Hey everyone. I’m a 30-year-old solo dev starting this thread to document the journey of my first major project: Blackwater Chronicles, and frankly, to keep my feet to the fire so I don't stop working on it.

To be completely honest, I’m a total noob in the actual game development world. But I’ve been gaming for over 27 years—I was basically born with a PS1 controller in one hand and a keyboard in the other. For years, I played games competitively across MMORPGs, MOBAs, and FPSs, always striving for that top 1% bracket. But lately, everything feels dull. My expectations are through the roof, and modern games just aren't hitting the spot. After thinking about it for 12 years, I finally decided to learn programming(started 7 years ago) and build the exact game I want to play—something that fills the missing gaps and layers on true depth.

People and friends keep telling me I need clear boundaries, that I should stop adding features and just "focus on the simple." But if I wanted a simple, safe game, I wouldn't have started this journey. I’d still be playing the same repetitive stuff. I want more freedom, more build variety, and absolute player creativity without artificial meta restrictions.
The Vision

Ai concept cover art

Blackwater Chronicles is a massive 3D Sandbox RPG. I am trying to capture the specific aspects that made games great in my eyes: the raw atmosphere and simulation of Kenshi, the world-building and reactivity of Fallout, Skyrim, and Oblivion, the sense of scale from old-school World of Warcraft, and the mechanical depth of Baldur's Gate 3.

I don't expect to magically match the caliber of those massive studios alone, but I am chasing that exact feeling, ambience, and sheer depth of simulation.

Ai concept map of the world

The Technical Pipeline (and Pitfalls)

Managing a massive sandbox solo means being smart about the asset pipeline. I have zero art experience, so I've been experimenting with alternative workflows:

The Initial Idea: I started out trying to build a deep, dialogue-heavy system using local AI models to generate image sliders for concepts. I threw it out. The artwork felt like static concepts rather than a living game, and the setup didn't satisfy my gameplay needs.

The 3D Pivot: I shifted to a full 3D layout using Blender to kitbash untextured low-poly geometry.

Dither Hell: To avoid dealing with textures and complex color theory, I opted for a strict 1-bit visual style. I spent days in absolute hell trying to get screen-space dithering and 3D lighting to play nice. I kept getting massive, ugly light blobs, lost contrast, and artifacts that drove me out of my mind.

I almost gave up and considered coloring everything by hand in Blender. Then I looked closer at Return of the Obra Dinn and realized that this 1-bit 3D space is entirely possible if you handle the math right.

Current Status (As of 6/6/2026)
Right now, I am deep into researching the documentation and rendering post-mortems of 1-bit (or 2bit with 3 shades of Green plus black) 3D engines to fix my shader pipeline early before the project scales up. I’m currently testing a restricted 2-color palette to keep the layout locked down while preserving the atmospheric shadows the game needs.

I’ll be updating this thread with my progress, code snippets, and design hurdles. If anyone else here has fought the battle against 3D lighting in a 1-bit post-processing shader, let's talk.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ps I know many people hate Ai in general and specifically in development. I actually love them. Because an impossible dream is now more than ever possible.

8/6/2026

Shaders, Collision Logic & Autonomous AI Companions

Hey everyone, 

Here is a breakdown of the logical progress and systems architecture I’ve been working on for Blackwater Chronicles:

Technical & Visual Progress

I made some solid headway with the 1-bit shaders today. They are nowhere near final, but the foundation is there. I also implemented an "X-ray" occlusion system so you can see the player character when they move behind walls. While fixing that, I overhauled the collision logic—you will no longer get wall-locked by small bumps, and this natively solved the logic for traversing up and down stairs. 

Story & World Concept

We are building a deep sandbox RPG, but Act 1 is highly structured to get you into the world. 

• The Blackwater Den:You start as a prisoner here. It is considered the center of "freedom," but it's ruled by a ruthless, bloated Trade Prince named Leviathan. 
• Factions: The city hosts the main guild halls for the Assassin’s Guild, the Thieves Guild, and the Pirate Cartel.
• Branching Paths:How you escape the prison dictates your starting trajectory. Depending on your choices, you will align with different "mentors" (separate from standard companions), which shapes your early game. 

Gameplay & Scope

While it is a sandbox, the design is currently in a very fluid state. To deliver the tight, systemic RPG experience I want, I am deliberately cutting feature bloat. For example, free-building structures anywhere in the overworld is a no-go. The focus is entirely on combat, systems, and party survival.

The Autonomous Companion System (The Core Mechanic)

This is the mechanic I am most excited about. You [b]do not[/b] directly control your companions in combat. You play your character in real-time, and your party members operate autonomously based on their role, skill level, and current needs. You influence their tactics and roles strictly through conversational dialogue. 

To make this work, they operate on a mathematical utility AI rather than a basic script. When a ranged DPS evaluates the battlefield, they don't just shoot the closest thing. They calculate distance (safety) versus the value of the target. 

I’ve split "Threat" into two categories: Real Threat(base DPS/Healers) and Artificial Threat (Tanks generating aggro/taunts). 

Here is the exact equation the AI uses to select a target:

How it works:

• St(Target Score): The AI scores every enemy. The highest score gets attacked.
• D (Distance):Ensures ranged characters factor in their safety. 
• Treal vs. TartReal threat is actual damage/healing output. Artificial threat is forced aggro.
• w1, w2, w3 (Tactical Weights): These multipliers shift based on the role you discuss with the companion.
• epsilon(L) (The Experience Margin):This is the crucial part. Low-level (noob) companions have a high error margin epsilon. They panic, make mistakes, and fall for Artificial Threat Tart easily. As their Level L increases, that error drops. Veteran companions do pristine math—they become immune to basic taunts and ruthlessly prioritize taking down theTreal targets, like squishy healers. 

That is a lot for one day, but the systems are coming together. 

For full transparency: I am architecting all of this using an AI super-stack pipeline. I am not hiding that. My goal is to build and ship this game, and orchestrating these AI tools is what makes a massive, systems-heavy RPG like this possible for a solo dev.

I'm jumping back into the code. Open to any questions, thoughts, or feedback!

11/6/2026

Update #2 - Ditching Hard Classes for an Organic "Title" System

Hey everyone, 

A quick update on the mechanical side of things. Since I am building this as a massive, open-ended sandbox, the traditional "Pick a Class at Level 1" structure felt entirely wrong for the vision. I wanted a system that rewarded organic play but still gave players distinct identities and powerful builds.

We completely ripped out hard classes and replaced them with a two-tier progression system: Organic Stats and The Rune Tree.

Tier 1: The Organic Foundation (Stats & Skills)

At the base level, you have your classic attributes: STR, INT, DEX, PER, WIS, CON, CHA.

Beneath that is a purely organic skill system inspired by Oblivion and Kenshi. If you want to get better at swinging a two-handed sword, you have to go swing a two-handed sword. If you want to run faster, you run. Your base character organically shapes itself around how you actually play the game, rather than what buttons you clicked in a menu.

[Tier 2: The Rune System (The Specialization Engine)

• The Point Cap:At maximum level (100), a player will have exactly 45 points to spend across the Rune Trees.
• The Trees: There are 10 Fundamental Trees: Tank, Warrior, Holy, Elemental, Curse, Druid, Rogue, Hawkeye, Arcane, and Bard.
• The Threshold: It takes 20 points invested in a single tree to unlock its ultimate "Strong" rune. 
• The Opportunity Cost: Because of the 45-point cap, a player can perfectly master exactly two trees (20 + 20), leaving 5 points for utility. If they dump 26 points into Warrior, they permanently lock themselves out of a second ultimate rune.

The Payoff: The Dynamic Title System

This is where it all comes together. How you spend those 45 points, combined with what weapons you actively have equipped, dynamically assigns you a [b]Title[/b]. That Title isn't just text; it grants a massive, build-defining passive effect. 

(Note: The specific percentages below are just placeholders for testing the logic).

The "Pure" Masteries (Requires 40+ points in one tree):

If you dump almost all your points into one tree, you gain a Pure Title that ignores weapon types. It is raw, specialized power.

The 20/20 Weapon-Conditioned Hybrids:
This is where the sandbox gets fun. If you perfectly split your points (20/20) between two trees, your Title changes based on the weapons currently in your hands.

Example: Tank (20) & Warrior (20) — The Frontline

Example: Druid (20) & Curse (20) — The Decay

The "Free Hand" Specialists
I also wanted to explicitly support players who want to use a one-handed weapon with absolutely nothing in their offhand (the classic duelist or spellsword vibe), rather than forcing everyone into dual-wielding or shields.

• Warrior (20) + Rogue (20) [1H + Empty] -> Duelist: Dodging/parrying guarantees the next strike is a crit that ignores X% armor.
• Curse (20) + Warrior (20) [1H + Empty] -> Spellbreaker: The free hand acts as an anti-magic vacuum; you can parry and absorb magic projectiles.

Discussion

I am curious to hear from anyone who has built complex attribute/skill systems


Thanks for reading!

Devlog Update #3(13/6/26) : AI Asset Pipelines, Navigation, & Stat Architecture

Hey everyone, dropping in with a progress update covering the grind from yesterday and today. A lot of heavy lifting under the hood, specifically locking in the base engine mechanics and getting my local AI asset generation pipeline running.

Engine & Gameplay Updates

• Navigation System: Built the NavMesh and pathfinding logic. Allies can now successfully follow the player through complex mazes. Tied the exact same Nav system to the enemy AI so they dynamically path to the player when they draw aggro.
• UI Foundation: Hooked up a placeholder Main Menu with some basic settings, alongside a functional ESC/Pause menu.
• Bug Squashing: Fixed some minor lighting bugs that were causing visual artifacts.

The Custom AI Asset Pipeline
I’ve been setting up a heavy local workflow so I can synthesize my own assets rapidly without losing visual cohesion.

• Visual Style: Installed and trained several custom LoRAs for my local Text-to-Image AI to lock in the game's specific art direction.
• 3D Generation: Set up and trained a local Image-to-3D mesh model to convert those 2D generations into usable game assets.
• Audio Workflow: Installed and trained a local Text-to-SFX model for in-game sound effects. For the background music, I've hooked up a paid online API to generate the BGM tracks dynamically.

Core RPG Stat Architecture
Spent a lot of time mapping out the math for the character progression. Here are the final derived stats that actually govern combat (aside from specific spell/skill passives):
Attack Damage, Magic Damage, Attack Speed, Cast Speed, Max Mana, Max HP, Mana Regen, HP Regen, Dodge, Physical Resist (Armor), Magic Resist, Heal Cast Bonus, Heal Receive Bonus, CC Resist (Tenacity), CC Duration, Movement Speed.

Here is how the Base Stats correlate to those mechanics:

• STR: Attack Damage | Max HP (20%)
• DEX: Attack Speed | Dodge | Movement Speed
• INT: Magic Damage | Max MP (20%) | Magic Resist (50%)
• WIS: Max MP | MP Regen | Cooldown Reduction | Cast Speed
• CON: Max HP | HP Regen | Armor | Magic Resist (50%) | Tenacity (CC Resist) | Heal Received Bonus (50%) | CC Duration
• CHA: Heal Cast Bonus | Heal Received Bonus (50%)
• PER: Stealth Detection | Less prone to Artificial Threats

Developer's Corner / Current Roadblocks
The Parry/Block Scrape: I originally wanted to add dedicated Parry and Block mechanics for both spells and physical attacks, but it was going to make an absolute mess of the whole stat system. For now, it is completely scrapped so I can keep the core math clean.

The Perception Problem: I'm a bit stuck on the PER (Perception) stat. Right now it only governs stealth detection and reduces artificial threats. It feels incredibly weak and almost useless to the player compared to the other core stats. If anyone has ideas on what else Perception could logically govern in an ARPG format without overlapping into DEX/WIS, let me know(I tried Accuracy I won't have that stat in game it will make things more complicated, also the dodge stat and those who dodge are only the "Rogue" types those who invest on Dex and the Rogue Tree passives to any other player the dodge will be negligible)!