Hello World (...sorta) (Devblog #1)

Hello GameDev

Name is Daye Williams. I'm a Novelist/Dev from NYC who's been working on games for about a decade or so now. Like the lot of you, had my fair share of highs & lows, Game Dev is one hell of a rollercoaster but a fun one to boot. Been writing stories practically my whole life, & the 90s/00s was a prime time for Role Playing Games. Always aspired to be a RPG dev, & for awhile I realized my best effort was an unconventional approach, which leads to me 88x (sorry for blabbering there).

88x started out as an traditional turn based RPG. I tried to coincide development for 88x with my first project SUPER LORD OF CHEESEBURGERS. Juggling two game development cycles is a headache. Don't care what anyone says lol. The desire to constantly push for an RPG has kinda been a crux for my time in game dev. RPG development is a hefty process & takes an assload of prep work. Truly, planning one as you go will leave you exhausted. With 88x wanted it to be the 1st RPG I really did the logistics before getting started. Still a lot was out of our hands the 1st time round, despite being on somewhat balance state. Still, this time was going smoother than previous attempts. After delving into the Database Creation & Management, I was hit by one of the biggest hurdles in RPG dev (well Game Dev in general); Asset Creation. Yeah this was taken into notice before starting production but was caught off guard by the sheer amount of Battle Animations let alone the # of Enemies/Monsters, Magic Abilities, etc.

Though these things were considered, I had to face facts; no matter how prepared I was, I could not afford to do it. Its tough but with an weightless budget, & not using much pre-set GFX, we were dead in the water. It's soul crushing to know that you have to throw in the towel despite your best efforts.

When we first began, the vision was a good ol' 90s Turn Based RPG. Production was smooth, but no matter our best efforts, attempting to produce (Battle) GFX & Animations was wearing us thin. It was tough enough to manage an online team but our Asset Production was beginning to burn out. With everyone's schedules different, the vision no matter how competent was going to burn out completely. Its disheartening, especially after the frustrating work on Arcade projects as well as my all around timing. Just finished a batch of small novels/small novellas & managed to save some of them after a terrible hard drive accident.

Though I love SUPER OF LORD OF CHEESEBURGERS I resent it for the obscene amount of time it took. Year after year of attempting to get the ‘simplest' features to work was a hell of a grind. There were times I didn't want to look at the project. Going back wish I got it out the way earlier so I could work on smaller Arcade projects. After finishing SUPER LOC, the temptation of leaping into an RPG was too…tempting (haha). Especially looking at all the other cool projects launching. SUPER LOC felt like a handicap & a headache, Though I really do want to return to Arcade projects, I felt the grace period to produce them had run out.

Eventually after going over old concepts like many hopeless indie devs who dream of producing 100 of half-done ideas, I browse thru the 88x folder & was hit with many ideas to revamp everything, especially since we were sitting on an assload of Assets. Going back to the drawing board, I cut anything out that felt like pulp, restructuring the concept & vision from the ground up. Aiming for something more open-ended, condense & precise, 88x now transformed to a Rogue-lite (I know right, big woop) but with an emphasis on Characters & Abilities. The World now smaller feels more personal, the Storylines more passionate. Was able to see a draft in my head of how the gameplay, the over-arching narrative, everything.

Nowadays we're (my scrubby team of 4) aiming for something realistic, solid & precise. My good friend Scepter is an amazing Sprite artist, he's done a great job revamping everything. He stuck with me thru the worst, so it's just great to have a team member that's as passionate for the vision as much as I am. This time round, everything will be more competent, with a stronger foundation. Excited for Players to delve in this odd strange world we've created. We're closer to an Alpha than I thought, with Summer being extremely productive. Really hope as this project expands, more of you will be down to join the ride & leap into the bizarre world of 88x.

See you next update doods.