I am building a 3d Platformer called Barko & The Lost Bone powered by Unreal Engine 5 and Blender. The game follows a cartoony stylized appearance that pays is deeply inspired while paying homage to Courage the Cowardly Dog although the Dog itself was derived from my Chihuahua and my Late Bull Mastiff who always Bark at everything outside my house window hence the name BARKO.
PLOT:
The story unfolds as Barko loses the one thing he cares about the most – his Dog Bone! One Day it suddenly goes missing and things begin to change in the world around him so it’s up to man’s best friend to find and fix it!
TOOLSET:
Blender 4.1
Unreal Engine 5
ENDGOAL:
My endgoal here is to release my first ever Steam Game hopefully by the end of 2024 if not sooner while learning more about everything in between along the way to bring the game to life and eventually use this improved experience to finish my other Indie Games.
GAME INSPIRATION (My Barky Dogs Mainly CARLY at Top & KODA at Bottom) -
Carly barks the most and I’ve had her since I met my wife as we got her back in 2011 which is around the time I got into 3d Modeling and learning to make games…
So, after I got Koda she started barking just as much no thanks to my other dog. Sadly, she’s no longer with me as she passed away in late July 2023 and she is a massive driving force for me to finish the game as I want to honor her memory. Not shown here, but she has a very large tongue that would usually hang out of her mouth, it made me laugh a lot of the time and she was always by my side. It is extremely likely that she will become a Statue, or a Character immortalized within the game itself.
There will be more updates to come! I plan to keep teasing a lot of this to continue to help motivate myself to finish the game before the end of 2024 if not sooner.
I love seeing pet inspired content throughout games! It’s always so lovely to see how close one can keep their furbabies and it’s an even more grand to showcase that love in the form of creation! I’m very curious how the development will continue and look forward to seeing Barko raise the woof with his presence.
Thank you kindly @The_M0ss_Man, I appreciate the kind words, it really helps drive a lot of my motivation to complete the game. I do have some gameplay mechanics in mind for Barko that once finished will hopefully generate some unique fun to do that. I think I would also like to borrow your quote as well, “Raise the Woof” that’s an absolutely fantastic catch phrase that I didn’t think of yet.
I’ve made a Full 3d Scene, get a free early Full 3D Look at Barko and some of the Geometry behind the scenes (Exported from Blender): https://skfb.ly/oLYn8
It’s nice to see the little scene in such an interactive manner! I didn’t know that could happen on Sketchfab! As far as the quote works, feel free! I thought it was a funny little pun you’d might enjoy and I think very fitting for the game. I’m happy it inspired you to use it.
Thank you @The_M0ss_Man! Yes it’s entirely possible. I created that small version within Blender and then uploaded it into Sketchfab as a fun little Teaser Art Piece. That was definitely a very inspiring and catchy pun, been stuck in my head for the past week lol!
There’s been a ton of changes to Barko & The Lost Bone, it’s still largely a work in progress and I lost some time due to work and other distractions, but I have been doing it as best I can on a weekly basis. Everyone deals with some sort of interruptions and discouragement so these are just my thoughts and it’s important to keep trying otherwise our ideas will never happen.
The Barko Main Map has changed drastically, and it is now roughly five times larger.
Work has begun on the individual levels that are connected to the Main Map.
I have been working on introducing some platformer mechanics.
The above is still a work in progress so I will share new updated in-game/editor screenshots very soon with plans to post some YouTube (Video) Teasers and Devlogs that may very well begin to occur more frequently thereafter. I mainly just wanted to try to focus more on developing the game further beforehand.
The main idea here was just to make the game somewhat more of a Challenge while continuing to work on developing the Game’s Environment a lot further. This occurred while making a few slight changes to certain parts of the main level of the game to make more room for some very unique and yet interesting areas. The intent here is mostly to make it a lot more fun and not so easy as players progress. There needs to be a good mix of fun, challenge, and replay value and that’s where changes like this become necessary.
It’s been quite a bit quiet lately here so I wanted to update everyone on progress of Barko & The Lost Bone as there have been a lot of massive changes and development. I have been a bit all over the place mostly between work, family, and other things going on so I tend to very quickly post the most on Twitter and Itch IO. But anyways, onto the fun stuff!!
Work on the Dogville Town Sub-Hub has begun as of earlier today and this is what it looks like currently…
I ultimately decided to name the The Icy Pup North area is mainly done aside from minor clutter. Now its onto the last Area and 5 Levels for each Zone! I am actually tweaking the level areas quite a bit since I realized the map looks a little one-sided so I wanted to take some extra time here and update it to even it out quite a bit which is almost done again now after yesterday so it now looks slightly different than the above images and the one below but you can see it in the very last image which is what it looks like for now though I may change it slightly more.
The World of Canine Cove in Barko & The Lost Bone is Massive with plenty of room for players to find all sorts of Trouble & Mischief! Here’s a teaser screenshot from behind the Town Area to indicate a nearly finished size. These are actually just the Hubs connected to the Main Hub in the center and each Hub will actually go to other Level-like Areas, 5 for each of the 5 Hubs. You can see 4 of the Hubs in this Image below. There’s a 5th Hub that I started working on but it exists on its own as the intention or idea behind it will be apart of the Mystery to solve. I’m not ready to tease it yet.
Ah, the Icy Pup North, a land where the clutter is minor, but the ambitions are major! It’s like a winter wonderland, except instead of snowflakes, we have game elements sprinkling down. And let’s talk about that main area – it’s like the Times Square of Barko & The Lost Bone, bustling with more stuff than a dog has fleas.
Moving on to the last area, it’s like the final stretch of a marathon, except instead of exhausted runners, we have excited gamers awaiting those five explorable levels per zone. And those hubs, oh, those hubs! They’re like intergalactic airports, with portals whisking you away to new adventures faster than a greyhound on a squirrel chase.
Enemies and Bosses are in the works too, lurking in the shadows, ready to jump out like a Jack-in-the-box with a Vendetta. And that mysterious fifth hub? It’s the Loch Ness Monster of the game world – we’ve heard tales, we’ve seen glimpses, but it’s still shrouded in mystery. Keep your eyes peeled for that tease; it’s going to be like the grand finale of a fireworks show, but with more pixels and less smoke.
The game has seen considerable updates and new features. I’ve fixed many bugs, added collectibles, made several map changes, improved the graphics, among other enhancements. I’m nearing the stage where I have enough material to create a Game Trailer, targeting a release by December’s end. It’s been a journey of tackling various tasks, from level design to solving multiple issues, yet steady progress is evident.
Additionally, I’ve posted a video that demonstrates the Canyon Area’s development via speed modeling. Feel free to watch it to observe the development process.
I have established a Patreon page where anyone can support and follow the project, which includes frequent posts and updates along with other content I am working on.
= Done
= In Progress
