I Got a Game Plan
I’m going to make a video game. I think this was always true. I’ve just been resisting it for half a century. My very first PC was a Radio Shack TRS-80. My mom kept it over the years, and I plan to get one of those display cases to "archive" it. I wrote A LOT of Basic code and recorded it to a cassette tape--that's how it was done back then. Debugging typing errors from Basic Magazine as I copied code listings over. I've written a lot of C/C++ code in my days as a software engineer for Reuters, working on financial data. I've also got some tabletop games and work out there published Paizo, Evil Hat Games, and Cortex Prime. If RPGs were IRL, my life paths would be Born poor, Soldier, Private Security, DJ, Programmer, Father, and Game Designer.
I'm also getting old, and I just can't twitch on the Xbox arena games like I ‘used to could!’ I'm also disappointed with the selection of RPG games out there; they're first-person shooters in the third person, as far as I care. YMMV. You know what THEY say...if you can't beat 'em...DIY. Project: Wizard Time(a working title) is my shot I'm hoping to bank in. The elevator market pitch is this: You play a wizard in a survival sandbox world where other wizards want your magics, and templars want to put you to the fire. The magic is Vancian, AKA Dying Earth inspired. Spells are hoarded and guarded resources to be recovered from ruins, stolen, or even a bit of skullbashery to obtain. You'll recruit companions and hirelings, build a wizard tower, and negotiate or fight with other wizards, people, and monsters. A sandbox game with some extraction play, some auto-battler features, and some base building.
“I got a game plan
Taking a shot, hoping it banks in..” - dvsn & Ty$, I believed it.
I'm prototyping the combat game loop. I have a pretty solid idea about how negotiations and conversations will work. I know how overland exploration and journeys will work. I don't know where the fun is in the combat mechanics yet, and I want to depart from what ARPGs are doing these days. It'll be a turn-based game as fast as I can make it go, but no twitching. I have a solid turn-based prototype built, and I'll branch it to prototype a second game, an RPG deck-builder inspired by the card game Netrunner.
Throwing Pixels is a newsletter about that adventure. Lots of things I do not know. Art directing, marketing, how to Steam, when to start that Steam page. Do I crowdfund? Maybe partner up with a game artist? I'll put it all down here as I figure it out. ICYMI, issues 1-6 are(will be) crossposted from Medium.
There are times that I think, for ducks' sake, I could be further along if I just use Unity or Unreal...I know C++ and some C#. However, I also get tattoos because the pain feels good. Welcome to Rolling Throwing Pixels!