Hey all, hope you all have been having a great February so far.
We’ve still got a ways off until launch, so I wanted to start writing monthly dev logs for all of you to give you a peek into the game’s development. To start, it felt fitting to talk about what inspired me to make the game in the first place.
I wrote so many little short stories as a kid–and for a while, a lot of them were tales of pirates and buried treasure. The stories weren’t great, and I never finished any of them, but even at an early age, I knew I wanted to be a storyteller.
The idea for Bilkins' Folly came about after my wife lost her wedding ring in the garden. I was wandering around with a metal detector trying to find it while my dog Holly helped. (Holly’s a big fan of digging around.) While we mostly found useless crap, I thought this experience would make a solid premise for a story and started a small buried-treasure game prototype.
If you would believe it, Bilkins’ Folly never started as a pirate-themed game. It was originally a game about treasure hunting with a metal detector that was set in the modern era. However, as the story developed, the time period changed along with it as I recalled those stories I wrote in my childhood about pirates and treasure. Of course, because of this, the metal detector thing didn’t make sense anymore. That left me wondering how the player would find those hidden treasures…and after recalling how Holly had been so enthusiastic about digging holes with me, it wasn’t a huge leap to bring her into the game.
As development continued further, the (then unnamed) dog in the game grew into more than just a copy of Holly and eventually would represent all the important pups I’ve had throughout my life. There was my childhood dog Bandit, who used to bash around the bush with me as a kid while we’d go exploring. (I was a child of the 80s; parental supervision was optional.) There was also Jess, the family pooch my own kids got to grow up with, who would watch over orphaned lambs and mother tiny fostered kittens…eventually breaking my heart more than anything in this world.
Holly’s playfulness got mixed up with the adventurous spirit of Bandit and the loving nature of Jess, and thanks to them, Drayton was born. This game is dedicated to all three of them.
So in my head, the telling of Bilkins’ Folly started when I was a kid, trying to write my own pirate tales and not doing a great job at it. But it wasn’t until I spent some time reflecting on the relationships from throughout my life that I really had a strong sense of what the story would be and how the themes would tie together.
As far as media goes, there’s a lot that has inspired me to make Bilkins’ Folly–especially other video games, obviously. Breath of the Wild, Link’s Awakening, and Outer Wilds all come to mind. People always tell me the game reminds them of Monkey Island, and that’s partially by design, but the Zelda games are and have always been my biggest inspiration. I’ve always loved how those series of games handle exploration as a lead-in to game progression, which I have tried to capture in Bilkins’ Folly’s design. I was also really inspired by this show called The Curse of Oak Island. Drayton’s name is actually a nod to one of the characters, Gary Drayton–a metal detectorist and career treasure hunter.
That’s my story. This game’s story is really special to me, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you eventually. Until then, feel free to comment below and let me know what else about Bilkins’ Folly you’re itching to learn more about.
Oh, and if you haven’t already, please wishlist the game! I’d really appreciate it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1526370/Bilkins_Folly/
Anyway, thanks for reading. Cheers!
Luke