There has always been a nostalgic me. Moments that define me and moments that hold me steadfast in adversity have always been there. Some make me hopeful, and some soothe me when things go wrong.
On the other hand, I love Engineering. To some, they may not be able to become what they answered in their 2nd grade exam question, ‘What do you want to become?’, but for me, it was ‘An Engineer’, always. But it was never software that inspired me, but the ones more core, like Mechanical and Robotics. In the world, some tradeoffs need to be made; money matters. To be honest, it was even better to be in software. You get ultimate freedom in creating anything in a virtual world, just using a computer.
So what’s my thing, what has it all? It’s Game Development. It includes scripting, mechanics, physics, and creativity. Apart from all this, a place to recreate some nostalgic moments from your life.
Consider this blog to be my logbook for this journey.
Some decisions to make
- Purpose: It’s simple, engineer moments from my life. Relive them. Make it a visual novel, but one that is playable and closely feels like reliving those moments.
- Tone/Feel: As close to the actual experiences as possible.
- 2D/3D: Working with 2D is feasible considering time. But some levels may be in 3D, once a proper workflow is established, and it may be heavily dependent on online assets.
- Arts Style: Pixel Art
- Tool: Godot Game Engine, considering it to be the best for 2D games. Aseprite for asset design. While my focus is to develop my own assets, making me focus on every pixel and hence indulge more in playing with it as well as making it, I may choose assets initially until I complete the appropriate course for Pixel Art.
My Game Development Lifecycle
The main issue I may face may not be the skills needed, but my motivation. And it’s common in Game Development to have phases of low. To conquer this, I will be dividing my workflow into the following sections.
- Story Design.
- Asset development using Pixel Art.
- Level Design.
- Environment Design.
- Mechanics.
- Modelling and Scripting.
- Getting Inspirations.
I may switch from one to another to bring some variety. It may seem too much to worry about, but it’s necessary.
First Inspirations
Prompting ChatGPT led me to these images. The first one is just perfect. It’s what I want. I get several possibilities with this one. Keep me as a playable or keep something else as playable. Maybe a cat, which jumps over the scene and has a quest. The second image depicts how I want my cut-scenes to be. The third one is closer to my vision of how it can go. Instead of these scenes exactly, I create ones closer to my memories.
Goals for 2025
My goal for the rest of this year is to create a workflow, rather than the game itself. Pixel Art takes time to master, so does a Game Engine. While I may have done some work in these two aspects, level design, environment design, and mechanics are some aspects I need to perfect first.
So it’s simple.
- Practice Pixel Art, preferably create assets for use in the Game.
- Practice GoDot and GDScripts.
- Understand the design of levels, environments, and mechanics.
- Make one level as close to the actual vision as possible.
- Script stories to base levels on.
- Document the process.
Goals for June 2025
- Practice ‘Pixel Art Master Course – Beginner to Professional/Freelance by Mislav Majdandžić in Aseprite.
- Understand GoDot Game Engine.