Posted October 06, 2024 by CitizenSnipz
I'm CitizenSnipz and I'm starting this devlog to chronicle the process of creating my game, Cage of Light. I'm the sole developer but I'm outsourcing the majority of the art to other artists that I feel align with my vision for the game. Although I'm trained in computer animation, all things Maya and I'm handy with Photoshop and After Effects, I'd rather leave those tasks to people that are better at it than myself. Not only that, but developing and designing the game is in and of itself a monumental task and having artists handle the art will not only improve the art itself, but give me more time to focus on the core gameplay. Enough about me, let's talk about the game Cage of Light.
Cage of Light will be a story-driven, single player cyberpunk ARPG. I chose this because I was seeing other people do great things in the cyberpunk genre but none really captured that classic cyberpunk magic I'd been craving. Either they expanded the world to include aliens or monsters or they focused heavily on being a shooter or some other mechanic that didn't really interest me. What I wanted was a cyberpunk game that focused solely on my favorite part of cyberpunk: netrunners.
Cage of Light is about Rayvan, a "runner" that uncovers the details behind her father's mysterious death and it leads her down a dangerous path of addiction, betrayal and deception. She is as much a part of the worst parts of her world as she is a victim of it and she has to struggle with this as the rabbit hole deepens.
I wrote most of the story and developed the characters first. I want the story to drive the game, not the other way around. Everything in the game should feel like it belongs and it should make sense for her and the world she inhabits. Once the basic story beats were resolved, I set about building the world and the lore. Every day I work on the game, I develop this further by absorbing everything cyberpunk from novels, to comics to anime, movies and games. Story driven games are my very favorite and I want to explore the medium of games as a means of storytelling. I really hope every enjoys the story as well as the mechanics I'm designing for the game.
As Rayvan, players can expect fast paced melee combat but also a hacking mechanic. Much like Cyberpunk 2077, Rayvan will be able to enter a "hacking mode" where she can select targets to hack using her available skills. She will need to use this to overcome certain situations as it will not always be possible to use her ninja-like netrunner combat to get past all enemies.
I have much more planned for this game such as:
I'll be taking my time to get this right and spending time to do things other than code are just as essential but they slow down progress somewhat. That being said I truly enjoy working on this and I hope that shines through with the end result. If a game like this sounds up your alley and you're interested to know more, follow for more updates and comment if you'd like. I'll try to update this devlog when I have something useful to share. Thanks for reading!
-CitizenSnipz