Untitled Underwater Game: Dev Blog #1

What Kind of Game?

Based on our skill set, the only game we could realistically make is a visual novel.

If you are also a beginner game developer with no skills, I recommend starting with a visual novel or a match-3 game.

Let’s be real, our first game is not going to be the next Skyrim.

Let’s Organize Our Game Ideas

Even I know that a game has to start with an idea. Luckily, we have a lot. A little too many if you ask me.

Our main story takes place underwater and centers around a scientist trying to “clam” an explosive situation. (Diana’s words, not mine. I would never make such a stupid pun!)

I found it helpful to brainstorm a list of ideas, so we know what to focus on when we start developing. We have a lot of gameplay ideas listed below, but we will definitely drop some of them. We don’t want to overstuff the game with mediocre features.

• Request Log: main requests and side requests
• Chemical Synthesizing (like dumbed-down Atelier): inventory and item creation
• Secret Collecting (like Phoenix Wright): present information, gain information etc.
• 4-Part Day System: morning, afternoon, night, late night
• Item Gathering (Realism prioritized. That means no under-the-sea, mac-n-cheese bowls!)
• Stat Raising
• Relationship Building
• Skill Building

For our prototype, we are focusing on the first three gameplay elements. Our first milestone is to complete a short request demo. I am going to give us one month. I am not expecting much, but a deadline is a deadline… I hope.

How do I start programming?

To program anything, it’s important to at least have at least a basic understanding of object-oriented programming. Or at least, what a for loop is. If you do not know that, there are several free online resources that will teach you basic coding techniques and principles.

• COURSERA has the most selection, but it lacks interactivity. If you audit a course, you may not be graded. I’m sure for a basic programming course, it’s pretty decent.
• EDX has a smaller selection of courses, but it is way more interactive. There are office hours and built-in course activities. You get way more out of a course if you take it when it is in session, but who has time for that?
• CODEACADEMY: I’ve never used CodeAcademy, but since it is a website dedicated to coding, I’m sure the courses are pretty good.

I recommend taking a class on C++/C# (since that’s the language that most games use) or Java (since it’s pretty similar). Python is good too. Just don’t take an SQL or HTML course (unless you want to).

Which Game Engine?

Since I did not know how to start building a game, I decided to best thing to do was to find a game engine.

After looking into super beginner engines like RPGMAKER and REN’PY VISUAL NOVEL, I decided that I wanted a little more freedom. I decided on the free version of UNITY, the game engine behind Pokémon Go and Ori and the Blind Forest.

Unity tutorials can be found all over the web.

• Unity Website: The ball rolling tutorial was my first project on Unity. I was so proud of myself. They also have tutorials for basic platformers, first person shooters, and dungeon crawlers. The Unity store has free add-ons that can help you build inventories and script maps. The website is also helpful for looking up Unity functions.
• Lynda: Great tutorials for beginners that not only introduce beginners to C# scripting but also basic Unity functions. If you have a school account with Lynda, I highly recommend using it.

• YouTube: There are several videos on YouTube that teach beginners how to make specific game elements using Unity, e.g. creating a basic inventory. Be warned, some tutorials just kind of end in the middle.

Let’s me real though. The best part of Unity is that it runs on Mac, and it’s free.

How to Start Building a Visual Novel?

So after learning the basics of Unity, I still had no idea what to do. That’s when I found FUNGUS, a collection of Unity scripts that helps non-programmers create a visual novel.

Thank heavens for Fungus.

Fungus has a collection of BASIC TUTORIALS you can find on their YouTube channel, and it makes dialogue mapping super easy. Also, the imported code can be searched and modified.

Above, I tested out Fungus features by making a copy of Phoenix Wright. Looks pretty good huh? After several hours, I somehow scraped together some sketchy code that syncs up the dialogue and animation.

What, it doesn’t really work? WELL YEAH? I DON’T CARE! (I secretly do, and I will fix it as soon as I can.)

But None of Us Can Draw…

So we kind of sort of have some of the code down, and we have a story.

Graphics time!

We need backgrounds, characters, and stuff I do not even want to think about.

THE BACKGROUND

Backgrounds are so intimidating. The detail, the shading, it’s all too much. That is until I discovered flat backgrounds.

Flat backgrounds can give a game a professional and dynamic feel without the hours of digital painting. On YouTube, there are tutorials on creating beautiful flat backgrounds in literally 20 MINUTES. It’s amazing.

THE MAGIC OF PRISMA

Flat backgrounds can be made even better with PRISMA.

What is Prisma? Prisma is a photo-editing, AI app that combines pictures with paintings to create flippin’ artistic masterpieces.

Flat backgrounds (or in the case below, dad’s photos) can be fed through Prisma to create gorgeous underwater landscapes!

I love technology!

THE CHARACTERS

I see no other option but to just draw these ourselves. After all, there have been great games made that have square blocks as the main characters.

To the left is a sketch of Thomas, our first sea resident, post Prisma. Not the worst drawing I have seen, so it is going to have to do. Diana is going to churn out some sketches too… maybe.

A LITTLE TANGENT: PHOTO FILTERS AND LEGAL RIGHTS

Honestly, I am not sure about the legality of using Prisma to filter our backgrounds and characters. They are technically our original photos and our characters, but it is quite clear that without Prisma, our graphics would be nothing.

Diana brought this problem to my attention (she is studying for the LSATs after all). Then again, some photographer screenshot random Instagram photos and sold them for $90k.

What About the Sound?

I’m just going to pretend that this isn’t a problem. Right now, I am thinking piano for the background music and human gargling for the dialogue. Does that sound disgusting?

Well, Henry Hatsworth does it, so why can’t we?

Worst comes to worst, I recruit my electronic music friend. But, I really don’t want to.