Starting a Journey - Devlog #1

When I was 4 years old I ran into the shower and somehow slipped on the floor, falling over and breaking my left leg. I remember that whole day vividly. The surprise of falling, the pain of breaking a leg, the trip to the hospital, the cold sensation of doctors and nurses applying the plaster cast. Obviously, this was a traumatic event.

But... it wasn't all bad. I had to spend a few days at the hospital following this and that's when I played Super Mario Bros/Duckhunt (if you know, you know) for the NES, on account of the hospital having brought games in for young patients to play. This was the first time in my life I played a video game, and it was love at first sight. I've never stopped playing games since.

I wish I could tell you that this was the start of a long adventure in game development that is about to culminate in a true masterpiece heading your way as we speak. But... no. Game development never really happened for me. Lots of other things did, though, but I've always had that feeling, that thought, whispering to me from time to time throughout my life. I want to make a game of my own. 

And so, here we are. Almost 35 years into my life.

Hints of what was to come

At 15 years old I came into contact with RPG Maker. I've always loved RPGs, so when I suddenly had access to a tool to make my own I was completely absorbed by it. But there was no YouTube to consult 20 years ago, and my poor 56k modem (again... if you know, you know) had to work overtime to download games made by others, which I (quite smartly, I must say) used to evolve my skills at making my own games. I used to open up other projects and learn from how they had done things, and applied it to my own stuff.

As fun as this was, it was very amateurish and my fanbase at the time consisted of my 3  best friends. But it didn't matter, they liked my games and I loved making them. Not long after this I found music and then that took over my life instead. In music, I've often tried creating stories using sound and lyrics, so the will to create something that others could get lost in still remained... even though that's hard to do in music.

Eventually, at around 25 years of age, I decided to start writing instead. Write a book. Because even though RPG Maker was fun, I wasn't really interested in game mechanics as much as I was in telling a story. I even combined my talents; I wrote a story in Microsoft Word and made songs to go along with what happened, as a soundtrack to be released alongside the book. But it didn't work out. Because it turns out that writing a book was pretty damn boring for me. I needed artwork, music, the whole nine yards. Just writing into a document wasn't enough. 

Once again my ambitions were put on hold.

The beauty of the visual novel format

When I was younger, I read a lot of visual novels. I'm going to be honest though, I haven't read one for probably 15 years. But somehow, just two months ago, something clicked for me. A visual novel... that 's what I want to do. The art, music and game mechanics are there, as much as I want them to be, but the story is what's going to matter. A vision of myself writing a huge story, inspired by the complex dialogue trees of PC classics like Planescape Torment (...if you know, you know) and then eventually making the music for it. I was full of motivation!

But wait... I don't know how to program! And where to even start?!

That's when I found Ren'Py, and with that as my engine of choice I started delving deep into the world of programming. I spent every waking moment during my last vacation learning how to code, much thanks to Discord and YouTube, eventually putting together a comedy game made about one of my friends, dealing with him having a ridiculous birthday (don't ask). It was an excuse to make something on a deadline while learning how the engine works. It was a hit (among the 5 people who played it!) and I had a lot of fun making it. But it was just the practice round.

Meanwhile in Riva

What you're reading now is the first development log for my game: Meanwhile in Riva. And of course, my first development log ever. If you made it this far, then huge thanks to you! I think it's important to document, mostly for myself, what mindset I am in as I progress with this project. It's tough to balance family life, a full-time job and a game of huge ambition like this. But honestly, I don't think I've ever been this creatively motivated in a long, long time... maybe even ever!

My game just reached 10k words and I think of that as a good milestone to use as an excuse to finally start an itch.io site for it. Starting next time, I'll be talking more about the game itself, its concepts, characters and whatnot. Looking forward to doing that as a complement to the development! 

Thanks for reading this, for being here, and please have a look at the screenshots I've put up on the site for now.

Have a Riva-tastic day! <3

/Tymedust