Let's Make a Game

James Petts from London, England / CC BY-SA What are your memories of games with the family when you were growing up (fond or otherwise)? Funnily enough, my earliest significant memory is of Dad teaching me how to play chess, and the slide-topped wooden box that all the pieces lived in. A "don't let the marbles drop" game called Ker-plunk! was another. Fast forward a little bit, and most of my other memories are of cosy weekend afternoons spent inside playing board games with the occasional card game thrown in. Games with my family managed to be a mostly civilised affair, with minimal fighting over who did or didn't have what. Monopoly was definitely a staple, along with Squatter, Masterpiece, Boggle, Mhing, Pictionary, and Trivial Pursuit (which I was bad at). I still like to play board and card games with friends sometimes, and it's as much about socialising with people as actually playing the games for me. The resurgence of board/card games o

Having played a whole lot of hack 'n slash and action RPG games in my time, I thought it'd be fun to try to make one. I've done some bits and pieces before, but all of the newer game-making engines make it a lot easier, especially when it's just you and not an entire production team. A while ago I picked my poison of choice, the Unity engine, and got started on a sort of dungeon crawler action hybrid (see above). It's been fun, educational, and yes, frustrating more than once. I'm enjoying the journey, and we'll see where it all leads to. Recent world events (coronavirus, but I'm healthy so don't worry) have definitely put paid to the idea of discussing either this game or completely different games people might have ideas for in person though, so I'm finally getting around to making this blog. This is going to be a constantly evolving project, as even though some of the details are already laid down, there are plenty that are still