jade's thoughts

Pick that game back up or so help me

_ Non-game-dev-specific-but-highly-transferable soft skills I've been learning in the past ~3 years include: "increasing frustration tolerance", "learn in smaller bites so I don't forget everything", and "don't take such extensive notes by hand when doing tutorials, but do annotate the code so I know what I'm doing".

...Okay, the last one might be a little more specific to game development, but it's still a transferable skill when it comes to learning other coding and programming stuff so it definitely counts.

I am writing this post to remind myself to take a little break from the frustration of granular problem-solving with the programming. My skill levels (and progress) are wildly mismatched when it comes to story development vs. actual programming, and previously I felt like I couldn't progress the story without having my programming skills up to snuff while also being stuck on how to actually develop the story itself. Not a fun combo! Which is why it's been nearly 3 years since I worked on the game.

Then, in September-ish of this year, I started playing Fields of Mistria. It felt like a bunch of new neural pathways opened all at once: I was observing how all the game mechanics fit together and how the story was intertwined with the different mechanics, and something clicked in my head. It was unified. It felt good to play. The story pacing was *chef's kiss*--and in fact, the overall pacing was as close to perfectly balanced as I can imagine. I'm in year 3 or 4 now and I still have things to unlock or to turn in to the museum and I don't feel rushed about it. Usually by y3 or y4 in Stardew I've done everything and I start to get bored. If I still want to play, sometimes I'll make a new save file. I haven't felt that urge once in Mistria so far, which to me is remarkable.

And, as happens with new media that tickles my brain like that, I started having ideas. Old ideas connected to new ones, certain concepts made way for even better ideas, and suddenly the obstacles I got stuck on previously didn't exist anymore.

I needed somewhere to store that jumble of thoughts, so now I have a new index card note system: I write my thoughts by hand on an index card, give it a sequential number for identification (001, 002, etc.), write the date, give it a topic/name and sometimes a category, and then I start writing. Only one side is lined, so I use the blank side either to write more notes packed tighter, or I draw the idea if relevant. If I run out of thoughts for a topic, I stop and move on to the next thought. If I have MORE thoughts on the topic, I make another note card and mutually note which cards each is connected to.

I've managed to spit out bits of plot, ideas on characters, locations, game mechanics, and how to progress the story and the development of the game. Obviously I have a long way to go, but it feels way less daunting now.

Project Scope

I've always intended to make this game a big one. I'm excited to add Fields of Mistria to the upper echelons of my Big Inspirations list (alongside Stardew Valley and Coral Island) because it opened my eyes to the possibilities of how I can tie progression to story and keep things interesting for a longer time.

But I also know that I get overwhelmed at the thought of doing one big thing. Obviously the solution is to break it up into smaller things. The plan is to develop specific mechanics and game loops that can be repurposed or expanded on later.

The 'core' game I want to make first will take place entirely in the starting "town" + the player's "farm". There won't be any mining or travelling to other planets/etc. just yet.

I've started a list of what I would constitute a minimum viable game. Each item on the list will be its own small project, but by keeping them small and working on them semi-simultaneously, I'm hoping the end product will feel unified and not like a bunch of disparate mechanics. I've seen other indie games fall into this trap to the point where the game is kinda fun to play, but new mechanics don't feel intuitive because they're only used for one specific task. I want to avoid that by having the same components under the hood for multiple systems like foraging and mining, or cooking and crafting, rather than developing unique mechanics for each system.

Roadmap

Your farm will be your spaceship, which is docked to Nebula's Bounty, the space station where the game begins. Think of it like Pelican Town in Stardew Valley. The station will have building interiors, but you won't be able to go to any other 'maps' aside from your spaceship (which will function as your farm). Think of it like playing Stardew but having no beach access, no Cindersap Forest access, no Mountain Road access, et cetera.

I need to develop these core mechanics to make the game work:

That will constitute a minimum viable game in my eyes. But it's still missing a lot of what are considered core features, so next after that will be:

I'm probably forgetting stuff, but that's where I'm at to start.

Feels good to get some momentum again. Looking forward to seeing where this takes me. :)

#dev blog #godot #journey to developerdom #making games #nebula's bounty #programming #space farm game