today, i'm excited to share my adventure of recreating a minigame from the Straying Stars event in Honkai Impact 3rd.

the game is finally published and you can play it

the inspiration

it all began when i got emerged in Honkai Impact 3rd. The combination of cyberpunk aesthetics, fast-paced action, and mesmerizing music is what captivated me in the game.

i also wanted to choose a relatively simple game to recreate in unity (*more on it at the bottom) to practice coding and game production. in june of this year, a comet had fallen above my game, because Honkai Impact 3rd event Straying Stars had this minigame, an endless runner with the title of Fame Can Be So Troublesome. and just like that, a perfect idea sparked - why not recreate this masterpiece?

pixel by pixel

with grand plans to finish in just a couple of weeks, i eagerly delved into the realm of game development. boiiiii was I wrong about the timeframe; it extended to about three or four months.

despite struggling with this project for such a long time, i cherish it with all my heart. i created all the assets myself (except for the few mentioned below). i composed the music myself (and even though it's not top-quality, i love how it sounds). i coded the game myself mostly from scratch, (though i did follow a tutorial by this creator but i've added some unique features).

the final bit

two to three hard months may have passed, but what an adventure it's been. from the initial burst of enthusiasm to the frustrations of debugging and problem-solving, every moment was a valuable lesson. i gained insights into game design, sound engineering, and the art of crafting an immersive experience. it wasn't just a game; it was an odyssey.

and now, the moment of truth has arrived. drumroll please – my recreated Honkai Impact 3rd minigame is finally ready for its debut! while it's far from perfect, it stands as my humble tribute to one of my favorite games and my journey of self-improvement.

the future is unclear

game development is a vast universe, and i've merely scratched the surface. despite the challenges encountered along the way, i relished every aspect of game development. i assure you; this won't be the last project from aclypse. who knows what mysteries await in the pixelated galaxies of the future?

and unity is dead…

...a sentimental part of this blog.

i have a few words to share about unity. it has always been my dream to create games on unity since i first discovered this platform. however, its recent pricing update has been a source of frustration for the entire game-dev community, to put it lightly. i had nearly completed my game when they announced this news, and i was left feeling lost. at that point, i honestly didn't know how to continue and what to do.

i had been working on this game for three months by then, and i had just finally learned how to use unity. i was incredibly excited about sharing my first steps in game development with a larger community. but the news hit me hard.

while the updated pricing probably won't have an immediate impact on me personally, as Asmongold pointed out,

getting the trust back, from a community like that, is soo hard

i did consider switching from unity to godot, but i had already completed the game, and i didn't want to start almost from scratch again (not to mention that it took me about 3 to 4 months to create this game in unity, and it would take even more time to learn godot and transfer this game. but as Thomas Bush advised all game developers to

make the game, get it done, if you’re deep in the weeds with your game in unity, finish your game

thanks to his words, i have decided to release this project from unity. however, as much as it pains me to say this, i plan to switch from unity.

i am an aspiring indie game developer, and i still have a long journey ahead of me. i can't see the end of it, and i can't anticipate every challenge and obstacle that awaits me along the way. but i don't want to allow some ill-advised financial decisions to derail my game development path. as sentimental as it may sound, i want to encourage every aspiring game developer who might be in a similar situation as i am right now to don't be discouraged and move on on their starting paths. consider alternatives to unity, as many other game developers have suggested. this isn't anything new, but i felt it needed to be said. sorry for getting so sentimental at the end xdd.

credits

with that said, i still want to give a shout-out to those amazing people who had put in the work and created these amazing assets

the youtuber whose tutorial i followed

in-game background: https://blendermarket.com/products/cyberpunk-city

explosion VFX: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/fire-explosions/free-stylized-smoke-effects-pack-226406

explosion SFX: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/sound-fx/grenade-sound-fx-147490

also, thanks to the (amazing) Discord Unity community

and of course, to the creators of the game without which part of me would have even existed, Honkai Impact 3rd.

and of course, i can't leave out all my friends who were a huge help during the testing stage. without them, i wouldn't be able to publish this game.

#fangame #honkaiimpact #endlessrunner #casual #indiegame #indie #indiegamedev #relaxing #cyberpunk #cozy