Finding the Core (devblog 1 / update 1)

Note: I’ll put my weekly report at the end of every post, unless I find another format I like better.

I’ve spent a lot of time seeking the core of what I love in games.

Of course, we all do this. We naturally seek out games we enjoy. There’s nothing unusual about this, but since I’m developing a game now, I wanted to dig deeper. Could I make something that contained the very essence of what I love about gaming?

So I went back to my childhood. I imagined myself curled up on the couch with a hand-me-down SNES controller, or riding in the back of the car while staring at the screen of my pink Game Boy Color, or poring over maps and notes I made to puzzle out Myst and Riven. I looked at my favorite games that sparked my imagination all the way up to present day: Wind Waker, Riven, Morrowind, Oracle of Ages, Dark Souls, Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, and so on. What made these games so compelling to me? What did they have that other games didn’t?

The big one was discovery. Exploration. Sailing across a vast ocean to find an island not in my map. Finding a secret cave entrance. Delving into a forest that no one else had ever stepped foot in. Even getting to the next level just so I could see how it looked! I wanted to be part of a world, to explore and learn and live in a new place. Riven and Morrowind’s weird, alien architecture pulled me in, begging me to explore. Dark Souls had countless shortcuts to stumble upon. Wind Waker is one of my favorite games, while Skyward Sword was harder for me to get into–both are well-made, but one had a huge world to discover, while the other was segmented and often retrod.

So I wanted a world to explore with plenty of secrets. Exploration and discovery would make a great foundation for The Waking Cloak. But there had to be more than just that. I dug deeper.

I wanted a sense of longing. Ocarina of Time ached with the poignant loss of innocence and childhood. Riven had raw emptiness in a place that was once populated and living. Dragon Warrior Monsters 2’s simple music was like a dream just beyond my grasp.

To contrast with that, there needed to be color and fun and goofiness. I didn’t want to be all serious all the time.

I learned I liked the underdog, the protagonist who is always underestimated. When stronger or smarter or more powerful people might appear to be the hero… instead it’s this kid, the only one left standing in front of the big bad after everyone else has run away. Scared and armed only with courage.

The Game Boy Color was my first “console,” and to me it emotionally represents a lot of these elements. I’ve always liked pixel graphics because of where it allows my imagination to go. And I like old things–the feeling of picking up something with a deep history.

There’s a lot more I discovered, but that’s the gist of it. The next step was to gather all of these elements and translate them into the game. You can already visibly see some of the influences in the bright green of the grass or the weird roots of the swamp houses. Behind the scenes, I’ve been working hard at making a deeply interconnected map like you’d see in Dark Souls with plenty of secrets. These decisions have also informed the player character as a young, quiet boy who is overshadowed. They’ve driven the strangeness of the story (what if stars weren’t huge, exploding balls of gas? What if they were something more fantastical?) and the mechanics of the titular waking cloak itself–the contrast of night and day, of terrifying darkness and hopeful light.

And so I found myself with that core in my hands. It pulsed with life, and I was excited to build something new with it.

If you want to discuss more, hit me up on twitter! Check out this neat video, which really pushed me to define precisely what I wanted from my fantasy. And If you found this post interesting, please feel free to share it.

Want to see any game development topics discussed? Want more pictures? Suggestions or comments? Reply to this post or hit me up at my Ask Me Anything page!

And finally, I owe you some updates. Here’s what I worked on this week

• Updated camerawork for 60fps.
  
• Figured out how room placement should work so we don’t get stuck in trees and stuff.
  
• Smoothed out room transitions so the player doesn’t teleport and the camera doesn’t wildly flail about.
  
• Got animated objects and tiles working in the game. Flowers!
  
• Began working on adding attack animations and hitboxes as the beginning of the combat implementation.
  
• Worked on my fourth mockup, this one for the barrows area of the game. You can see it in a few days!
  
• Streamed a game development session and cut together the highlights for your viewing pleasure.