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 
Day 2 Update: Today, I created the test project using the game template I bought. I moved all the template folders in my new content test folder and updated all the redirectors before deleting the game template folder. Don’t ask me why I decided to package the project immediately after doing that but my first instinct said, “Let’s find out what errors I will come across doing this.”
I had to try a few times before I was able to properly package the template and play the demo. I also checked all the maps, blueprints, UI, SFX, music (My wife and I are going to make our own music for this project) just to see how they made this game template and I have to admit, I was able to understand about 35-40%
One of the main things I have decided in this project is not to add any extra art assets until I am happy with blockout level design while using some polished assets provided from the game template. I absolutely do not like it when I hear people say don’t focus on making blockout (prototype, greyboxing) for a game. In this project, I am going to show how awesome blockout can be and how much it can help making a game.
This week, I am going to focus whenever I am free to check in details on how the demo was implemented, deep dive into blueprints and change values in hero and enemies characters to see what happens. I am also going to intentionally break this project since it is just a test folder. I have not connected to Version Control because I am not ready yet to commit to starting a designated folder to start, finish and ship the project from it!
Day 3 Update: I think the reason I decided to make this post for daily updates or when I work in this project is to come back here after project is released and be proud of myself that I did it and also to share it to others who may be looking for some inspiration. I don’t want to tell anyone how it should be (well…unless you are working for my project 
), all I want is to share these updates for myself and anyone looking to see my progress.
I am starting to believe that paid freelance work I do is much easier than working on my game project because I know exactly what needs to be done and how to change or iterate to provide what my client wants. Good thing about my situation is, I am working on my game when I am free from my freelance work and they are all paid 3D projects because I don’t think I could handle paid 2D project work on top of my 2D Project. I would definitely choose paid work if that were to happen but I highly doubt it.
Today was one of those days where I just felt too much due to a lot of information I was uploading in my brain. I took a break, ate something, went outside and I spent time in my basement home studio and started working on my music project which honestly gave me such a fresh breather that I ended up finishing the few things that was needed to be done to release my music project in Bandcamp today. I know I will be using a few of the tracks from this album for the main menu and credits.
I think I was really excited about the fact that my wife and I are going to make music for this game. I also spend my time to update the album cover, design my bandcamp page and submit all important information needed to publish this instrumental album. If you don’t know what Bandcamp is, this is one of the platforms that still offers, buy an album to listen services and has no subscription system. You can still listen to the songs without paying but if you want it for yourself offline, you have to buy the album. They provide Artist accounts for free and they make money through a 10% revenue share on merch sales and 15% on digital music, artists get directly paid about 82% or so from Bandcamp which is a pretty good deal in the music industry. I don’t work for Bandcamp, just trying to explain and no you don’t have to buy my album. I have it set up as unlimited play time to everyone for this album.
Day 4 Update: Today, I spent time creating the logos for the Thumbnail, Editor Splash, and Game Splash in Project Settings. This was my first time doing this and I have to admit these settings were confusing to get right on the first try, so it took me some time. I had a mix of jpg and png images and adjusted them accordingly.
I used the assets from my purchased Game Template to put together a scene for the background of my profect main logo. I do not know if the assets that came with the template used AI or not but no AI was used on my end to create these. Geek Man Games logo, on the other hand, was simply a Wireframe shot of my level design from Unreal Engine using the built in High Resolution Screenshot tool and I added text to it.
Did you know that the Game Icon logo in the Project Settings has to be circular like the Unreal logo? I made a 256 x 256 square logo and it would not automatically input it as a circular logo. I found this out today. Try it if you don’t believe me.
Day 5 Update: I worked on the hero character for jump height and distance. I am still working on getting this number right, I need to fine tune the exact distance and height. I also need to figure out if I am adding dash before committing myself to designing levels in UE but as for now, this is what I have:
- Max jump height: 3.1 Units (will most likey change into 2.5 or 3 or 3.5)
- Max jump distance: 7 Units (perhaps 5.5 or 6 is better)
As you can see, I am using 3D blockouts and I plan to use this method for the main map, it’s easy this way because I can place all the enemies, interactables and anything that is connected to gameplay in the middle of the mesh at 0.5 Unit mark and replacing them during set dressing will be very easy since all I have to do is place them at that location and place any environment art for visuals at 0.7, 0.8 and so on, this will make sure there is no overlapping assets in gameplay.
I connected my project in Version Control today and did a few tests to make sure my commit and revert is working. I prefer committing my changes by submitting directly into the app rather than using Unreal Engine to submit. I am able to see in more detail exactly what I am committing in Perforce, GitHub or Diversion.
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading my updates. I am super excited about this weekend because I am headed to a small fishing trip on Sunday.
Day 6 Update: I will be back working on Project Miro 2D after 6 days from today. I am currently busy with paid freelance work and participating in game jam with devs who have worked in AA and AAA titles. It’s a great opportunity for me to learn work flow and add experience.
