First day is done, and things are not looking particularly good.

I’ve been in this place before.

Usually I’m most interested in developing systems-heavy games. Start with simulationist leanings, toss in wonky AI with seemingly unclear motivations and finish up with open-ended gameplay – surefire recipe to keep me coding ’til break of dawn. (Also the most probable reason for why I’ve finished only a handful of all the projects I have started…)

So of course this time I wanted to make something at the opposing end of the spectrum. Bespoke, linear content. Something I could actually finish without regrets this weekend, instead of lamenting all the systems I had to drop to make the deadline.

I didn’t much care for the theme this time. I had a general idea coming in – real world setting, exploration, minimal-to-non-existent mechanics. A walking simulator, frankly. Luckily I was already planning to use early FPS aesthetics, Build-engine is pretty ancient technology at this point, right?

The thing is… turns out I’m just bad at making content. Trying to wrestle boxes and sprites into something resembling a neighborhood was tedious and took most of the day. At this point I have maybe 15% of the map made. If I don’t find some major shortcuts or ways to make my workflow faster, I’ll be unlikely to finish this during compo. Maybe jam is better idea anyway, I could make use of all the CC0-material I’ve acquired over the years.

Overall, I’m not particularly happy of the progress so far but hey, there’s still another day to come. Also… there’s certain ambiance I like about in it. I wanted to capture something of the quiet, windy fall nights that finally came after hot and blazing summer. Looking at the little diorama I managed to cobble together today, I think I succeeded.

Take a look for yourself. See?

My house is over there.

Tags: diary, my house is over there