Blogger...really?

I know what you're thinking. I know because I'm thinking it too.

Why the hell is a web developer using blogger and not their own web site?!

Short answer is... I don't know.

Long answer is I don't really have one at the moment. I know I should get back on that, but everything I code is for someone else. And that's easier. Coding for myself is hard. Designing for myself is even harder.

So I should make my own website, but I also want to make a twitter, and a YouTube channel and a bunch of other junk for this experiment of mine. Making a game is complicated.

Also, I've decided my first hero's name is Darrett Snyder.

He is actually a base standard character, art wise. Eventually I want to redesign him and draw him myself, but the fact is, using an out-of-the-box art for this guy is fine with me. ;)

But yeah, poor Darrett is quiet and grew up in a family of successful. Passing this quest is very important to him.

Making Characters

When I make a new character for a story I write or a drawing I'm working on, I never start with visual. I'm usually working on personality and flow way before I go to how they look. But this with, I don't really have that luxury. I've got a basic idea of how I want the story to go, and a loose idea of the characters, but that's more like placeholder.

For instance, in this first group, we have our hero, the Leader. He's capable and has few fears in life, but he's not too happy about this quest. In fact, he reeeeeally wants to cheat (like another classmate did). But...that's about all I know about him right now. He's actually the least developed character in the group.

But I need to make a sprite for him to walk around!

RPG Maker MV has this character creator thing. It's pretty cool. A basic thing, but good for my needs. You can choose a hair style and outfits and colors. So that's good.

I'll get him fully designed tonight, hopefully. And then on to the rest of the crew. Oh, he probably needs a name.

Where to start

I started with the idea that I should make a browser game. I am, afterall, a web developer. It seemed like a simple enough idea and I even made a game for one of my projects a couple years ago.

But then I started thinking about how I REALLY want to make a game to play on my computer even if I'm offline. I want my kids to mess around with it. I want family to try it out. So I needed it to be simple. While I know I can do that on the web, I wanted to branch out and try something new.

So, I decided to go with RPG Maker MV. It's a program that helps you make games. Sounds easy ish, yeah? Not only that, but you can program things with Javascript. Okay, now this is getting more towards my liking. Aaaaand I can bring in my own art. Sold.

Now I just need a story idea.

I've been working on a bit of a story for a while now and I think it'll work. It's far too complicated for a short game, but maybe I can build it out later. Right now, I just want to make a game. Start to finish, even if it's short and crappy made.

Because the main idea is to just get something out there, I'm going to use a lot of free plug-ins and artwork. With credit, of course. Maybe someday if I can get all this figured out I can do it 100% by myself, but let's just get something started, shall we?

My plan with this blog is to document the game as best as possible. To start, I made a small camp. It's where out group is going to begin. They are on their way to do their final project for school. A quest, as they call it.

Next, I need to figure out who these people are, and what they are going to say before they leave camp.

Here we go

Let's start with the idea behind the project, yeah?

A couple weeks ago I made a promise to start 'doing the thing'. The 'thing' is a secret wish that everyone has that they want to do, but don't feel they can because of time, money, skill, ect. My 'thing' is to make a video game. Sure, I know how to code, and draw, but I've never really made a game. And on top of that, there's no way I have time!

So this seminar I went to about 'do the thing' suggested that I take 3 months to focus on myself. Of course I still work and take care of my kids and all the other crazy stuff I do, but my free time is my time. No working overtime (that's a hard one for me), no binge watching TV late at night, no pointless internet browsing (ha, yeah right). It's all going to this.

Okay, probably more like I'm doing this an hour a night. That's more realistic.

SO! Let's get started! Time to make a game!