Hello everyone! This is my first time writing a devlog and I have been putting it off...
I love watching devlogs on YouTube, but these videos always have so much to show off. This is my first solo game, so I want to focus on the development part first before I do too much on the aesthetic side of it. Why? Because that is the part where I feel I lack the most!
Let me introduce myself first. My name is Iris and I'm a game artist from the Netherlands. So my skills are tied to the creative side of game development. I love learning and I've always wanted to make a game by myself.
Alongside this, I also have a regular job, so I’m building this project in my free time whenever I can, but I’m doing my best to stay consistent.
3 months ago I decided to finally start the process and take it seriously. I knew I wanted to make a game in Unreal Engine, and I have followed tutorials for this engine before. But not knowing much about coding really held back my understanding of those blueprints. I have also followed some tutorials for making a game in Godot, but it often felt like I was copying what someone was doing without really understanding what I was writing.
So, back to 3 months ago, time to really put in the effort. The earlier I start, the sooner I’ll have a finished game. I began with a C++ fundamentals course focused on game programming. Not just going through it, but really trying to understand all the concepts. Sometimes that was easy, and sometimes that meant doing extra Googling and watching YouTube videos to wrap my head around things.
Of course, I couldn’t just start making a game from scratch with only this knowledge. So I decided to pick up another course that would help me set up my basic mechanics. What I don’t want is to end up with a generic project that anyone following the same course would make. So while working on these mechanics, I try to bend them a bit. Maybe with some additional tutorials or help from other developers, I can turn it into something more unique.
I’ll also be creating all the models myself, which should help give the game its own look and feel.
So what is my game about? Gobb (a goofy goblin) wakes up in a cave, a bit disoriented. The hero party had hired him to help carry their stuff so they could clear the cave. Instead, they left him deep inside, robbed of his belongings and without pay! Help Gobb escape the cave.
Something small I ran into so far is that you can pick up a torch from the wall. The problem? You could pick up as many as you wanted. So I implemented some logic to stop this from happening. If you already have a torch in your hand, you can’t pick up another. This probably sounds simple to a well-established game developer, but for me this was a real challenge!
What have I actually finished so far? Some really basic mechanics:
- Character movement: walking, running, jumping, crouching
- Lava floor that restarts the level when you "die"
- Picking up a torch from the wall
- Using the torch to burn an obstacle
Right now I’m working on the enemy. I’ve given him basic pathfinding and I’m currently working on a distraction mechanic. When the player throws a rock, the enemy will investigate that location.
In the meantime, I also enjoy researching. I’ve been reading a lot about marketing, mainly through this website: https://howtomarketagame.com/ I can really recommend it!
While building mechanics, I also want to start greyboxing some levels. But I’ve noticed I get a bit stuck on questions like: where do I place things? What is actually fun? So, of course, I started researching again.
I’ve been reading articles on: https://book.leveldesignbook.com/ And I’ve also started watching a course on level design fundamentals. I hope to have some levels blocked out soon!
What’s next? Mechanic-wise, I’m working towards a fully functioning enemy encounter. Next up in my course is weapons, shooting, and HP. I’ve made a temporary player model and added some basic animations, which I hope to implement soon.
Right now I’m using MetaHumans, but their proportions are very different from my goofy little goblin. To properly test movement, I decided to spend a bit of time on a simple player model (and honestly, also to keep things fun, since I still love 3D modelling).
So yeah, 3 months in and not a lot to show yet but I hope you’ll follow me on my journey to finishing my first game!
Now that my first devlog is out there I will try to give some more small updates frequently. If you want to see that please follow me on threads!
Iris | 3D Game Art 🎨 (@iris3dart2)
I have shared some animations of the player character there as well!