Day 1 Update: This project (2D RPG single player, linear path that feels connected and open to some sense) is inspired by games like Dark Souls series, Hollow Knight, Mario, and Zelda series to make a game when I am not working (I am a professinal freelance Level Designer).
Today, I made some key documents to decide what exactly I need for my game before starting/creating the project in Unreal Engine and designing blockouts.
The key thing I wrote that I need in order to succeed:
- Hero character movement and distance for walk, run, jump, and dash (need to find the right distance to start blockouts)
- Camera location and how I want players to see this game during gameplay (finalize the camera location before blockouts)
- Hero character attacks and 3 side mechanics for the levels (complete one core attack mechanic to start designing levels)
- Three main enemy references with 2-4 sub enemy categories and their attacks/movements in the levels (leave enemy locations throughout the level and playtest even if it is just a cube with angry face
for playtesting) - Secret and trap examples for the level (details in documents, will share more when I ready to showcase a small demo)
- Add Version Control in my project (even though I will be working alone to make this game
I think it’s a good idea to have it just incase if I want to go back to older version.) - Managing folders and planning/sticking to naming conventions for what has been decided in the document.
- Start optimizing the project from Day 1 as much as possible. (nothing is perfect, I am bound to come face to face with bugs and mistakes but I will do my best to implement what I have learned. If you have any suggestions feel free to post your comment and this game will entrily build with Blueprints.)
Full Disclosure: Initially I was thinking to do back up in my external hard since I am working alone but I have decided to work in this project as if I am working with other devs using Version Control and communicating efficiently from start to end. I also bought a game template from FAB recently to use for this project. This template comes with a decent amount of mechanics to customize for my project quickly.
One of the key things I have gained and this keeps growing with every project I work in my freelance field is to understand the core mechanics and work/adjust around them to create an interesting level that complements each other to something I find exciting and iterate them until the levels establish the good mixture of thrill, excitement and tenacity.
Wish me luck. I plan to release this game on Steam and Itch (less than 4 bucks) and, most importantly, I am making this game for someone very special 
