Hello, Gang!
This will be my first game jam. First of many.
So this is great, and probably something that many noobs can learn from my mistakes. Let me explain
A little about myself:
I first started learning code in 1998 with the intention and desire to make games. I was fourteen. I spent years learning C++ and programming trash (lol) . Right before I turned eighteen, I found myself doing freelance work for web development, and that stint lasted for twelve years. When I turned thirty, I decided I was done doing slave work for others, and decided I was going to only work for myself. I took a break from code for a while, fell in love and got married, had a couple kids, ... it was awesome.
Two years ago, I downloaded unity and started dinking around. I called a friend and said "lets make a game" and then we come to the here and now.
My friend, Jake, is a gamer , and the game designer for the game. He is a great guy, super father, and a good friend. So when I explain this story, don't think I am talking down on him. Life is just tough, and it is hard for anyone to have a side project, even myself. So the major lessons here:
1) We never really designed the game. Crazy, right? Jake had an idea, we slammed around ideas rough and hard, and I just started programming. After 10k lines of code, certain things that may not have been solidified, are now petrified in the game - to do it differently would just require a lot of lost time.
2) The game idea is huge, and probably not the best idea for a two man team to take on, much less a game I should have taken on without design.
So the unity project was started in March 2019, the blog was started in May 2019, and the first lines of code were written in June of the same year. The project is a year and a half old, and it is driving me nuts. The code is not the cleanest, but it isn't bad. I have been able to keep at it on and off for quite some time. All of the design has literally been done by myself, shooting from the hip, just slapping it together, not realizing that it might not be the best idea, and doing more code around it, making it harder for myself to contemplate changing it.
I was actually considering just giving up, for about a month now. I started to consider doing another jam, and then I found this. Perfect! Lets just do it. Cut the fat as we get closer to the dead line, play test the crap out of it. The plan is to get it as good as I can before the dead line for the jam, check out any feedback, implement anything in the feedback, and rerelease two weeks after with critique changes.
So the project blog is http://wild-realms.com
The game is called "wild realms"
I currently do not have a playable prototype up, but I absolutely will submit one for this jam by months end.
Here is to progress and finally finishing something in 2021!!!!