Business Update

On the docket this week was getting my Steamworks account set up and tied to my LLC correctly for tax purposes. This took a good amount of homework to ensure I was filling out the paperwork correctly. Its a bit nerve wracking to submit all of this and have to wait a few days for a person to review. There's also a bit of confusion for how this should work for a single member LLC like mine. The steamworks documentation isn't exactly clear, but a few google searches and helpful posts by folks who were in similar situations helped me out.

Thanksfully I was approved on the first attempt. I've read that if you get denied it can take many days to re-submit for approval. This also means that the bulk of the paperwork is done! Huzzah! I can get back to focusing on the game itself. Speaking of which - lets chat a little more about what I'm building and how I got the idea.

Story Time: What Sort of Game Should I Make First?

Like anyone who sits down to make a video game, I had all kinds of ideas for games. Too many. I still do, but I have to pick something to start with. As I mentioned in the last post I wanted to build something that I knew I'd be able to complete. Something that I wouldn't have to learn a ton of new techniques or technology to accomplish. At the end of my tutorial and a few days of playing around with what I knew about Godot, I had enough knowledge to make a very basic platformer. But - indie 2D platformers are a dime a dozen. So I began to think about other games in the 2D platforming adjacent genres that I've really enjoyed. Games that have subtle, but direct nods to my old favorites are always a good time. Why not look at my old favorites and figure out what ideas I can adapt into something unique?

Anyone who knows me knows I love the Mega Man games. Mega Man X was one of the first physical video games I ever owned. It has fast paced action, at times brutally difficult platforming, and collectables that would improve Mega Man to make future fights easier. That last one has always stuck with me. There just aren't a lot of platformers that do collectables quite like Mega Man X did them. Both the Life Ups (Heart Tanks) and the new weapons you get from beating bosses added interesting replay value. I've also always really liked the Legend of Zelda games and their usage of items. As you complete dungeons, you get a new item that helps you more as you go. And you can equip them to different buttons on the controller, but you can only have so many "active" items at once. There were also passive items that you'd get as you went. Different Tunics or the infamous Water Temple that made heavy use of Iron Boots.

Great! An idea is forming. I'll make a platformer that has collectable items that help the player and make the levels easier. But wait, isn't that a Metroidvania or Search Action game? I've always bounced off of those games because of hard block on advancing unless you have the right items. There's also been a good amount of indie games in that space recently with Animal Well and others stealing the show. So I want to steer clear of that too. What else can I do to stand out from the crowd?

Well I'm a sucker for trends, and recently I've seen a lot of games about climbing up. None of those were in the 2D space, and thinking back I couldn't think of many platformers where you start at the bottom and work your way up to the end of the level. Well that's simple, just turn the 2D side scrolling platformer on its side, and design vertical levels. The other trend that I'm fond of is rogue-likes and rogue-lites. Terms I'm sure I'm still using incorrectly at times. But the idea that you do a run until you die, and then you start over. Only retaining some amount of your progress as you go, and the "levels" within the run change each time. Since I've already decided to add some collectable power up items to the game, this also feels like an easy concept to incorporate.

So now we're sitting with the idea of a vertical, item-based platformer with some rogue-like elements to it. All things my tutorial plus a few extra days of fiddling showed me ways of doing. I'm comfortable with this idea, but it still felt like it was missing something. I was also wrestling with how do I lightly nudge the player that they need to go up, and not to the right. Since we're vertical - I was still thinking about a few levels in Mega Man games that had vertical sections. One such section had you climb through a shaft while lava rose from the bottom, forcing you to make quick decisions. Now there's an idea, that would add a sense of urgency to the game and work to show the player they should move up.

And that's where I landed. A vertical rogue-lite platformer with a built in timer in the form of a rising bit of "lava" or whatever makes sense for my theme. Wait. Crap, I still need a theme!

That's a good story for next week, what the theme is and how I landed on that idea.

Sign Off

Up next for me is rounding out my game's Steam page and my itch.io game page. In reality - that means ensuring my game is ready for an announcement trailor. Which means making sure I'm happy with how the sprites look and some of the more "boring" interactions like menus are consistent feel good. In the coming weeks I should have a little more to say about the actual game's progress now that I've got the business side of things set up.

Thanks again for reading and following along!

Lee