Project Void Lands

Hello there! I'd like to take a moment and share the last year of progress on my game! I began this game as a part time project in January 2020. For about 2 years I worked part time on the project until I finally decided to work on it full time in January of 2022. I left my job and began full time development of this project that I have been dreaming about since 2011. Currently, I am looking for new work as well as ready to put this project back on the back burner for a little bit. This project has meant a lot to me and I am tremendously proud of where it is at despite not being a full featured game yet.

Welcome to Void Lands! Testing out terrain generation with an alpine forest aesthetic.

What have I learned?

I wanted to say that being a game developer is problem solving on a whole new level, but upon further reflection, I no longer feel that's the case. Problem solving is problem solving. It boils down to: there is something I wish to make or accomplish, and I don't know how to make or accomplish it, so I start from square one and begin learning what it is that I don't know and then following it up with energy to grow my knowledge and seek to understand.

Games are just as fascinating as other kinds of development.

I love being a software/web developer. The problems I face when going into a project are fascinating and I love seeing how systems work. It's why I love full stack development, so many frameworks, systems and tooling, goes into producing a usable product. Learning how to make a game from scratch was no different, just required for me to learn a brand new area of development.

Making a game is really fun and really hard.

Being a game developer requires so many hats to be worn. Everything from game architecting, game design, level design, coding, world building, story writing, audio engineering, parallel computing, shader programming, graphics rendering pipeline, animating, modeling, and probably a few other hats I'm forgetting. I really like wearing hats and for this project it was no different. Getting to learn about so many new areas of development was really engaging for me personally. It solidified for me that switching up what I'm working on every so often keeps work enduring for me.

It can be some of the most rewarding work ever done.

I am following through on an idea that I wanted to pursue when I was little. The idea of making a game, this specific game, has been simmering in the back of my mind for about a decade. It has given me tremendous resolve on top of my already consistent excitement to learn new things. Even though this game might be taking a back seat, it will continue to be worked on in the in-between time of my life. Pursing this game was much like pursing anything else I carry tremendous love for.

What is the goal?

The goal has always been built on a couple pillars.

After reading The Last Lecture, I knew I wanted to open source this project. I wanted to contribute my life energy to a codebase that others could use to grow their knowledge and abilities. It's why I ended up using Unity instead of writing my own engine, why every decision I made considered the level of effort it would take to learn how to use the systems I've developed. Anyone should be able to pick up this project and extend whatever it is they would like to extend. I've put thousands of hours into this project already and I believe that this project is just meant to be my love letter to the world.

Enjoy the process, understand I will do lots of things wrong, and learn from my mistakes and improve the project. I have loved every moment of working on this game. I started off doing so many things wrong and not sure on how to do anything. By the time of writing, I have iterated on the several ways I do things in the project and have found a great rhythm, learned lots, and I'm proud of the growth I can see in myself and my project.

Where is this project going?

This project will continue to be worked on. It will continue to get the prototype features it needs: quests, points of interest, world building, more combat features, new enemies, etc. It will eventually see the release of its source and a prototype to the public.