Happy New Year!
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Namaste @simulacrumgames and Happy New Year!
January’s free assets was quite a challenge for sure! I couldn’t help but chuckle and wonder what you could possibly create from the options. I was not expecting a meditation mage! Your imagination knows no bounds! It’s like where Dhalsim of Street Fighter trained before becoming legendary. I can totally see the Avatar reference!
I really like the concept you’ve created! There are so many magic games out there, and I have not seen a game such as yours that involves logic/strategy puzzles in such a way to master a spell. I could see this as a mini game within a larger game, used to upgrade your magic skills.
How did you arrive to the concept for this challenge? Did it take a day or two of pondering or did it suddenly come to you as you were looking through the assets?
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It’s kind of hard to say exactly how it came about, but I think the roots of the idea had been kicking around in my head for a long time. I like to play games like Factorio but the static research trees in those games just always feel like they boil down to a meaningless timer. Then a year or two ago I stumbled across Opus Magnum and I don’t usually like puzzle games that much, but calling it just a puzzle game doesn’t feel right. The thing I felt like that game was missing was actually giving meaning to your solutions than just advancing the story.
So I guess things just kind of sparked last month and now I’m sort of obsessed with this idea of having an actual game world and then tacking on these optimization mini-games to replace things like passive research or menu-based crafting with active problem solving.
I would love to see a fantasy action RPG where alchemy is done like it is in Potion Craft and has different mini-games that really immerse you into the different roles for the kind of magic you’re studying or whatever else you’re crafting.
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Another one in the bag.
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April done!
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Ah, @simulacrumgames !
I’m playing catch up here on my favorite challenge series! I just got finished watching the one with the bank, the stylized town, and dungeon architect.
I’m not going to lie, the dungeon architect technical details sounded pretty complicated when attempting to combine it with the SimPoly Town and the bank. It doesn’t seem like it’s a simple task to customize much without breaking something else. However, the bank asset did create a creepy atmosphere - like a death maze where it’s easy for a player to get lost.
Given the scarcity of assets for that month, I continue to be impressed with the results you produce! You make very great use of both your creative and logical mind, as always. Now…onward to the next video I missed! 
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Thanks for keeping up with the series!
Speaking of creepy, I uploaded that infinite bank thing to itch.io and actually saw some downloads and a couple streamers played the “game”. It seems like horror is a bit of a cheat code to get people to actually look at your stuff 
Getting close to the 1 year anniversary!
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Yeah, I always take some time to write down ideas and I think I implemented about 20% of the things I wrote down 
It would be cool to have the keys move, I guess the ghost must just be flicking the strings on the inside of the piano 
Thanks! I think it’ll be one year in July, but due to my PC blowing up I missed a month, so I’ll officially be celebrating in August I think. lol
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One more month, one more video…
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Things have been tough and the videos have been short lately, hope things go back to normal soon. 
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Hi @simulacrumgames, I really appreciate what you’re doing here. I collect all the Free Monthly (and other Free Assets). Its one of the events I look forward too at the beginning of the month 
I too felt the need to do something fun with monthly assets and previously attempted to organize an open-source Team project “Project RUCKUS”. The intent was to build a Full Game utilizing mixed assets free from the marketplace.
The challenge was figuring out an cohesive aesthetic and plot to bring mix matched assets together. I came up with Cel-Shaded Hybrid FP/TP Action RPG Shooter. Sadly, the project was cancelled due to lack of participation. But, Your Series has rekindled my desire to revisit the idea.
Keep up the AMAZING Work!
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@TechLord Thanks for the kind words!
I would really like to see more community efforts revolving around how to use assets (properly). And I would also like to learn from people with much more experience and talent than I have, so I’m always glad to hear when people are inspired to actually do stuff like this.
I hope your rekindled desires help you to continue to push forward!
Hi @simulacrumgames,
I don’t feel there is a way to use the assets properly, as they vary greatly in form and design. But, this is not a bad thing. It requires more imagination, cleverness, and creativity. This requirement is what draws my attention to using mixed assets in a full game of some sort.
I’m currently heavily invested into developing my primary game project and game assets for the marketplace myself. I would only make a slice time of such a project if it was a team project for something unique.
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August complete!
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A lot of excellent points. I’m relatively new to the engine (I actually started using it a little before the first UE5 early access came out), I didn’t realize there was a risk of people only supporting the last three versions. Given how quickly Epic is pushing out new versions, I hope that they stick to more of a 4.27 + UE5.x mentality.
But the way Epic seems to be policing plugins vs the engine versions doesn’t seem to be efficient for plugin makers.
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FYI, probably my last post in this thread. I think its time I moved forward with the next steps on the road to my dream game! Thank you to everyone in this thread for keeping me motivated!
Next project:
Not really, I always wanted to find somewhere to cut off the series and start focusing on my ideas. I think the 1 year mark was a good time and didn’t feel that I was learning that much new stuff from the series anymore. So it seemed like I needed to start focusing my study deeper into relevant engine concepts.
No, thank you! I appreciate everyone commenting and helping me stick to my goals!
Thanks again! At first I didn’t want to “spam” this thread with something unrelated, but I felt I should at least explain what’s going on so people don’t feel like I just quit. Hopefully, that also helps to inspire people to keep moving forward (and up).
Yeah, I felt it was important to mention the scope and what the game is/isn’t because a lot of the time projects (looking at you kickstarter) are just extremely nebulous and only promises or ideas and backers/fans end up disappointed or angry.
Actually, I’ve been watching a lot of Tim Cain’s youtube channel that he started awhile back (https://www.youtube.com/@CainOnGames) and he made some really good points about keeping people (devs AND fans) on the right track by knowing what doesn’t fit in the game and being able to point to a reason why.
Sure, this or that feature may be cool, but “does that fit into THIS game?” is a different matter entirely. There may be “no bad ideas” but there are definitely “inconsistent ideas”.
I LOVE “diegetic UI”, FC2 still holds the crown for best map system in a game IMO. A game from 2008… 
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