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relee7:48pm - I wasn't sure I'd get to do my on-day work today! I had to do a lot of errands and one of them was much easier than I expected. It's late enough that I had trouble finding someplace that'd be open for three hours, though it took me so long I won't be here the whole time. ^.^;;
After my last entry, I talked with my closest friends to try and figure out what I wanted to do with my gamedev work. I have decided to do everything, at least for now.
The idea is that when I'm out doing my work like this, I choose what I want to work on. If I favor one project or the other, that will be the one I really wanted to do, right? I'm also not completely sure of my capabilities. So much has changed in the last few years, and this new work pattern/schedule has been working out beyond anything I had expected. Maybe I CAN do both.
I think it'd be a good idea to consider what's involved, though.
In previous years, I had some false-starts for what has become the Dommy Monsters project. This time, I've been focusing on making design docs to start with, after I realized I'd need somewhere to record the structure of my data and other such things.
I haven't finished the first page of those design documents. A lot of thought is going into the core of the game, and so I'm refining a lot of things down to put them on that first page and really understand them, and I think it's helping a lot. However, it's still not actually done.
The Dommy Monsters project begins with the design docs, and then I'll have to do the work of designing the code to make what I've planned out in the docs and sketched in my head. I'll have to design the interface, and make the systems and everything code-wise. There's also the writing and testing, though.
I'm a pretty good coder, I think. I don't think the code of this game is really going to push my limits very much. The long part is going to be making the actual content of the game that uses the systems. There needs to be Dommy Monsters for this game to even operate, and at least three before I can really test anything. Each one needs to be designed and have dialogue written, and each one needs a territory with, usually, other minions as well as traps and places for the player and minions to do what they do. You might say each "Monster" is a whole "Level" or "Region".
I don't have to fully complete three monsters in order to test them, but I will need to make their 'skeletons' so that they have the monster, and each gameplay element as I add them. After the basic gameplay is set up, most of the construction coding will be done and then it should be maintainance, until I come up with new features I need. Though, that may change. I haven't gotten that far on many projects.
Actually writing the monsters' dialogue, procgen building parts, and all the regional stuff will be the long task.
That stuff is just the game design though. If I want people to actually play this, I can't just be alone. I don't intend to sell it, but I want to make money at this to help cover living and just be rewarded for what I'm doing. I think the best way to do that isn't to use legal means to try and withold the game from those who don't pay, but to release the game free and make it clear that I'll keep adding stuff if I can, and paying me to make more after I've got you hooked is better than paying me for something after I've made it and I'm left not knowing if anybody wants it, and I'm also having to market it or get someone to do that for me...
When I said I can't just be alone, I mean I need to set up a community. I need to set up some patron systems, and some communications forums. These days most folks are using Discord, but there's also alternatives like Telegram and Element. I wonder if I can set up something to broadcast the posts from one to the others? I have seen Discords where they do that with YouTube and Twitch streams, bringing the comments of any of the three to the other two. It seems like a lot of work, though, and I don't know if anybody has done it already in a way I can use.
For the Survival Game project, I'd also need to do a community, and this one would be even more difficult. See, with the Dommy Monsters game, I'd mostly be hosting a community to let people interact with me and the game in a social way, and I think that would help spread the word and help them know the game is in progress. Xey, still an inspiration, does livestreams when they're working. I don't know if I can go that far, but I already do journals when I work. I could cut them down to short update notes for easier consumption, too.
The Survival Game would require more than just me to work on it. It'd be a real open source project, so I'd have to convince other people to join me in working on it, as well as keeping things on track. A lot of open source projects I've looked into have a serious issue with a lack of leadership and organization. I don't know if I'd be a good leader, but I don't know that I'd be a bad leader. It's not something I particularly want to be, but it does seem neccesary for my goals.
The other part of the work is managing code submissions, like pull requests, and going through bug reports and issues. I'll probably use Github and maybe other platforms if folks like. Github isn't fond of adult games, it only tolerates them if they're discrete, but the survival game doesn't have to be 'adult'. At least, I don't intend to make it porny on purpose. I'll focus mostly on the gameplay.
Besides the community, there's a lot more 'moving parts' in the code and design of this game, and less writing and content creation by me.
I want to make a sketchy model of that in my head and write it here. I'm going to look around for the sorts of half-made template games that people use for asset flips, first. I doubt there's any open source public domain stuff in a platform I'd like; I'm intending to use Godot since I've got experience and I love it. However, if there's anything I can use I want to know.
The game will need to be able to host a server and have multiplayer. That's essential to what I'm doing. Multiplayer networking has always been a challenge, even with modern tools and such. I don't know if I'll be able to use what's already out there in an open source public domain project though. Apart from closed source or licensed stuff, a lot of open source does have licenses that can be restrictive. I want to make this public domain, so that it belongs to everyone, and they don't have to bow to any licenses.
Apart from the server, there's a whole 3D virtual world simulation that has to be made. Godot can handle a lot of that, though most virtual world stuff is handled server-side, and I'm not sure how that'll work. I'll need to look into it.
I'm still thinking it'd be great to do this in parts, with each being like Gamemaker's Toolkit's Platformer Toolkit.
That said, making a locally running character controller and making a server hosting a virtual world with a client app and character controllers interacting at both ends is a hell of a lot more complex!
I was thinking before "Oh, I can make a 3D character controller like the platformer toolkit's little platformer controller character!" but it wouldn't really be the same as making one for a standalone game.
The other big thing here is that I'm still thinking about my idea from before about making a character generator tool. Something in a similar vein to the Spore Creature Creator, but with the intent to create character models along with textures and procgen animations, and export them in different formats. Then people could use them in other things or modify/personalize them even more. That's a heck of a big project idea, though! It might actually be more intense than the whole survival game idea. ^.^;;
I think in that case, it'd be wise to do something simpler for the Survival Game thing. While I would really like to be able to let anybody import their own models and 'be themselves', especially after the VR Avatar creation boom, I'm not sure how much variation there can be in order to fit into the gameplay of a survival game.
I do want to make things expandable, though. Maybe after the base game is done, I can add non-humanoid player characters, or wildly different scales?
To start with, I'll probably just try to make some sort of 'paper doll' system out of 3D model parts.
I'm not really sure where to get these, though. There's a TON of illegally claimed resources out on the internet claiming to be original and royalty free, and there's good original resources that I just can't use because this is an open source public domain project.
I guess since I mentioned the VR Avatar boom, it's a point that there's a lot more professional and hobby 3D modellers making rigged video game characters. Maybe I can convince someone to help? If I make money, I can also pay.
8:43pm - It's been almost an hour, now. I was hoping to have a more definitive mental sketch of what would be required for that stuff, but maybe I don't have as clear an idea as I thought. I do have something of a plan of action, though.
I'm going to stop talking in here for now, and start looking at the links I posted two entries ago. These ones:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2zaGL14e9lyIIVP9Lzuelpf3JmKZctLD
https://www.pcgamer.com/yall-know-about-these-huge-lists-of-free-open-source-game-clones-right/
https://libregamewiki.org/Category:Video_channels
https://libregamewiki.org/List_of_games
https://lemmy.ml/c/opensourcegames
I want to know what's out there right now. I'm also going to do more searching for templates or partial games that I could use as a starting point.
10:09pm - I'm out of time and then some, didn't realize how late it was while I was doing research.
Here's some links for open source game info, besides those ones up there.
https://trilarion.github.io/opensourcegames/
https://osgameclones.com/
https://libregamewiki.org/Main_Page
https://freegamer.blogspot.com/
https://github.com/michelpereira/awesome-open-source-games
After my last entry, I talked with my closest friends to try and figure out what I wanted to do with my gamedev work. I have decided to do everything, at least for now.
The idea is that when I'm out doing my work like this, I choose what I want to work on. If I favor one project or the other, that will be the one I really wanted to do, right? I'm also not completely sure of my capabilities. So much has changed in the last few years, and this new work pattern/schedule has been working out beyond anything I had expected. Maybe I CAN do both.
I think it'd be a good idea to consider what's involved, though.
In previous years, I had some false-starts for what has become the Dommy Monsters project. This time, I've been focusing on making design docs to start with, after I realized I'd need somewhere to record the structure of my data and other such things.
I haven't finished the first page of those design documents. A lot of thought is going into the core of the game, and so I'm refining a lot of things down to put them on that first page and really understand them, and I think it's helping a lot. However, it's still not actually done.
The Dommy Monsters project begins with the design docs, and then I'll have to do the work of designing the code to make what I've planned out in the docs and sketched in my head. I'll have to design the interface, and make the systems and everything code-wise. There's also the writing and testing, though.
I'm a pretty good coder, I think. I don't think the code of this game is really going to push my limits very much. The long part is going to be making the actual content of the game that uses the systems. There needs to be Dommy Monsters for this game to even operate, and at least three before I can really test anything. Each one needs to be designed and have dialogue written, and each one needs a territory with, usually, other minions as well as traps and places for the player and minions to do what they do. You might say each "Monster" is a whole "Level" or "Region".
I don't have to fully complete three monsters in order to test them, but I will need to make their 'skeletons' so that they have the monster, and each gameplay element as I add them. After the basic gameplay is set up, most of the construction coding will be done and then it should be maintainance, until I come up with new features I need. Though, that may change. I haven't gotten that far on many projects.
Actually writing the monsters' dialogue, procgen building parts, and all the regional stuff will be the long task.
That stuff is just the game design though. If I want people to actually play this, I can't just be alone. I don't intend to sell it, but I want to make money at this to help cover living and just be rewarded for what I'm doing. I think the best way to do that isn't to use legal means to try and withold the game from those who don't pay, but to release the game free and make it clear that I'll keep adding stuff if I can, and paying me to make more after I've got you hooked is better than paying me for something after I've made it and I'm left not knowing if anybody wants it, and I'm also having to market it or get someone to do that for me...
When I said I can't just be alone, I mean I need to set up a community. I need to set up some patron systems, and some communications forums. These days most folks are using Discord, but there's also alternatives like Telegram and Element. I wonder if I can set up something to broadcast the posts from one to the others? I have seen Discords where they do that with YouTube and Twitch streams, bringing the comments of any of the three to the other two. It seems like a lot of work, though, and I don't know if anybody has done it already in a way I can use.
For the Survival Game project, I'd also need to do a community, and this one would be even more difficult. See, with the Dommy Monsters game, I'd mostly be hosting a community to let people interact with me and the game in a social way, and I think that would help spread the word and help them know the game is in progress. Xey, still an inspiration, does livestreams when they're working. I don't know if I can go that far, but I already do journals when I work. I could cut them down to short update notes for easier consumption, too.
The Survival Game would require more than just me to work on it. It'd be a real open source project, so I'd have to convince other people to join me in working on it, as well as keeping things on track. A lot of open source projects I've looked into have a serious issue with a lack of leadership and organization. I don't know if I'd be a good leader, but I don't know that I'd be a bad leader. It's not something I particularly want to be, but it does seem neccesary for my goals.
The other part of the work is managing code submissions, like pull requests, and going through bug reports and issues. I'll probably use Github and maybe other platforms if folks like. Github isn't fond of adult games, it only tolerates them if they're discrete, but the survival game doesn't have to be 'adult'. At least, I don't intend to make it porny on purpose. I'll focus mostly on the gameplay.
Besides the community, there's a lot more 'moving parts' in the code and design of this game, and less writing and content creation by me.
I want to make a sketchy model of that in my head and write it here. I'm going to look around for the sorts of half-made template games that people use for asset flips, first. I doubt there's any open source public domain stuff in a platform I'd like; I'm intending to use Godot since I've got experience and I love it. However, if there's anything I can use I want to know.
The game will need to be able to host a server and have multiplayer. That's essential to what I'm doing. Multiplayer networking has always been a challenge, even with modern tools and such. I don't know if I'll be able to use what's already out there in an open source public domain project though. Apart from closed source or licensed stuff, a lot of open source does have licenses that can be restrictive. I want to make this public domain, so that it belongs to everyone, and they don't have to bow to any licenses.
Apart from the server, there's a whole 3D virtual world simulation that has to be made. Godot can handle a lot of that, though most virtual world stuff is handled server-side, and I'm not sure how that'll work. I'll need to look into it.
I'm still thinking it'd be great to do this in parts, with each being like Gamemaker's Toolkit's Platformer Toolkit.
That said, making a locally running character controller and making a server hosting a virtual world with a client app and character controllers interacting at both ends is a hell of a lot more complex!
I was thinking before "Oh, I can make a 3D character controller like the platformer toolkit's little platformer controller character!" but it wouldn't really be the same as making one for a standalone game.
The other big thing here is that I'm still thinking about my idea from before about making a character generator tool. Something in a similar vein to the Spore Creature Creator, but with the intent to create character models along with textures and procgen animations, and export them in different formats. Then people could use them in other things or modify/personalize them even more. That's a heck of a big project idea, though! It might actually be more intense than the whole survival game idea. ^.^;;
I think in that case, it'd be wise to do something simpler for the Survival Game thing. While I would really like to be able to let anybody import their own models and 'be themselves', especially after the VR Avatar creation boom, I'm not sure how much variation there can be in order to fit into the gameplay of a survival game.
I do want to make things expandable, though. Maybe after the base game is done, I can add non-humanoid player characters, or wildly different scales?
To start with, I'll probably just try to make some sort of 'paper doll' system out of 3D model parts.
I'm not really sure where to get these, though. There's a TON of illegally claimed resources out on the internet claiming to be original and royalty free, and there's good original resources that I just can't use because this is an open source public domain project.
I guess since I mentioned the VR Avatar boom, it's a point that there's a lot more professional and hobby 3D modellers making rigged video game characters. Maybe I can convince someone to help? If I make money, I can also pay.
8:43pm - It's been almost an hour, now. I was hoping to have a more definitive mental sketch of what would be required for that stuff, but maybe I don't have as clear an idea as I thought. I do have something of a plan of action, though.
I'm going to stop talking in here for now, and start looking at the links I posted two entries ago. These ones:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2zaGL14e9lyIIVP9Lzuelpf3JmKZctLD
https://www.pcgamer.com/yall-know-about-these-huge-lists-of-free-open-source-game-clones-right/
https://libregamewiki.org/Category:Video_channels
https://libregamewiki.org/List_of_games
https://lemmy.ml/c/opensourcegames
I want to know what's out there right now. I'm also going to do more searching for templates or partial games that I could use as a starting point.
10:09pm - I'm out of time and then some, didn't realize how late it was while I was doing research.
Here's some links for open source game info, besides those ones up there.
https://trilarion.github.io/opensourcegames/
https://osgameclones.com/
https://libregamewiki.org/Main_Page
https://freegamer.blogspot.com/
https://github.com/michelpereira/awesome-open-source-games
