So I'm an engine programmer...I like optimisation and tool creation. I'm at my happiest when making/doing things that makes gameplay programmers lives easier. That's mainly because I find the more gameplay aspects of games, well, tedious.
The problem with this mindset though is that ultimately it makes me a terrible engine programmer. I can't make the best game engines if I don't know how games work. Like I know how a game works in the logical sense of how a computer understands it but I don't understand the nuances of level design, timing, AI, suspense, re-playability, state, message dispatching, entity systems, stat balancing...the list is endless. Hats off to gameplay programmers; you are wizards to me.
That's why, I'm designating the next 12 months as the year of games (it was originally supposed to be a new years resolution but I always fail at those so I'm starting early to try and trick myself). I'm going to attempt to make a game every month; no matter how shitty or simple; I want to make a game that has a start, a middle and an end. I've already got some ideas like:
- Slenderman clone in UE4 (I already half started this in 2020 and then got bored when I had to actually make the game)
- Tetris
- Solitaire
- Pong
- Space Invaders
- Doom
- Five Nights At Freddy's clone
- Super Mario World clone (not the entire game...jesus like 1 or 2 levels)
- Game Jam entry (probably Ludem Dare or Haunted PS1)
- Bejewelled clone
- Minecraft??
I want a good mix between styles, like shoot-em-up, platform, 3D, strategy, etc. Also I need them to be well documented so I don't get caught up in deciding what game mechanics to put in. I've noticed that if there is too much choice, I get overwhelmed and abandon the project. I think that's why I'm such a terrible gameplay programmer; the ability to do anything is too much and I just want very specific projects like; implement rotating images. Add animated gif support.
For the more classic games I'd like to just use C++ and DirectX or FLTK/SFML and then Unreal for the 3D games...I might even make slenderman in UE5 as I've not even opened that thing yet.
I'm saying 12 games because I feel that's more realistic, however if I feel like making something new every weekend I'm not going to stop myself. I'll update this post with games as I finish (or not finish them) and I'm excited to see how I've done by November 6th 2022.......
EDIT:
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