the end of july

In my typical fashion, as soon as I get a plan down for how to go forward - I pretty much immediately go a completely different direction. So what happened?

Well, I decided it would be better for now to hyper-focus on one thing and make as much improvement as I can there and work on building on the successes and momentum. Probably what I should have done anyway instead of going on that big rant of planning and whatnot.

Those other things are definitely things I want to do, but I know me and my brain. If I don't just focus on one, I'll basically be spinning my wheels while trying to drive in 5 different directions at once.

So, ignore all of that stuff for now. Sorry I made you read it. But it's a great look at how my brain goes "Ooh, I can do this and this and this and this and this and this if I just do this and that and this and these other things." And I need to smack it upside the head and go

"FOCUS!"

So focus.

My focus is on Evennia and the MUD project right now. I've actually ahead of schedule of where I want to be getting through the tutorials they have thusfar. My goal was to get through part 2 of the tutorials by the end of the month. And not only did I manage to get through that, I'm 2 sections into the third part of the tutorial (which, right now is the last one in their series) so yeah, ahead of schedule.

The third part of tutorial is the good stuff, it gives examples of how to implement stuff. So far it's established all of the Abilities/Stats in a demo game (quasi-D&D-based). And today, I finished the whole dice-rolling/ability-checking system. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll crank through the whole building the character part of the system.

The examples here aren't exactly what I plan to use in the final design of the game I want to work on. But thew examples they use are a pretty great look around the system and how to build something that will work together. I'm pretty excited to see where this goes.

Speaking of which, since I have some time here, let's talk some about what the plans for the MUD actually are. What we want it to be able to do. My ideas for the eventual setting and stuff. And any other weird things I can think of to add at the moment.

My goal is to create something of a sandbox for people to play in. So the idea is to eventually basically map out a little area (right now the idea is a main island and then some other smaller islands surrounding it) and give the players the ability to go nuts with it.

So a good chunk of the game is going to be based around exploration of the environment. There will be some degree of survival element, but it isn't going to be super hardcore. I'm trying to avoid systems that will feel like a chore. But the overall game loop is going to look something like exploring, gathering materials, making stuff, and building yourself a home/shelter.

I want the world to feel connected and more alive. So I want things to weave into each other. Like using birds to help find different kinds of plants or other critters. Which also insinuates that I want npcs/mobs to do more than just sit around in a room. I want them to move around and do things like look for food, hide from predators, build nests, etc. I know that's going to be one of the toughest parts of the whole thing: building out a state-machine/AI for them to use that is actually meaningful in text.

But that's kind of what I'm shooting for right now. People need to be able to make characters. Characters need to be able to move around in the world. They need to be able to hunt for and find materials they can use to build stuff - tools and shelter and cooking. There needs to be stuff for those materials to come from, plants and animals and stuff that grow and wander around (where appropriate). There needs to be the beginning of the setting itself, the main island at least. Or maybe even a little alpha island so as not to "spoil" the area from the "final" game.

So those are some of the thoughts swirling around in my head as I poke around at the Evennia engine and documentation. I don't think it's going to be too difficult to implement (famous last words), but the difficulty will be in making it all look good in text, be intuitive to some degree, and be functional as well as fun. Those are the hard parts.

Hopefully there is more to update at the end of next month. My goal for August is to finish the Evennia tutorials and be able to fully begin working on the actual alpha version of the game in September. With a lofty-lofty goal of being able to do some closed Alpha testing by the end of the year.