In the last few years I've been feeling tired of coding. That actually sucks a lot, because coding is one of the things I like the most to do. I like to describe coding as some form of modern magic. Developers mix up a bunch of words and something neat happens - nobody can convince me that's not some magical shit happening right there. But then I started working with web development and after a few years things kinda got boring.
Not because web development sucks or something like that, but because it wasn't because of web development that I started coding.
I have a long story with videogames. I watched a lot of action movies with my father, but when my grandma gave me a Master System, I felt something different. I could actually move stuff on screen in any way I wanted. I was only a kid and couldn't calculate the magnitude of that moment, but I can guarantee now that it has shaped a lot of my career as a developer.
Years later, as a teenager, I tried making some games and noticed it was harder than it looked. I used a lot of RPG Maker back then, from 2k to VX, but couldn't finish any game. I gave up on that for years, but sometimes would still have an idea for a game.
Then I started working as a Web Developer, and tried a few more times to make small games, but failed miserably. Well, it was still hard as I remembered, and even though I had more technical skill, I gave up again on that.
But then I started thinking a few months ago: "I started coding because I wanted to make games. Why haven't I done it yet?"
Well, and the answer is quite simple: I was a goddamn coward.
Finishing a game just the way I wanted always felt like too much. I had ideas, but in the end always thought "shit I don't know if I can handle all that shit". But well, guess what, I probably can't. But being a coward, I couldn't admit that.
So I decided to do something brave - some would call irresponsible -, because that's what courageous people do, right? Right? No? Anyway... I decided to create a game dev company.
Yeah, it's real. It's called MagicOwl Games, and the motto "Making Games Smarter". It already has a site that I'm still working on. Here you go: MagicOwl Games
Today, there's only me working on the studio. And because I still suck at making games, I decided to take some baby steps. I created an account on itch.io. It is a place where I want to post prototypes and smaller projects of the company. I already posted some learning stuff there. And I also accept donations.
Nowadays, 3 projects that I intend to work: the biggest one and planned to have some playable stuff by December is a MOBA with some mechanics of control points. By now, I have the written concept of some characters and some ideas on the map and the main mechanics. I'll be telling more about it as soon as I have updates on it.
There's a second project, I have less thing about it, it is a monster capture with some vaporwave twist on it. I plan to work on this in parallel with the moba, but I'll see. Sometimes I think I should work on this one first because it seems easier than the moba, but I also feel like this thought is some kind of self-sabotage. Tell me what do you think about it.
And the current project I'm focusing on is a simple tower defense to help me get a grip on some core game development knowledge. I don't have anything public from that project yet, but I can talk a little bit about it.
It's a game called Defenders of The Wise Horn. The plot, essentially is:
- There is an artifact called Wise Horn. The story of its true origins is lost, but it is believed that it belonged to a godly goat, and people believe it grants wisdom to the King.
- This artifact must be defended from the army of goblins. That's it. I honestly didn't think much about the background story because it is not relevant to this project.
DotWH is a game with the main purpose of teaching me stuff about pathfinding, collision management and reusability in game development. I gave myself the deadline of less than three months, so I have to finish by the end of March and publish on GOG.
What can be expected from this game is:
- 10 waves of enemies.
- Use and upgrade of 1 to 3 turrets.
- At first, only 1 kind of map.
I feel like this is something pretty achieavable for a little more than 2 months, but sometimes it seems a little overwhelming, I'm not gonna lie. I'm in a place where I still have to deal with everything, from code to art.
I'm using Godot Engine to develop this project. I chose it because I'm not stuck to a specific kind of game without having to rewrite a lot of stuff (like RPG Maker), but it has a better learning curve than Unity. Sometimes I think I should have picked Unity, but I don't have much time nowadays, and it felt just so much to use it that I decided to go with Godot.
For the future, besides working on the other two projects I mentioned, I plan on participating on some game jams under the company's name, to know people and to be seen, basically. I also what the company's games to have strong, robust AI systems, that will make gameplay feels like living entities interacting with the player, not just being played.
But let's finish this here for now. I'm writing this on the go, and I'm getting out of ideas, so it's better if I just stop. But tell me, game developer reading this, did you try building a game studio by yourself? What was your biggest challenge?
Top comments (0)