggested either a game where you design snow globes or one where you’re trapped in a series of snow globes and must solve puzzles to make your way through each one and eventually escape back to the real world.
    • I loved both of these ideas, and will save them for possible future projects, but I have no way to make the art assets for these ideas in the time frame I had.
      • I have a little drawing experience but 0 game asset creation experience.
    • I really want to explore the snow globe puzzle game concept at some point. It would be a good design challenge.
• I ended up going with the mundane exploration idea as I wanted to create something cozy.
  • I also needed to use free art assets and there were some provided assets that I could use for this idea.
  • These were 2D RPG style assets which is something I hadn’t made before, but the style of game intrigued me.
  • The idea that formed was in the same style as other 2D RPGs like Zelda titles of old.
• I needed to stop around 5:30pm or so as I had offered to make dinner. After that I had some personal responsibilities to attend to which kept me busy for the rest of the night.
• Total hours worked on the project so far: 2 hrs 30m

Day 2 - No work done / social events day

• My wife and I had plans this day so I wasn’t able to work on the project.
• Total hours worked on the project so far: 2hrs 20m

Day 3 - Starting to realize the large scope

• Went through my normal morning routine and started working on the project around 10am.

• This was my first time making a 2D RPG [Role Playing Game] type project so the first thing I wanted to dive into was creating the village map.

• I looked up and started following some tutorials on the process.

• After getting sprite tile sheets squared away and learning how to use the tools in the Unity Engine, I got hung up on what I wanted the village to look like.

• I’ve made a 2D side scroller before, but that was roughly…

  looks at github profile

  About 7 years ago?!

  • Wow it’s been much longer than I thought it was.