SPACE GAME Dev Log - Part 1: The Best Decision I Ever Made

    

SPACE GAME: DEV LOG 1 

    Now, it's obviously not gonna be called "SPACE GAME", that's just a placeholder title. But it will be about space.

    I've been in a real slump lately when it comes to game dev. I have a tendency to come up with an idea, then continue to build on it until it becomes so intimidatingly complex that I can't even start working on it. Another issue is that I am not very good when it comes to the visuals side of game design, and when I really get invested in a game, I want to make it look good, so it gets put on the backburner until I've trained my art skills enough that I'm able to bring to life the vision for the game that exists in my head. As a result, most of my ideas for games never get made (or haven't been made yet, as I like to tell myself). So, I thought that as an exercise, I would just GO for it and make a deliberately small little game with very, VERY simple low-poly artwork - thus, SPACE GAME was born.

   Look at this silly little ship model I made in blender!

    

    Progress was slow until I was struck with an incredible idea. I've been using Unity's dark theme since 2017 or so (not out of any particular fondness for it, but rather following the general programming hivemind opinion that light mode is yucky), but lately I've found that I'm more into bright colors as a general rule - these days, dark mode kinda makes me tired. So, I thought, why don't I try Unity light mode?

My unity setup with dark theme (😴💤)

My Unity setup with the light theme (😑)

    Better? Marginally - working on my game no longer made me eepy, but after some reflection I realized that all I'd done was change Unity's color scheme from 'dimly lit prison cell' to 'brightly lit prison cell'. There's just something depressing about all the grayness, isn't there?

    Then, all of a sudden, just as I was about to put down my project and go watch Youtube for like three hours instead, I had an epiphany; what if I could make my own Unity theme? I looked it up, and lo and behold, there is a FREE (!) package on the Unity asset store that allows you to make your own editor themes!!!!1!

    It worked without a hitch (a first for me, when it comes to Unity) and after a few minutes I had my new, home-baked theme. I simply cannot describe the experience to you. It was as though a fog had lifted from my eyes.

    HUBBA HUBBA! Now THAT'S an editor theme!

    Now of course we all have our tastes. This color scheme might make you want to throw up, and that's okay, but for me it really just gets my goat. Plus it matches the color scheme on the keyboard I built last year, which makes me really happy.

The cute little 70% keyboard I built last year and have been using ever since. The keycaps were advertised as 'mecha'-themed which I thought was cool but after buying them I realized they literally have spaceships and astronauts on them and nothing mecha-related at all. Oh well, the color scheme and font are still very aesthetically nice though.

    As soon as I'd changed the theme and got to coding, I immediately felt my creativity ignite in a way that it hadn't in ages!! I felt like it was 2016 and I was exploring Unity for the first time again. It's really a wonder what a change of scenery can do, isn't it?

    My Visual Studio is still in dark mode, but I changed all the text and keyword colors a while ago and I'm still riding that high. If I'm ever running low on motivation, maybe I'll give it a light mode makeover too.

Anyway, now on to the game!!! WOOOGHH!! 

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    I wanted the game's art to be as low-effort as possible while still maintaining some kind of aesthetic. So - what's something that's easy and fun to design as a low-poly model? Spaceship. What kind of environment doesn't require much effort to make it immersive? Space. It is literally a void. So, that was how I settled on some kind of space game.

    Next was the actual mechanics of gameplay. I've always had a soft spot for games that let you recruit other characters (especially randomly generated ones) into your squad, so I wanted to incorporate some kind of space fleet mechanic. The first idea I had was some kind of parametric RTS-esque game where you had to travel through space, fight enemies, etc. while adding ships to your fleet along the way. I also started thinking it'd be cool to have some bullet hell elements as well to make it more thrilling, except I  have yet to think of a way to combine bullet hell with squad management mechanics - if I ever crack that, I believe I will have a banger of a game on my hands. Unfortunately, it became clear pretty fast that this was too complicated of an idea, and I would have to settle for something simpler.

    Then it hit me - a brilliant foundational idea for a spaceship game, complete with fleet-growing mechanics. Stay with me here:

A diagram of the main game screen that I drew in 2 minutes on MSPaint. You can have faith that my real vision is a lot more complex and nuanced than my drawing abilities can convey.

    The screen is split down the middle. On the left, your fleet, flying at a 45 degree angle toward the camera. The right of the screen shows the enemy fleet in the same fashion, also showing incoming obstacles. You will play as the fleet commander, telling each ship in your fleet where and when to move and attack. You will start out with one ship and have opportunities to recruit additional ships later.

    It'll be an action game - the challenge of the game is keeping all of your ships out of  enemy lines of fire, while also making sure they're able to hit the enemy themselves. I plan on adding additional reaction-time-testing mechanics, such as flying collectibles that you have to click on in order to collect them before they fly offscreen. The fleet has no Z (forward / backward) dimension, so another challenge of the game is that the more ships you get, the more crowded your fleet becomes and the harder it gets to manage everything

    Of course, there will be changes down the line after some playtesting, but I wanted to set up a good solid foundation so I wouldn't be left second guessing myself all the time during the creation of the initial build. Here are some notes about the mechanics:

• Ships in your fleet can be moved by clicking on them and dragging. They won't directly follow the mouse, but they will move at their own defined speed towards the mouse (different types of ships will have different speeds).
• I'd like for there to be a few ways that ships differentiate themselves from one another - that way, each run will feel different and new
• Types of ships (of course) - some fast, some slower, some with more health, some with higher damage, etc.
• Maybe levels? Or some other kind of time-scaling? So a fighter ship you get 10 minutes into the game will be stronger than a fighter ship you find at the beginning of the game
• Maybe randomly assigned traits? e.g....
• Diplomat - maybe only diplomat ships can recruit new ships to your fleet?
• Brute - more damage
• etc... you get the idea.
• Enemy attacks are telegraphed - there will be big red blinking crosshairs wherever an enemy is about to shoot, that way you can get your ships out of the way before they shoot.
• Maybe there are enemies that have like an EMP effect and disable attack telegraphs until they're destroyed?? 😲
• Players can choose where their ships attack by selecting a ship then right-clicking somewhere on the enemy fleet

I have a lot more ideas, but these are the foundational ones I need to implement to get started. It remains to be seen whether this will even be fun, but I think it has potential - I'll be back with an update soon!! 🙋