I’ve just finished my student project for the end of my second year, They Make Sounds, left Angoulême last week to move to Marseille, where I’m about to start my 6-month internship in an independent studio.
This means that, hopefully, I’ll have more time to work on my personal projects. But what are these projects?
A non-exhaustive list of my ongoing projects
If there’s anything typical of me, it’s my tendency to start personal projects and never finish them (we’re going to work on that, I promise).
For the time being, here are the current projects I still want to work on in the future, along with some thoughts about each and every one of them.
Bugs Eat Bugs
Bugs Eat Bugs is a roguelite, deck builder & autobattler game where you build a hand of six randomly-drawn cards that can lay eggs and eat each other to defeat bugs.
For years, I’ve been obsessed by this idea of a game with a food chain system of some sort. This is an example of an implementation of such system, but I have several others in mind.
I really like the idea of designing an autobattler, and even more a very simple one. My idea for the design is not very clear at the moment, but I’m looking forward to work on this project and discover what this very simple idea can lead to.
The general design is inspired by a video I ran into some time ago, called Game Design – An awesome idle combat system, a design idea that was very close to an idea for an idle game I had for a long time. I decided to mix both of them, and here we are.
I feel like the scope of this project is manageable, but I’m still very very bad at guessing this kind of things – we’ll see.
Slot Kingdom
Slot Kingdom is a colony sim & management game, halfway between Rimworld and Stacklands, entirely based on a drag & drop system.
I’m really excited about this game concept. It wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve been disappointed by the outcome of an exciting concept, but I genuinely think that the concept is very promising.
I’m kinda scared about the general scope of the project, but at the same time – especially as a project I’m willing to develop as a hobby, on my free time – yet, it’s definitely a very minimalistic version of what a colony sim can be, and that’s actually why I’m so excited about this concept. Lately, my goal has been to develop minimalist designs for game genres that are usually very broad and complex: colony sim, 4X, management games, roguelites…
Another thing interesting with this game is the fact that it’s the kind of game where I can add new content as I develop it, in a brick-by-brick kind of development – something I’ve never done before and I’d really love to try.
Still, it might be a bit too much complexe for a hobbyist project, so we’ll see what we can or cannot do about that.
Loop Tycoon
Loop Tycoon is a management & factory game where you create real-time loops of production in order to build the most advanced civilization.
This is typically a game concept I was originally very excited about, and at some point I sort of forget what was so interesting about the whole idea. Of course, when I say I forget, that’s not really what I mean: what I mean is that, while I was working on it, I started to feel like the concept was not as strong as I thought it would.
I’m very skeptical when I develop this kind of feeling, because very often the problem isn’t the concept itself but it’s simply that there are design problems to be solved, or simply design work to be done to make the game interesting. Still, this is a project where the main goal is unclear, which is a problem I don’t want to rush to solve.
So, maybe I should keep working on that game, who knows?
Dungeon Slide
Dungeon Slide is a puzzle game where players slide from one end of the map to the other, slicing up monsters to reach the next floor.
I really think this game concept is interesting. In fact, it’s one of the projects clear enough in my head that I’m pretty sure it could make a good game. What I’m wondering about is whether I really want to work on a puzzle game, when I’m so interested in developing more system-oriented games.
Whatever the case, it’s a very promising game concept, and even though I still have design problems to solve, I already have lots of ideas on how to do that, so it’s definitely a project I’ll keep an eye on in the future.
Other projects I’m putting on hold
Some projects, namely All Roads Lead To Jakkta, Buildomino, Sacred Seed, Yahtzee Roguelike, etc. are put on hold for the moment. Some of these concepts are interesting, but I don’t see any point at working on too many projects at the same time.
Which project should I work on?
That’s the question, isn’t it? I must say that I’m unsure. Right now, I have two main projects I want to spend some time working on: Bugs Eat Bugs, because of its simplicity and the apparent small scope, and Slot Kingdom, because this is a game I could expand as I’m designing it by simply adding content on the go. Dungeon Slide is also a project I’d like to work on at some point, but I don’t know if I’m willing to spend time on a puzzle game at the moment…
As a conclusion, I’ll take some time to think about all of that. My next move is to try to connect again with Bugs Eat Bugs, and maybe if I feel like it, try to come up with some kind of development plan for it. I’d like my next project to be small enough to design a playble demo to test the concept, and I guess Bugs Eat Bugs could be that project. Wish me luck!