After weeks of improving my game engine and its map editing tools, I've finally settled on a game idea that I like, and began designing an environment for it.
The gameplay is a mix of exploration, puzzle solving and platforming. I'm using a similar control scheme for the player character as in Speebot, except this time the player can rotate the camera at will. The camera will also automatically rotate and zoom according to the player's movement direction, delivering a familiar third-person view experience.
I'm putting more effort into the visual style of the game this time, which I've been experimenting with for a while now. I'm liking the look I've achieved so far, and I will keep developing this art style further.
I've also created some music tracks for the game. The game is set in ancient magical ruins, so the soundtrack has to be appropriate - ambient, relaxing fantasy music that uses instruments like harps, flutes and pianos.
Since I'm working on the actual game now, I will be posting progress more often.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of rolling a custom game engine is being able to fully control the workflow. I can change 3D models, textures, entities, sounds and other data while my game is running - then press a key and reload it without recompiling. This is convenient, fast, and rids me of any interruptions. I like this.
Naturally, I want the same flexibility to apply to writing the actual game logic. This includes things like level progression, interactions with NPCs and other entities, dialog trees and so on. For this purpose I am creating a scenario system and a custom scripting language called YumeScript.
The system is already mostly implemented and in working condition. I'd like to share my experience in this post.
It's been a long time since my last post, but there's actually been quite a bit of progress on my unnamed action adventure game. I've been posting small updates on Twitter regularly, and it's time to summarize all those changes into one blog post.
New UI
I have a vague concept of a slick fantasy-ish aesthetic for my game in my head, which I used to re-skin the existing user interface. Buttons, dropdowns and other elements now look like this:
If you're looking to spend some of your hard earned money - you're in luck, because both of my released games Hypnorain and Speebot are on sale for a week!
In other news, I've been working on the next version of my game engine YUME. The development process has been pretty slow on account of my broken finger, but I'm making steady progress on the internal workflow tools - including a new advanced map editor. This is going to be a big help when I start making content for my next game.
I'll be posting a lot of screenshots and videos when the fun part of the next game's development begins - so stay tuned!
My game Speebot is finally out on Steam! If you’re a fan of 3D platformers, be sure to pick it up while the launch discount is active. There’s also a free demo to try before you buy.
Speebot has been in development since January 2016, and I’ve been working on it in my spare time by myself as a hobby. I’ve done all the programming, game design, graphics and music. I’ve also written the game engine from scratch.
People often ask me why I’ve decided to write my own game engine in the year 201X, when there are multiple general use engines available for free. There are many reasons, but in retrospect I can say that “inventing my own wheel” was an even better idea than I initially thought it was.