I hit a brick wall with the project. Simply put, it all became a bit overwhelming to think about, I lost track of where I was and what needed to be done, and I kept putting off working on it. It wasn’t fun, it was stressful. I constantly remind myself this is going to be a small project – not a full game, but more a proof-of-concept demo – but the reality is that doesn’t make it any easier. Game development, in general, is gruelling and difficult.
I think taking a break has really helped. I’ve returned feeling excited again, and with a clearer picture of what needs to be done.
I took out some paper, and broke everything down into milestones. I decided the first version of the game – v0.1 – should focus on a simple “free play” mode, and not attempt any kind of small campaign. I broke it down into 8 sub milestones, each covering a small chunk of what’s needed, in order. When v0.1 is complete, the idea is there should be a playable build, that I can get feedback on.
For v0.01, the goal is to have three maps, and three game modes. All three maps will be in the same biome, and heavily share assets. The three game modes I have in mind are called; Skirmish, Conquest and Invasion. Essentially, three flashy names for; deathmatch, assault, and defend.
Today I finished up the last requirement for the first sub-milestone, so “Skirmish” is working. The AI vehicles will move in, attack each other, and can be destroyed. The game recognises when the mission is over and issues victory or defeat.
A little aside; before I took a break, I had been building an objective system that I intended to be robust and friendly to use, dragging-and-dropping objectives in and linking them. I initially tried to expand on it, before I realised I was vastly over designing what should be a relatively simple system. Instead, I made a simple “Skirmish” mission script, that had enough options to allow customisation, but wasn’t so overdesigned it needed a whole bunch of nested objects inter-linked to work.
I was trying to design a perfect system, when a simple script was “good enough”. At the end of the day, it achieves the same thing, but it is vastly simpler and less maintenance.
The next sub-milestone is about getting the “Conquest” game type working. As I can re-use a lot of the Skirmish mission script for it, the focus is instead on making sure emplacements and infantry work properly, and that the friendly AI will advance on the village.
Parabellum 