Project 1935 Devlog #1

(Originally written on Apr 25th 2017 @ indiedb)

Bare with me, this first devlog is going to be a bit dry, hope you enjoy the small read nonetheless.

Around 10 months ago I started work on an ambitious game dev project and around 7 months ago I stopped work on an ambitious game dev project. There were many reasons as to why I stopped working on the project, mainly my lack of technical planning and expectation that the project would be somewhat not difficult and would only take a while because of the scale of the game and not the technical challenges. Boy was I wrong, it just so happens that the first and last stumbling block was networking, which is a hell of a place to stumble and I decided on stopping the project. The thing is, this project was THE project in my mind, ya’know, the game that I WANT to make, my mind was always going back to the idea and how it is a game I’d love to play.

That passion, if you can call it that, bundled together with a folder containing a bunch of assets I put time and effort into before starting the project 10 months ago has forever lit a fire underneath me, spurring me to restart the project, re-work the idea and actually incorporate technical design into my plans, not just gameplay. So from today, or more like 2 days ago, I am rebooting the project, and this will be the place in which I share my journey!

The Game

Okay, so if you read through that and are still with me, great, here’s where I tell you about what I have temporarily dubbed as “Project 1935”. Project 1935 is a real-time multiplayer grand strategy game; Now if that isn’t a description that tells you why I couldn’t hack the project 10 months, I don’t know what is.

The premise of the game is quite simple, gain the maximum amount of points before anyone else does. Although this is the goal, the game shouldn’t just be about winning, the actual fun should come when players interact, use conflict, diplomacy and economy to create a game that is both fun when winning and when losing. Everything in the game will gain you points over time, whether that be from nation happiness, winning wars or being an economical mastermind it really doesn’t matter, it is your job to optimise your incoming points and there should be a plethora of ways to achieve this.

The game is not turn based, but also not an RTS. Real time means real time. If it takes 15 minutes for a unit to reach its destination, it will take 15 minutes for that unit to reach its destination. Games should essentially last around 1 week long (by my assumptions) and this is, to me, the most exciting thing, but also the thing I am most unsure about. It basically means you can drop in and out of playing the game at anytime, but if you leave it too long, it may have dire consequences within the game. This is something I will have to tweak and get right over time, I feel like the idea of real-real time is cool, but nothing ever works as you envisage, so I am looking at it with an open mind.

To cut the pseudo game design document short; The game is set on the map of Europe, you play as your chosen nation that will be split up into provinces, these provinces produce resources that go to your overall resource count, you can buy and sell resources with other players. You can create units and invade other nations. You can engage in diplomacy with other players, form alliances, trade directly with other players; The game really is player ran and anything can happen, making the outcome of each game different as it is all dependent upon who you are playing with/against. The game is inspired by other grand strategy and nation management games like Europa Universalis, as well as games like Diplomacy. The game should really play out as if it was a digital board game.

Now, I know this wasn’t really a devlog as I haven’t got any progress to share due to being in the planning stages but I hope this little bit of insight makes you want to check for the next devlog where, hopefully, I will have more to share in terms of development. It is going to be a long road, full of technical challenges that I hope I can overcome and make the game I have always wanted to make whilst also documenting my progress for both myself and others to see!

Bonus: Here is a screenshot of my half done hand drawn map of Europe split into provinces, hopefully that helps you visualise the game in the meantime.