Progress is Progress

Hey...

It's been yet another massive gap since my last post on here. I feel guilty for not posting more regularly, when behind the scenes lots of things are happening, but I guess my time is pretty finite given family life, my day job, etc...

Anyway, to get to the point, the biggest change from a technology standpoint is that I have been able to set up a proper "home lab" using a Lenovo M93P Tiny and Ubuntu Server. I installed Docker and have learnt how to setup separate stacks for different projects, and it's changed my whole development landscape!

I now have multiple little projects on the go, ranging from a "home operations" dashboard for me and my family to share to my attempt to build an alternative to Discord. 

I'm quite proud of all my projects so far, be them all in a state of incompleteness - remember, "Art is never finished, just abandoned" as my old mate Leo da Vinci once said. 

Gor's Tale

So, I have progressed Gor's Tale and am pivoting on a couple of the core mechanics so the game doesn't feel too boring or laborious without a decent payoff, but I have also been focusing on a new game idea called Elemental Fusion.

Elemental Fusion

Element Fusion is essentially a classic "match three" style game like Bejewelled but incorporates the Periodic Table of Elements. It was born from a moment of meshed inspiration- playing the enormously addictive Block Blast (trying to beat my wife's top score) and listening to The Rest Is Science hosted by mathematician Professor Hannah Fry and YouTuber Michael Stevens (Vsauce) - a highly recommended podcast by the way, go watch or listen!

The idea is that you start at the beginning of the Periodic Table and work your way through trying to bond together elements to make new ones, filling up the target meter. All the usual tropes are there- matching three tiles, matching four tiles, making crosses, etc, just with this scientific theme. I'm aiming for it to be reasonably based in reality but keeping the gaming aspect fun.

I'll be publishing the game, which will be compatible with mobile and desktop/table displays, on Itch.io here : https://gwarakgames.itch.io/elemental-fusion

Anyway, despite it being supremely quiet here on this blog (which I hope to change in time with a more regular posting schedule) things back in the "home lab" have been feverously progressing. I hope to share the fruits of my labours with you all soon!

Thanks for sticking with me :)

Matt

And on it goes...

The more that timed has passed and I've not been able to dedicate any significant time to Gor's Tale the more I've realised that solo development is a hellish path to an uncertain dream. I'm not looking for accolades, or fame, or even money, I just want to prove to myself that I have the vision and ability to see a project through to the end and get it shipped. It did occur to me that some indie games have taken years to complete, but so many of these had such a larger and more complex scope than my game does, but of course the developers of those titles have more experience than me too, so I guess it's all relative.

In any case, I am trying to get back to it, and do think about the various aspects of the game, what I want to add and what I now want change having had time away to reflect on past decisions. I'll get there, but it isn't half frustrating when I do get a flutter of motivation but cannot get time in front of the screen.

Until the next time friends, peace out.

Actually Doing It - Creating Gor's Tale (Part 1)

I've been tinkering with programming, and in particular, game dev for years now. I've created countless prototypes, testing out key mechanics but never really building anything close to finished let alone polished enough for release.

This year I have decided to change that. 

Whilst working on a project my mind got to wondering how simple it would be to create a turn-based combat game using the Dungeons & Dragons 5E rules. Y'know what I mean - rolling a D20 for initiative, then rolling dice for hit and attack, picking types of attack, etc. Whilst prototyping something very rudimentary using ASCII characters as player and enemy placeholders, I really started getting stuck into the concept and Gor's Tale was born!

This is only a working title at the moment really, but I kinda like it. I have already upgraded the ASCII art to proper sprites and have decided to give the game a Sega Master System feel, so I'm using the original SMS screen resolution and colour palette. I will probably provide both keyboard and mouse input options as I am building this game using the PhaserJS framework meaning the game is HTML5 & Javascript and will run in a browser.

My early sprite work is basic as I am no artist, and Gor himself (an Orc with a club) is simple but usable. Currently I have a Giant Rat sprite as the placeholder for all my enemies, but that will change soon.

I'm using JSON to hold the D&D style stat blocks for all "actors" in the game and will be aiming to generally apply the same kind of logic to combat as is observed in the 5e rulebooks.

I'll post here from time to time about my progress with this but also following me on X and BlueSky to see smaller updates (and rants probably!) too.

You can find Gwarak Games on those platforms and more, here:

https://x.com/GwarakGames

https://bsky.app/profile/gwarakgames.bsky.social

https://gwarakgames.itch.io/

How time has flown

I can hardly believe it has been five months since I created this blog and the welcome message. Life is just so chaotic that I find myself pinballing between things constantly and before I know it months have past!

Anyway, I think I have an idea of what my first few posts will be about. It's programming related, directly in fact, however it's also me looking back at my life and remembering those moments that defined who I am and what I do today.

My first couple of memories, from when I was a young boy in the mid 1980s, focus on the venerable BBC range of microcomputers. A familiar system for anyone my age who went to school in the UK.

Stay tuned for those, coming up as soon as I can find five minutes to write them down. 🤣

Cheers for now.

Hello, World!

The welcome post!

Yep, its the obligatory welcome post. I found it mildly amusing calling it "Hello, World!" (something I expect anyone who has attempted any type of programming will understand!) if not a tiny bit cringe.

Anyway, thanks for visiting my little blog. Over time you'll see posts about my random adventures in coding, updates on projects and anything else I feel might fit here.

My aim is to record any progress I make in the hope that it helps me stay on the rails with my tasks, but also maybe to help out others who are trying similar things. We'll see, I guess.

Enjoy your stay. I hope it doesn't suck.

Matt