February 15, 2023

I started making the first mini game with the new game engine I was planning on using and quickly discovered it had some bugs that was making it not work right. It is a small team of people that are building the engine and it will take awhile for the bugs to be removed. As a result I started considering other game engines that I could use.

I have narrrowed it down to three seperate game engines and I will start testing them with short mini games and see how they do.

February 5, 2023

As I was looking for a replacement game engine I realized I was making a mistake that I had made earlier. I was reinventing the wheel by trying to create a type of game from scratch when there were already game engines available that were custom built (or had extensions) to create that type of game. Using an already created solution would be easier and quicker then trying to build the game from nothing by myself.

As a result I have current selected two different game engines that I could easily use to create the type of game I am wanting to make. I will probably make one (or several) very small games to learn the game engines much better and then proceed on to the main game from there. When I make these games I will make them available to play so you will also get to enjoy them.

Now on to making the first small game.

January 22, 2023

This past week I finished creating the messaging system but when I started work on the new user interface I discovered the game engine I was using to make the game was not scalling properly when switching to different display sizes. This results in black outlines around the edges of the screen if scalling is required. One of the primary platforms I am planning to release the game on is Android and due to how many different screen sizes there are for the Android platform this will not work.

My only option is to use a different game engine. Fortunatly, I have not developed much of the game so it will be easy to start again. Next, I will examine several other game engines to find a replacement and then start on the game again.

January 15, 2023

This past week I added traps to chests. I have fixed it so that each chest can have a different trap (or be untrapped), require a different key (or no key) to open it, can hold a different type and amount of treasure and have a different appearance. In addition to this I have also created a basic game system to use for resolving all actions (searching, picking locks, disarming traps, combat, etc...). I also started creating the message system that tells the player what is happening as a result of their actions.

Next I hope to finish the message system and create the user interface. Creating the user interface might require that I make some changes to the chest so it is best to create the user interface before I get too much of the game created.

January 10, 2023

After working on the latest game for a while I made the decision to change the goal I was working toward. Originally the goal was to write a short banner sized game but I realized after I got through it could only be used for more banner sized games. I prefer to create something that would be of more use then that.

As a result I have changed the latest game into a template that can easily be used to create other games in addition to banner sized games. While this will take a little longer to create the first game all following games will be quicker to produce. The game template will be a point and click game and thus all games created with it will be point and click games as well. Due to my years of experience with Role Playing Games all the games produced with it will also be adventure games of some sort.

My method of operation will be to create the first game with the game structure and only the needed objects for the first game. Future objects will be added in additional games (as well as new features to the game structure). I have just finished creating a chest object to be used in the game and I have equiped the chest so it can be locked (requiring a specific key to open it) and it can hold a wide variety of treasure (but will be empty if the player comes back to check it again later). I am in the process of adding traps to the chests (with the player having to successfully find the trap and then disarmed it).