Alright ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to start getting some work done. Which means I have to get up from my lazy ass and really start designing my next game. It has been six months since my first project, the point and click adventure game A Long Road Home was finished, and I think I can safely say that I am fully rested, and I got the new ideas running.
Of course I wasn’t just resting in the last half-year, because I was doing some fixing on A Long Road Home, and also gathered a lot of ideas for the next project. This six months was also a good time to settle with a new engine, and get myself a bit familiar with it. I am talking about Gamemaker Studio 2, which had been just released a few months ago, and it is a bang of a good 2D engine. Working with RPG Maker VX Ace was nice and dandy, and it was a good stepping stone for me, but it is time to advance to the next level. I say advance because you have to do a lot more with GMS2 to get something done. I want to code everything myself, so I have been watching and reading a lot of tutorials in the last few months to get the hang of the programming language this engine uses.
Since I was not a programmer, I started learning some programming to get myself familiar with this kind of work, namely Python and recently JavaScript. And although it is not easy, it can certainly be fun. And the good thing is that the programming language of GMS2 is very familiar to JavaScript, so that also helps. Unfortunately GMS2 is not just about crunching codes, I also have to draw my own art in Gamemaker Studio 2. In RPG Maker I had a lot of default resources, and the community provided a huge catalogue of sprites which I could use, but it will be totally different in GMS2.
I am not an artist, and I am not sure I will have the money to hire one to do the art for my next game, so I have to pick an art style I can work with and produce something acceptable. And although I am very excited to work using GMS2, I am quite concerned about my ability to make the art. Coding is one thing, but to actually draw a ton of unique art, I don’t know how to pull that off. But let’s be optimistic as always, I WILL do it, in one way or the other.
On the good side, I think the development process will be a bit smoother this time, since I picked up some nice experience points during the development of my first game, so this time it will be a let less ad hoc in nature. More planning, a flexible engine, and you know, the determination I was talking about before will help me get the things going. What can go wrong?
As for the new project, I’m sure it will take a few months to have something I can show to people, but I can say that I want to create a 2D shooter. What I’m aiming for is something like this:
I will try to share my steps in this process as much as I can, so don’t forget to check back from time to time.