The last few weeks have been busy with school and many other fun things. Sadly, I have been bad about taking pictures, so I thought I would write about something different today. If you would rather just read about life in Japan, maybe skip this entry.
For the last several years I’ve been developing digital and analog games as a hobby, but I’ve never actually finished or published any of these. Above and below are a few examples of previous projects. A big challenge was finding motivation to spend time on a computer after doing so at work all week. Further, I wanted to use most of my remaining mental energy outside of work on language study. Now that my work is largely absent of screen time and I am able to study Japanese more organically I am excited to devote more of my free time to this pursuit.
I recently began working on a multiplayer strategy game. Multiplayer games require considerably more complex software and an active community of players, both of which represent new challenges to me. Nonetheless, I’m excited to try. I’ve heard the shared imaginary space created and occupied by players referred to as the magic circle. There’s a kind of focus and excitement within this circle that I’ve never felt playing against a single player game, even though I enjoy those as well. For that and many other reasons I’m motivated to take this on.
The first step is building a prototype. I’m starting with the map, which I’ve arbitrarily decided will have a hexagonal pattern. After studying an algorithm I found online, I was able to write a small program which generates random maps such as this one.
This was a useful exercise, but this program exists solely as a text file. Eventually I plan to add a number of visual elements to the map which will be difficult to do in this format. For this reason, I am learning to use Godot, a powerful application for making games. After much head scratching I was able to produce the following in Godot without writing a single line of code. At this point, I strongly prefer working in a text only environment and feel a bit overwhelmed by Godot’s interface. That said, I can see how useful it will become once I become more familiar with it.
Next week will be a return to regularly scheduled programming, but I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my game making journey.
Thank you sharing your wonderful work 😀
This is a great post! Very "step-by-step" explanation to make it clear to us outsiders! And fun to hear you have time now to do some of this creative work!