Devlog Devlog #2: Going Beyond Placeholder Art
Using publicly available assets let me speed through early game design and development, but with a new focus on exploration - it's time to get something unique for Drift.
When starting any new project, it's important to figure out the hard things first. In games, the hardest things are usually - 1) Is this fun? 2) Can I build it?
My goal was to avoid as much distraction as humanly possible until I could figure those two questions out. Answering number 1 is very subjective but I've been pleased with my own desire to come back and play or even just work on the game. It's completely self-serving in a way I didn't expect.
Answering the second piece came as a long, multi-part question. I had no doubt given unlimited time I could build anything but what was unclear was whether I could knock out the hardest, scariest features of the game in the few months I gave myself to get a playable prototype. Things like networking, environment procedural generation, or even the 3D building system - all were things I had never built before. But pleasantly, they all came together this summer.
In those months, I realized an important piece of the game I loved in concept but didn't in-game was the exploration of the asteroid field. I want the field to feel alien, isolating but also draw you in for more than its resources you need. I realized I had reached the limit of my artistic ability (tweaking publicly available assets) and needed to bring on someone not afraid of a blank canvas.
The work is just starting but I believe in sharing progress as we go. Stay tuned for more concept pieces and next week I'll go deeper into some of the early game design decisions and how they've impacted the evolution of the game.