So, this post marks the 2 year anniversary of development of this game. That's 2 years of blood, sweat, and pixels devoted to something that has practically zero internet presence and isn't even halfway done. Game design is like a personal hell with no light at the end of the tunnel, and GameMaker is my tormentor.

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Now that that's out of the way, here's what's been going on!

Outset was first conceptualized on August 10th, 2017 on a napkin at a very good Mexican restaurant called Mijares. I had a cheese enchilada with chips and guac. The temperature was approximately 78F with 64% humidity. Maybe the enchilada inspired me. Maybe it was the guac. Either way, I had an idea for an RPG world centered around a peaceful village. The game would be nonlinear, with all choices, from dialogue responses to the path taken through the world, having at least a small tangible effect. Except, it wouldn't be a normal top down RPG, where the amazing story far outclasses the mediocre gameplay (please don't lynch me). Instead, it would be a platformer.

Fast forward 5 months, and I had brought some people on board. I had been iterating on that initial napkin sketch, figuring out the game's structure and story could interconnect in interesting ways. Along the way, I came up with many terrible ideas and changes. One day the game was a timed evacuation story about a doomed planet. The next day, the entire game world was changed into a giant gear.

Not great stuff, but that iteration helped long-term to improve the game's inherent structure.

December 2017 marked the start of pre-production, where I opened GameMaker Studio 2 and began building the starting area. After a few months, this was the result:

So, it sucked. A lot. No one on the team had ever used GameMaker, or even attempted to physically make a game of this scope before, so the programming was even worse than the art. But at least the gameplay was good, right?

The gameplay sucked too. It alternated between precision platforming and a terrible dual weapon system that shamelessly ripped off Cave Story, with physics that crashed every 30 seconds and level design that straight up ignored the game mechanics. A competent game designer would have stepped back, seen the flaws, and pulled development to a screeching halt to reassess the situation. But not us!

We kept going, making the game worse and worse, as we began realizing that development wasn't going great. And then, one day, it clicked. A legendary conversation took place between myself and team member Jack that would change the course of history.

• Will: So, what if you go to this area in a plane and the plane gets shot down and-

• Jack: Hey, I have an idea. What if we have a grappling hook?

• Will: Yeah, sure.

The next year of development went something like this;

• Map out new rooms and parts of areas

• Program new mechanics and enemies

• Realize more and more how bad everything is, then go back and change everything

• Repeat

By December 2018, basically nothing was added to the game world or story. We had a lot of ideas, but all the areas were the same ones as from a year before. The difference was experience. In that year, we completely redesigned the entire home village, reprogrammed the physics engine, solidified every aspect of the gameplay, created a dialogue engine to quickly and easily write cutscenes, mapped out the entire story, and settled on a consistent art style. But most importantly, we had transformed the entire beginning of the game from an embarrassment to something that we were actually proud of.

The next 8 months, from December to August 10th, 2019, were, in contrast to the rest of development, amazing. Outset officially moved into full production, allowing development to finally continue through the game world. More people joined the team, bringing more critical eyes and skills to the table. For me, though, what made it amazing was because of that past year of no additions. That year had taught me so much about game design, art, and GameMaker that I could feel it. Everything made in the last 8 months is by far the highest quality content in the game with barely any revisions. Because of that first almost year and a half of failures, development is now going great!!

But, now it's time to look ahead! Based on how things are progressing right now, the game will still take a long time to be completed. We are expecting to release Outset on Steam in 2022, a little less than 3 years from now. It will be a long haul, but one that we can confidently make thanks to planning and that year of failure. So please, stick around for this journey, and you'll get to be part of it too.