Dev check-in #2: We’ve got a name for the game.

It’s almost exactly a month since the last post. I’d planned on being more regular but ehh, once a month isn’t too bad! The good news is, the structure and productivity I’d talked about in that post hasn’t abandoned, and I’ve been quite motivated throughout, mostly thanks to that structure.

And so, a month later, I’m back to the same cafe to gather my thoughts and look ahead. So once again, what’s been up?

Notion continues to enhance my life

This may sound boring, but it’s probably one of the most exciting new developments (okay, it’s not, but only because the other stuff is even more exciting) Notion has taken over my planning, game design, and a bit of my life. What’s excellent about it is the freedom it gives you in the way you get to organize all your info (tables, boards, calendars) and create hyperlinks to other pages. I’ve even been transferring my 25K word design document on to it, and it just makes things so much easier to read! I’m also using it to not only plan ahead, but also track how much time has been spent on what tasks, so that it’s easier to judge and plan when I need to do similar tasks in the future (and this makes it a lot easier to write this post as well ha!) Lovely stuff:

Blurred cause secrets

In love with the industrial and brutal

Now as I’d already mentioned in the previous post, the game was going to be (in part) about abandoned places, but I didn’t know how I was going to make this fit with the rest of the game. Just as background dressing maybe? Then in a flash of inspiration (probably, I don’t really remember how I came upon it), I stumbled upon a solution. That’s all I’m gonna say for now. But yeah, brutal architecture. Love it. It’s gonna be in the game. Some screens:

It’s all a bit dark, but I’m sure you get the idea. The greatest thing though, is a few days after working on these, I caught the movie Dune. The visuals absolutely blew me away – specifically the mix of brutal architecture and organic shapes! Some shots looked very similar to the stuff I’ve shared above. So of course, I went ahead and got myself the Dune art book. Good stuff:

We’ve got combat

One thing I really wanted to do in my previous projects was add more traditional gameplay mechanics, combat being one of them, but as a new dev, the idea intimidated me and I kept things simple. But now that I’m working on my third project and have some experience, I felt that it was time to give it a shot. I’m quite excited by how much it adds to the game!

But it’s not just combat, there’s also a very exciting mechanic related to dreams. That’s all I can say at the moment! That’s gonna be the theme for these blogs for a few months – there’s just so much incomplete stuff that needs to be brought to a decent level before it can be talked about and announced!

Which brings us to the name. I’ve spent months going through, considering, adding and scrapping ideas for names, and through that have finally come upon one that I feel captures the atmosphere of the game, is unique, and also makes a lot of sense with the themes and the story: Reverie and Rust.
What do you think?

More work on the script

This week, I’ve had to return to working exclusively on the script again, adding lore, history, and filling in the big missing pieces. It’s a complex plot, and the more upfront work done on the writing and the structuring, the better it’ll all fit and flow together.

It’s a long road

At a few points in the past week, I’ve felt the weight of the project. It’s a big, heavy project, man! I’ve been tempted to take a month off, work on a smaller game or take part in a game jam. I don’t know if I’ll actually do that or just carry on working on this slowly and steadily. It’s gonna be a long road, and looking ahead is somewhat intimidating. In a way I wish this was my first one – you just don’t know what it’s gonna be like and you never get tired! Either way, December is gonna be quite light work wise, there’s a bit of travel and family visits planned. Think that’ll be good. At the moment, I really feel like playing some Rocksmith. I’m loving learning the electric guitar through that, but I can hardly ever find the time for it. Maybe I’ll do that today (or probably, I’ll just get on with work)

It’s also going to be a bit of a challenge maintaining finances through this project, as it’s a long and (possibly) expensive one. I’ll need to get a decent demo out soon and get some funding/ publishers on the project. But a decent demo requires time and money as well. Bit of a catch 22, but we’ll figure it out, that’s the indie dev life! Gotta keep on keeping on.

Stay updated

And as before, if you want to make sure you don’t miss any updates related to the new stuff, you can follow me on Twitter where I post quite regularly, or follow my newsletter:

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Until next time!

– Armaan