Posted April 29, 2023 by Oarc
I started this project like lots of hobby game projects start, with an idea of merging 2 games I liked. Kerbal Space Program meets A Short Hike. They are 2 completely different and great games. I wanted the casual simplicity of A Short Hike, with it's beautiful miniature world set in a miniature planetary system with semi-realistic physics. At the time of this devlog, I have a miniature planetary system, where the player is taught how to fly a spaceship in order to deliver packages.
I took the general advice I read online to heart and made sure I wasn't trying to make a dream game. I made sure the scope was realistic and achievable within a year on zero budget. I had 2 real goals. First, make a game I would be proud of. Second, learn as much as I could about game dev along the way. For the first goal, I'm proud of where I've gotten to but I would like to polish the game as much as I can before calling it done. Regarding the second goal, I covered a lot of general and Unity specific game development topics so I at least have a rough idea of the breadth involved for making a good "real" game.
My first commit was technically on April 4 2022, but I really only started in August 2022. I had a few months where no work was done (family, travel, sickness, etc.). For the weeks where I was working, I probably averaged about 5-10 hours per week if I had to make a guess.
Where the game stands now:
I'd like to try decide what things I can reasonably polish soon and wrap up the game in the next 2 months. One big thing I want to add are some embedded tutorial videos that come up with the dialog. Teaching orbital mechanics is HARD and I think this will help.
All in all, I feel pretty proud of this being my first game. I learned a heck of a lot along the way, and I'm hoping that at least some people get a few minutes of enjoyment out of my game!