Summary
This past month I have been working on my art project, so I do not have much to share in the Game Dev department.
What I figured I’d do, if you’ll humor me, is to share a childhood story related to the lessons I learned while watching the CS course on YouTube.
It was 199?-2003, More or less
Oh boy, that takes me back a million years! Believe it or not, I’m actually old enough to remember when PCs were not a basic right of humanity, let alone smartphones. We had this potato computer, I think it had Windows 95 on it. Which I suppose was rather modern at the time. And Jetpack with it’s nine levels was golden!
It came with the basics, such as Solitaire and Minesweeper, and I actually have one pink diary filled from about halfway to the end with Solitaire records. ‘Cause you know, how else would I have recorded them, not knowing that there was a perfectly functional Excel that I could’ve used?
Anyway, my story today begins with the magical CD that somehow had made its way to the house. Maybe my father got it, I have no clue. He was quite the wizard himself with the older systems, trying his best to show me how to reset the PC if shit hit the fan. Take a wild guess if I remember anything about it!
The DOS CD
I tried to find an image of the disc for you, but alas, it is not very known, apparently. Either way, the DOS disc I recall was in a blue case, might’ve just been something my father whipped up. Now that I think of it, weren’t demos free to download back in the day?
Either way this CD and all of its wonders was the first time I got introduced to the command lines of DOS. Of course, back then I had not a clue what it meant. Disc Operating System, seriously, who even remembers these things anymore?! Well, other than people like me who like to go play the old games, since they are better than the current ones usually.
The Disc contained games such as the above Jetpack: Christmas Special, Commander Keen, there was as Blues Brother’s game and so much more. Most of them I never even saw, as I was too single-minded and always went to clear the levels of the infamous CC. Which I just found out means Crystal Caves. It was way easier than the bloody menacing terror of the deep goldfish in Keen! To heck with that level, say I!
The ignorance of youth
You know how there are all these commands in the DOS to get where you want to go? Such as ‘cd..’ or ‘C:’, or whatever else there to return up one directory and such…
Well, from the day I got to know these commands and learned to use the DOS (all the way to about half a month ago), I had the silliest of ideas. I thought the cd commands meant the actual CD disc I fed to the PC! What do you mean ‘Change Directory’! No, it must be that I am giving commands to the actual disc in the PC.
Imagine my surprise when I, in the same breath, found out the difference between a byte and a bit… Wowie, the world suddenly makes more sense!
So, that’s how I came to know more games than Solitaire, and maybe that one game about a lion going through a river on a log that the bank gave us. Something about saving, I think.
Choosing the first project
But what about the Development, Mrs. V? I hear you, I’m also anxiously waiting for the day when I can properly begin the process. I think it will be a great learning experience, and the first game will probably be… average, at best. Then again, that is the only way to evolve and proceed with any journey, is it not?
The project I have chosen is based on the above sketch. You guessed it, it is the Horror Experience, or game, if I’m lucky with it. ‘She Comes At Night’ I called it for now. We will see what it becomes after some work and the proper market research on names that are taken.
Of course, this means that I have set myself up for a ton of pixel art, level design, and yes, those nifty dialogue boxes I talked about previously! It is loosely inspired by the game ‘One Chance’, where you have a certain amount of days to save the world. You won’t be saving the world… but perhaps you can save yourself!
What’s Next?
Before I begin, I plan to keep watching the Computer Science course on YouTube. It is always a good idea to have more knowledge, especially when it comes to the basics. And even more so with such complex things as Game Development! Another course I hope to finish before I start the project proper is the Game Design Essentials course in Udemy.
During the preparations – and the art and writing projects – I also aim to make the design document for the development. I know, I know, some of you don’t see the point in having such things and oh my lord the creative process shouldn’t be determined like this..! Yet, this is the model I’ve found to work for me on so many different levels from idea factory all the way to marketing.
That’s it for now. Remember, you can always catch me on X/Twitter for the latest and greatest escapades!