Entry #0 - What is it about?

Background

I'm a game developer with some decent experience. Like every game developer worldwide, I occasionally feel this strange urge to create something I can call my own, my child, my precious. This desire stems from seeing games that could be better and witnessing niches that, once vibrant with awesome projects, have become empty and barren over time. It also arises from the need to test if my skills match my perception and if I'm capable of completing a game that can be shared with people and perhaps even earn some money.

About a year ago, I embarked on my own game development journey. I didn't dedicate too much time to it initially (in fact, I started very slowly, working about 3-4 hours a week with some longer breaks). However, right now, it's gaining momentum and showing potential to be genuinely Fun™. I also realize that my learning experiences from this project could be interesting to others. So, here it is – my first log entry describing this journey.

Production assumptions

1. Easy to start solo - While I accept the fact that at some point I will need to outsource parts of the work, I want to delay it as much as possible. Over half of the production time should be possible to be done by one person - me.

2. Fast prototyping, not much commitment - Working solo allows me to change a lot of stuff pretty frequently. That’s an ideal situation as I want to improve not only implementation, but also core design assumptions throughout the project. That also means that when adding new features, I spend very little time on making them “properly” and covering all the cases. Does it add value to the experience? Great! Move on.

3. It’s supposed to be fun but also released one day. No infinite, lifetime project.

4. Small scope - I want it to be playable and sellable quite quickly. I know that I will make a lot of mistakes that after some stage will be irreversible. So there is no point in aiming at the perfect project.

5. Around 10h of gameplay - While the core gameplay loop will be around 1h long, I want to have mechanics to easily extend it and reuse during one experience. 

6. Gameplay heavy, assets light - I’m mainly a programmer, so I think about something that could utilize this as effectively as possible. I don't try to create anything based on complex characters and story, or beautiful assets and detailed models. I need something that can prove to be valuable and fun with minimal assets (perfect scenario - only free assets and blocks). Something that doesn't need tons of content and balancing. Something with interesting mechanics and gameplay. 

7. UE5 3D singleplayer
   

The Game

Time for the juicy part: main design assumptions behind this game.

1. Tower defense meets base building. I want to have simple, wave based enemies attacking player owned settlement, while still having some more complicated economy, based on several types of resources and different paths of development.

2. Day / night cycle to introduce periods of chilled development and intense combat.

3. Distinctive characters that players can get attached to. All the activities are done through the hands of characters (up to ~8). Each of them will evolve separately and will provide different value to the player.

4. Parts of the base persisting between levels. While the player moves from level to level, he will have part of the base moved with him. It helps with attachment and feeling of progress, instead of starting every time from scratch (huge problem with old rts games).

5. Simple tribe story that justifies players progression between levels and some campaign events

6. Graph based campaign structure. Players can choose different paths they want to follow the campaign through, depending on their long term strategy. DAG of levels.

7. Atypical fantasy world. Characters, enemies and world design should be outside of any established fantasy canon. So no elves, dwarves, zombies etc.

8. Gameplay loop evolving with players progress. While at the beginning the player needs to micromanage everything, he should be able to switch to more strategic thinking and actions as his characters develop new skills and structures.

Of course most of these points could be extended into their own articles (and some will be in future DevLog entries) but for now that’s it. A solid gameplay assumptions base that I used to start working on the project.