PITVYPR Development Blog: #0 Introductions & Pitch

Hello!!

I am making a Traditional Roguelike game named PITVYPR. My internet has gone out, and with it, my ability to solve my programming problems through Google. So I've decided to take a little break from it and start writing up a devlog of the project. This game is, hopefully, going to be a long-time passion project of mine - having been spawned from the combination of years of different interests and ideas. There's also a great chance that this does NOT end up lasting longer than a few weeks, or months. That is the main purpose of this blog: preventing that great chance of burnout. I'm going to write a bit about the "philosophy" behind this blog first - so if you don't care and just want to see the game's pitch, then scroll a few paragraphs.

I have been programming video games for over a decade, since I was about 11 years old. In that time, I've finished a grand total of four games. These three are all on my itch page - and are of, admittedly, very low quality. Three of them are from game jams, where I only had 48 hours to make a game - meaning that many corners were cut, art was lackluster, and concepts are simple and shallow. The other, my university Chess project, has some interesting ideas in it, but would need a LOT of reworking from the ground-up to be in a state I'd be proud with showing off to others in the form of a playable demo. All of these projects have one thing in common: deadlines. The crunch of needing to get something done has always been a great tool for me to finish things. Yet, those finished things are always disappointing to me. The times I've been able to take my time a dive into doing something I wanted to do (more common for me in music and video making) - I ended up with final results I was much prouder of.

The problem here, I think, lies in complexity. It is far more difficult, in my opinion, to pick up working on a project as multi-faceted as a video game. In my experience, it is the hardest thing I've ever tried to make “one” of. Working on solutions to problems and figuring out implementations can sometimes get me in my head so much that the only thing I can really do is walk away for a bit. However, walking away makes coming back and repositioning myself among my mess of code that much harder. Most of the time… I end up just working on something else. Something new, and simpler. And thus the cycle repeats :)

I figured getting to take a half-step back might be easier than a full step, and so came this blog: maybe it'd be best for me if I was able to take a break from the actual coding of the project to try and brag instead: about the continuous ripping of ideas from others, reinventing wheels, and overcoming of error nightmares that happen along the way of creating something. I'm trying to keep the project in my mind by still writing about it when taking a break. Pairing this with a deadline tied to the project which is decoupled from the actual substance of the project (the game can take as long as it takes, as long as these logs are decently consistent) should hopefully mean I work on it consistently, and without stress. I doubt things will operate this smoothly, but it's the ideal I'm looking for.

The Pitch

Now all of that boring "personal manifesto" and "expectation setting" stuff is out of the way, we can get into the fun stuff: the game itself.

The name of the game, PITVYPR (pronounced like "pit viper"), comes from a story idea I've been playing around with for nearly two or three years but have never been able to properly write. While I might like the idea of being a writer, actually writing a whole story is a challenge I am not quite up to. Truthfully, it was an idea more for a manga or webtoon - but my ability to draw severely hinders the chances of that happening.

I am not going to spoil the story's entire plot because it would suck for you, the reader, if I then later decide to incorporate those beats into the game. I wouldn't want you to be spoiled on any twists or reveals, so I'll just give you the vibes and main hooks that can be translated into game mechanics. All the story stuff can be saved for later.

Here's a fun “excerpt” that I wrote up to try and convey some vibes from a character's POV:

"This pit is a dumping ground. Miles and miles in each direction of never-ending darkness, on a flattened floor of pitch black lay mountains of metal waste, scrap, and trash. Here in the pit, there is no day or night… most of us haven't even heard those two words before. Our streets are lit by periodic, incandescent bulbs, and our rooms are brought from total darkness by the dim, green glow of LEDs in busted clocks, old terminals, and flickering, dying machines.

Until one day, you came. A shooting star, falling down the side of our walls, and brightening the metal that rests beneath you." - A character, probably… circa. at some point.

I'm unsure how well this captures the setting, but to put it another way: a place filled with scrap, in total darkness, with no interaction outside of itself, with its own culture of semi-brutality (not quite Mad Max or a post-apocalypse, but not exactly The SIMS, either). You play as the aforementioned “shooting star”, whose placeholder name is Sol (however, like Link, you can name your character whatever you want probably).

A very old concept for the PITVYPR manga/webtoon when I first thought of it. The art isn't good, I know, but the concept is still there in the style: raw and sharp, matching the setting.

The key "tags" you'd put on the world, from a meta/genre point of view would probably be:
Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk, Futuristic, & Low Magic.

I have all of the world's lore and everything figured out: The PITVYPR story is part of a set of connected and overarching stories that I tied together into a single universe, because I like doing that kind of thing, and it'd make me giggle to write little Easter Eggs for each of the things I've made in different projects.

What I think makes PITVYPR suitable for a Roguelike "adaptation" is how Sol is forced into continuous action against a broad cast of different villains and allies. This is done through the local and lovely PITVYPR bloodsport. PITVYPR is, effectively, just a colosseum in the pit, where people can come to watch the locals demolish each other, and outsiders, with a mixture of mechanical weaponry and lost arcane arts, known to the locals as Black Mantras. My vision for the upgrade/progression system in each run, would be a mixture of mechanical upgrades from acquired parts, and skills and secrets discovered regarding Black Mantra powers. Of course, this is all early days, so balance and focus could very easily shift. But it's a decent starting point.

Here are some of the "unique" mechanics that I'd like to incorporate once the base functionality is at a certain point:

• Fallout-style limb damage

• Fairly in-depth crafting and scavenging systems

• Unique and varied magical abilities with unique theming (not stuff like Fireball and Ice Blast)

• Engaging 1v1 fights achieved through semi-complex enemy AI and highly-interactable environments

• A semi-open world with a procedurally generated town to explore in each run.

The image to the side is a conceptual screenshot of the game I made in the ASCII art program Rexpaint. The rawness of the art/visuals intended by the earlier image are, obviously, not captured by text on a screen. The rawness and sharpness of the world will likely be conveyed by a mix of writing, sound design, and most importantly, gameplay.

As I mentioned before, I've gotten to a certain point with the coding of the project before writing this. While I am nowhere near the point of getting to any of those cool mechanics, they will be my main focus and drive once things are looking good and solid at a base level.

The next post is going to be all of the nitty-gritty about code design and architecture. I think it's really interesting, and I hope that the readers will also find it worth a read.

All the best,

Liam (BerneyTD)