More than two years have passed since my previous post. The events that are taking place in the world right now have affected me directly, but I will not speak out on this topic in detail, because not every freedom of speech is possible today. However, I really hope that good will eventually triumph over evil. Good luck to all and a peaceful sky above your heads!
Even though I stopped blogging, game development didn't stop for me. As you can see, the multiplayer for Force of Nature 2 has been successfully released. After that, I had a choice in which direction to develop further. The first, rather obvious direction is the third part of the game. I have a huge amount of ideas for it (also thanks to all those who wrote to me by email and on Discord). In addition to the development of the third part, there was also an idea to implement a team battle with the construction of a base based on FoN2. In each match, two tribes start at different ends of the island, build their settlements and try to defeat each other. The idea was to release this as a separate free to play game and monetize it through in-game purchases, which will not affect the gameplay in any way and will be purely cosmetic. Since I already have a working network code for FoN2, have the opportunity to build a base, fight, level up a character, it seemed to me that implementing such a network battle would not be so difficult. I just need to come up with interesting match rules, and assemble the game from ready-made bricks. The rapid development of such a mode could give me additional funds to better implement all the ideas of the third part of the Force of Nature. Therefore, it was decided to focus specifically on developing a network battle based on the FoN2 code and resources.
Yes, you probably guessed that things didn't go according to plan. The challenge was to come up with an interesting gameplay that would allow matches to be played again and again without loss of interest, even for the losing team. I think many might laugh at my words. Is it really that hard to come up with interesting gameplay? After all, almost everyone has a picture of a super game in their head that would be very interesting to play. I had such a picture in my head too. In addition, this picture was even supported by real positive gaming experience. But as this picture came to life, I was faced with a cruel reality and realized that most interesting ideas in practice are broken by many pitfalls.
In future posts, I will describe in more detail about the entire path I have overcome. For now, I'll just summarize that after many iterations, I've arrived at a completely unexpected gameplay that has almost nothing to do with the original idea. Moreover, the game I'm currently working on has nothing in common with FoN2 - neither in terms of lore and setting, nor in terms of reusing code, models or animations. This is a completely new game. In three words it can be described as “MOBA without gravity”.
Now I have a finished prototype that is really fun to play. However, for full implementation, I still have a lot of work to do - setting up databases of player accounts, configuring servers, working on network code security, protection against cheating, implementing a large number of heroes and their abilities, balancing parameters and much more. For this I have to reassemble the team, because most of the people who worked on FoN2 have already left for other projects. At the moment me and a couple of other people are working on a trailer to get on Kickstarter and raise more funds for further development. I will tell you more details in the following posts. I have quite a lot of stuff that I would like to share, so I will try to post once a week.
Write a comment
Walter (Sunday, 12 May 2024 06:00)
Sounds exciting... I can't wait, and best of luck to you!
peter meyer (Sunday, 12 May 2024 08:45)
i would like to have stone mines and that the trees some how respawn
Egor (Sunday, 12 May 2024 12:46)
Im so glad to see that you didnt lose your enthusiasm for game developement and always thrive for the next goal. Cant wait to see what you will come around next time! I wish you and your loved ones all the best despite the hot situation in your country <3
Meich (Sunday, 12 May 2024 19:54)
Too bad, this is the next “Torchlight” disaster. Everyone wants a third part and then the developer comes around the corner with something else. How can you voluntarily jump into the abyss like that?
David Dieppedalle (Sunday, 12 May 2024 20:26)
Glad to know you're here, yes the world is going very badly and it's depressing, really.
I don't know if you remember me but you never know, we communicated by email.
I too have many ideas, I'd like to create games, but my number 1 problem is graphics, it's a very big problem for me because I can't try to make a game if I don't have the graphics I need, I get stuck, I know that graphics when you want to start a game isn't the most important thing but for me it blocks me straight away!
I'm looking for beautiful isometric graphics seen from above.
I think in a cartoon style, I like these graphics with lots of pretty colors and gradients.
Having played the "valhein" game after force of nature 2, what can I say?
Let's just say that it's okay, but there are far too many problems in this basic game, starting with the graphics, so you have to put mods on it or else you'll get sick of it very quickly, then the map is just insane, so big, empty, there's not much to do, the crafting and construction side isn't realistic, it's immersive and this side is important in itself, but well...
I really like the free controls, the camera, then in the game, you go and do what you want, but there are no quettes, you just have to beat the bosses, the game is hard and very tedious, and yet, it's been improved because it was much worse before!
Your game is more interesting but less immersive, if it were coupled with a game like valhein, it could be fun :)
I have an idea for a game, but it might not be quite right :)
A complete mix of games:
- Zelda (reference: occarina of time) :
- with the movements of this one (lateral displacement, backward and lateral jump etc.)
- in-game puzzles to solve
- dungeons.
- bosses to beat.
- why not also quettes.
- Skyrim
- for skill development
- open world where you can go and do whatever you want.
- persistent objects in the world, configurable disappearance time and a whole host of other gameplay options.
- why not quettes too, to be seen.
- Valeim
- very flexible key management.
- flexible camera management.
- procedural map, size to be determined according to content, as it's far too big for many things.
- survival aspect, but more advanced.
- Monster invasions.
- for the terraforming aspect, but here you can dig under the earth and rocks like a sort of artisanal mine.
- Animal taming, but better and with much more choice.
- Breeding, but more advanced and more varied.
- planting, but much better and more varied.
- building houses, etc., but more realistic and advanced, with gravity taken into account as in the real world. I'd imagine bridge-builder-style construction, but for houses etc.
- rafts and boats, but not mandatory for exploration: the player chooses whether or not to use them.
- bosses to beat.
- Force of nature 2 :
- for manufacturing, building and crafting.
- for its expandable inventory, with bags to build throughout the game.
- Small Plus:
- A full-featured level editor with the ability to create your own world, game rules, set game objects, etc.
- Starting the game:
- Starting from scratch, you'll need to start at 0 and work your way up. You'll need to be realistic in your crafting and manufacturing, at least as much as in Force of Nature 2.
That's it for me, see you soon :)
sedrick (Wednesday, 15 May 2024 13:47)
A new Game sounds great. I hope all i well and continues for you your family.