I stopped working on the game engine’s hardcode changes for the month of October to build a world instead. Since all of my Alpha One content has been scrapped (it served its purpose and generated a lot of feedback), I needed to build a game world for the upcoming Alpha Two testing. I stuck to the minimum viable product philosophy throughout.
100 rooms is a lot! I did not build any open wilderness areas for this contest. No room description was used more than six times and most of them are unique. I started creating basic maps in Excel before the contest began so that I could hit the ground running on day one. I focused a lot of my free time this past month on the project (and Russell was very patient throughout the experience). I still ended up finishing room #100 at about 11:30 pm on Halloween.
Learning and improving! It was great to go through the process of designing, building and polishing each area for its purpose. I now have a much better expectation for how long an area should take to build. It’s been so long since Athens, but world-building is like riding a bike.
Paved the way for Alpha Two! With a new tutorial, player quest hub, and a few dungeons, there’s enough content to begin testing soon! Things are very basic right now, the minimum viable product. I wouldn’t say the game is much fun right now, but there’s a framework.
Out of the Dungeon! After recently receiving The Darkening Sun source code from Daos, I would have been content to hide in my room digging through his code to figure out all of the improvements he’s made since Dawn of Time was released. No one would have heard from me and I probably would have dropped off the radar. Instead, I found myself opening up the live game port so that visitors could see my National Mud Building Month quest zones. Now game development can move along more openly and I’m looking forward to all of the upcoming feedback.
Harmon's Rock
New Player Tutorial – Harmon’s Rock is a dwarven fishing village that is full of cultists that worship Dagon. Characters find themselves stranded on the island after their boat sinks.
Redport
Player Quest Hub – Redport is port city where characters gather to socialize, shop, train, and trade.
The Broken Tower
The Broken Tower – Level 3-5 Dungeon – Wizards have summoned something dreadful, nearly destroying their tower in the process.
The Bandit Camp
The Bandit Camp – Level 6-7 Dungeon – Bandits from this small fortress harry the travelers and merchants trying to make their way through Vareena’s Pass.