I had been contemplating creating a game for some time since I was always drawn to the medium for its capacity for storytelling. I started with a recreation of the Nokia Snake game and playing with the Bevy game engine, which was my “Hello, World!” program. After that, it made sense to have larger ambitions, so I began researching and playing games like Hollow Knight and Diablo. I also started listening to game development podcasts to gather some advice, such as: “just have a single idea and run with it, don’t complicate things.” And I was ready to start, right?
Now, putting in the work is unsurprisingly the hard part of the process. It is the 80%. Here are all the things I have to do:
- Game narrative, at least for the first levels. Also I need a world that’s fleshed out.
- Pixel art, which includes character design, environment/level design, and animations. This is by far the hardest part.
- Wiring all this up with the Bevy game engine. This is actually the easy part.
- Since I play the piano, I’m also composing the soundtrack.
I started this task about a year ago and have definitely put in the work, but I’ve been dealing with a lot of anxiety, especially regarding my art and a writer’s block about the type of game I need it to be. I also work full-time as a Software Engineer while experimenting with hobby software projects (which I also like to talk about).
This might sound like complaining, and it is, but I had not imagined how hard of a job this was. I have been pushing back the deadline repeatedly, and at one point, I had not done any game development for nearly four consecutive months. Now, things are changing, because I’m at a place where I’m comfortable with bad art and bad game narrative. Through iterations I know I can get better. I have committed to completing at least the first level of the game.
So why is Vain Creatures taking a lot of time? It’s the process.