If someone had told me a few years ago that I would one day develop my own game, I would probably have thought they were crazy. And now here I am, about to release it in the next few weeks...
Many will surely criticize the fact that the game is coming out so early, and rightly so. But just try testing your own game... especially if you really know every corner of it. Sure, I can look for bugs, but things like balance and gameplay feeling? Difficult. That’s why I depend on every single piece of criticism to adjust the game accordingly. I also expect a lot of critical voices, but I have to be able to handle that as long as they remain constructive.
I have a clear idea of what the game should be and what it should look like later. There is a fixed story about the island where the game takes place, as well as a set story of the hero you play.
Still, I’m just a single developer trying to realize my idea without a community or team. That’s also the main reason I decided to release the game now: in the hope that a small community will form, perhaps adding its own touch.
The basic principle of the game is meant to be relatively simple: There is a large world, in this case an island, with numerous dungeons and secrets to explore. You can (with a few exceptions like special places) build your own base almost anywhere and craft unique equipment, potions, buff food, and more. But it won’t be a survival game! You can find unique items, fight hordes of enemies, all the way up to huge world bosses. And it’s all embedded with many small and large stories. I’m definitely not reinventing the wheel here, but I want to create a gaming experience that you rarely encounter in this form, something I’ve missed in many games over the past decades.
Of course, the game won’t be to everyone’s taste and it won’t compare to bigger titles. Let’s not kid ourselves... I’m just a single developer. But I think a key point of the game will be that the world is completely handcrafted and not that generic stuff I see in so many games. The concept of the world and its story is already there, it just needs to be “put into practice.”
The world will be open world, but with a classic level structure. That means each area has a recommended level requirement. Anyone who likes these types of games will surely have fun here. And that’s exactly what it should be about: fun. That’s why I recommend everyone to play the demo first before buying the game. I don’t want you to get something you end up not enjoying.
Current Status Act 1 is currently about 50% complete. Actually, I wanted to be much further along by now, but the current area is already quite large and full of puzzles, secrets, and dungeons. I also recently added a dialog system, which I am currently using to create some dialogs to give the game more depth. However, the dialogs should not only contribute to the atmosphere but also have functions, such as assigning tasks. A good example is the blacksmith in the first village: if you bring him iron ore, he expands his shop inventory.
It is uncertain whether I will later give every NPC a dialog, but who knows? In any case, I will add new ones from time to time, depending on what my schedule allows. Complex dialogs take a lot of time, and the more extensive they become, the harder it is for me to keep an overview. At the moment, there are only a handful of dialogs, including the governor in the first village, who is supposed to advance the tutorial quest.
In general, there is still a lot that needs to be expanded in the game. This is especially noticeable with the UI, which, let’s be honest, looks pretty bad right now. Definitely not my strong point! Speaking of the UI: there is already a small skill tree, but it is still far from my final vision. At the moment, it is kept concise on one page, with about 4–5 skills per weapon type. Later, each weapon type will get its own tree. The skill tree and the in-game world map currently perfectly reflect how bad I am at drawing. For the world map, I therefore prefer to use an external program, so that at least you can recognize something and have an easy way to orient yourself.
Because the game world is quite large and I have noticed during my test runs that the walking distances can sometimes be too long, I have built in a small travel option. This works via signposts that stand in every village and that you can also build in your own base. It is very simple: as soon as you have discovered a village, you can travel there from any signpost. In the long run, I could integrate the travel system directly into the map, but until then, the map only serves for orientation.
As for the quests, there will initially only be a handful, mainly focusing on side activities. Since Act 1 is not yet fully developed, my focus remains on designing the world. The main story will only become truly relevant from Act 2 onward, so I need to see how much I can integrate by then.
Enemies and AI Right now, the enemies in the game can be described with one word: “Dumb” or let’s rather say two words: “Pretty dumb.” Their functions are currently limited to seeing the player, finding the fastest way to them, and attacking. Some already have skills, such as a shout that buffs them or ranged attacks. Anyone expecting complex AI will be disappointed; you can probably find more depth if you look into a well. Some enemies do not even have sounds yet, partly because it is difficult to find license-free sounds. It is even harder to scream monster noises into a microphone at night after work in my apartment...
I have also already tried to create some bosses and put them into the game, some even years ago as first attempts. Maybe I should revise them again before release or remove them altogether. Besides the lack of enemy AI, balance is another big problem: when I do a test run with good equipment that I know inside out, the enemies are no problem. But with poor equipment, I am constantly biting the dust. Finding the right balance will take quite a bit of time, but I hope it will still be doable for new players.
Base Building and Crafting My goal is to keep the game simple and accessible. And no, I do not mean the mechanics or animations when you chop down a tree and it flies 100 meters... yes, I know, I still have to work on that. I am doing my best! But I do not want the gameplay to feel like work. You should not have to fell hundreds of trees that you have to hack away at forever. Sure, it would be smart to artificially extend the playing time, but you already have to walk enough in my game! So it remains that you can fell a tree in one second and mine stones or ores with one strike.
You will, however, have to invest more time in crafting. Most items you find or craft can be further improved.
For example, you can craft or find a normal iron chainmail and upgrade it to a legendary, named version. The same goes for weapons, although there will be only one named item per craftable item. In addition, there will also be randomly legendary or named items to find. At the moment, the scope is still manageable, but in the future it will be expanded to infinity and beyond.
Buff food and potions will help make the game easier for you. If you want it even easier, you can craft powerful gems that can be socketed into equipment, although the resources needed for them are currently still very difficult to obtain.
Performance Now we come to probably the most important and at the same time the most difficult point: performance. I doubt that anyone has read this far, but I still have to talk about it. My biggest problem is that I only have one single system on which I play and work on the game.
The game runs well on my PC. My computer is not the best, but with an RTX 3070, it is above average compared to many other systems. Originally, I wanted the game to run on a potato or older models. Well, goals and such... Performance is particularly difficult because of Lumen and the associated ray tracing shadows. Some might now be asking, “Why ray tracing shadows?” Well, the game cannot visually keep up with today's titles, but thanks to Lumen, the day-night cycle, and weather effects, the world feels much more alive.
I will try to add an option in the future to disable Lumen. But until then, the system requirements remain as high as they are. If you are not playing in 4K on maximum settings, the game should not fry your graphics card. In general, I recommend everyone to set a fixed FPS with V-Sync to get a stable, smooth image.
Most importantly, never forget:
HAVE FUN! 🎮🔥