Hey everyone, and welcome to the very first Devlog for Bloodstone Rising! I’m incredibly excited to finally start sharing this journey with you. As a solo developer, building this game has been a massive learning experience filled with late-night ideas, unexpected challenges, and moments that reminded me why I love creating games in the first place. In this Devlog, I’ll take you through who I am, what inspired Bloodstone Rising, and how this project went from a simple idea to a playable demo. Let’s dive in.
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Who am I?
Hi! I’m Mark, a solo indie developer working under the name Shadow Forged Studio. I’ve been passionate about games for as long as I can remember, and over the years that passion has evolved into something more serious - the dream of building games from the ground up that are gritty, immersive, and just plain fun.
My background is mostly in tech with a touch of art. I’ve worked in software professionally for the past 12 years, and long before that, I daydreamed about making a video game.
In November 2024 I was working full-time and felt ready for a change. I thought, why not start the hobby of game dev. In less than a day, it turned into a reality. I switched to part-time game dev and started focusing on making a game. Now here we are with Bloodstone Rising as my first full project as a solo dev, and it’s a huge step toward building the kind of games I’ve always wanted to play.
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What inspired Bloodstone Rising?
A lot of inspiration came from my favorite genres growing up - dark fantasy, survival shooters, and roguelikes. Think Deep Rock Galactic meets Killing Floor 2, with a dose of Risk of Rain 2 upgrade chaos.
When I first started this game dev journey, I figured I should start with something super simple that I could finish in a couple of months, so I built a small prototype of a side-scrolling space shooter.
Before long, I lost interest in the project. I realized I was building it just to finish something. I didn’t love what I was making, and I suspected that the gaming community wouldn’t have much interest either.
In bed late at night, the first ideas for Bloodstone Rising came to me. I ended up staying up all night, excitedly thinking through what the game could look like. I set myself the goal of launching a demo by mid-May 2025, and was off to the races.
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What is Bloodstone Rising?
Bloodstone Rising is a dark fantasy co-op FPS roguelike where you and your fellow space dwarves fight back against waves of cursed undead to reclaim your lost homeland. Between waves of zombies, you’ll mine resources, earn upgrades, and grow more powerful - if you can survive long enough.
My vision is to deliver something fast-paced and satisfying, with a strong theme and plenty of replayability. Right now, the game features 1-4 player co-op, procedural maps, and a growing arsenal of weapons, enemies, and upgrades. There’s a free demo available on Steam - and I’d love to hear your feedback!
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Why Unity?
Last year, when I decided to give game dev the full attention it deserved, one of the first questions was “Which game engine should I use?”. At first, I found Godot quite appealing. I am a big fan of the open-source project as well as the Python-inspired GDScript. My space shooter prototype was made in Godot, and for the most part, I was happy with it.
Once I decided to switch projects to Bloodstone Rising, I realized that the 3D features in Godot wouldn’t meet my needs. I also realized that I would have a much easier time utilizing community assets and porting to console if I switched to Unity.
So far, I have been extremely happy building Bloodstone Rising in Unity. As a solo developer, I needed a flexible engine that could handle first-person gameplay, co-op networking, and fast iteration. Unity gave me the tools I needed to prototype quickly and actually bring the game to life without spending all my time reinventing the wheel.
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What’s coming next!
Updates to the Demo are planned soon! Check out the following in the next update:
Old:
LMB - Shoot
RMB - Mine
New:
LMB - Shoot
RMB - Aim
F - Mine
