"Tempest Tale" Final Release · 5:37am Jan 6th, 2017
https://lexington-games.itch.io/tempest-tale
I'm calling a halt to the "Tempest Tale" project at last. I've been very distracted from it and have gotten to the point of having a game with nearly all the features I'd set out to build (mainly excepting random quests and gaining new perks over time), which makes further development mainly a matter of polish and writing more content. Because the game is obviously pony-focused, the potential audience is pretty limited and people will necessarily call it fanfiction. I want to move on to other projects.
I've learned from this project. First of all, it took discipline to assemble a "complete" game as opposed to a tech demo. Second, making that transition meant being forced to think about things like loading a large set of items/quests/&c from external files, and having various incidental screens like an equipment menu and a shop screen. Third, I had to think about UI design. I'd do things differently in a new game, possibly including a drag-and-drop system for equipping items. I'm not developing for the SNES and don't have to ape its interface. Fourth, I gained some Unity-specific experience about details like "you can't easily save any class inherited from the MonoBehaviour class." Fifth, I went through several iterations of a key game mechanic: the battle or adventure system. Starting with a crude prototype and getting valuable feedback from people willing to tell me "this part isn't fun", I thought about the use of randomness, info and choices available to the player, and how many clicks it takes to do something.
The final result of the battle system still didn't turn out very well, but it at least gives me some ideas. For one thing, true 3D dice or slot reels aren't just decorative; they provide important feedback. Had the player been able to see the next symbol about to appear, the timing difficulty wouldn't be so hard. I focused on doing bare-bones mechanics first, then adding decoration as effort permitted (very little, as it turned out), but may have swung too far by ignoring the need to keep the player informed of what's happening.
I was able to put together something kind of fun with a bare minimum of graphics and sound, by focusing on gameplay instead of how Unity encourages developers to think about 3D animation.
What's next for me in game design? I don't know. I'm thinking about several distinct things. (1) Having finally played the card game "Buck: Legacy" (2E) I'm brainstorming what I would do differently, and imagining a very different game with the same basic dungeon crawl concept. (2) AI. I have neglected AI for a long time and would like to try it again, doing some experimental little game in which characters remember you and talk about what they're doing. But aren't there already a bunch of games where little fantasy villagers maintain their village? (3) More interactive fiction. In particular I've already written a chunk of an otter TF/TG Twine game I want to publish this year like "Dragon Fate", but I've been putting very little work up on DA and FA lately. Maybe I could do a much smaller Twine game for free public display? (4) Something with that wizard game idea. I'd seen the Kickstarter for the visual novel "The Pirate's Fate" and thought "why can't I do that?", then got immensely bogged down in designing very different and more complex game concepts.
In any case, "Tempest Tale" has been an interesting experience. Thanks to the people who tried it out and provided feedback.
I should download this. For science.