Sometimes You Go Back to Go Forward

It’s been a bit since my last devlog, but not without reason.

First of all, I took some time off for the holidays.

But secondly - and more importantly - I took some time to sit back and think about where I was going with TMF.

After three months or so of development, TMF was where I wanted it to be from a technical standpoint, but with that stage of prototyping out of the way I was starting to see some other issues popping up that couldn’t be ignored.

The first problem was a classic blunder (one I’ve made myself many times): scope creep. Where I’d started with TMF, was as a small, battle-focused hybrid of a tactics and puzzle game. Where I’d arrived was with a sprawling, story-heavy mashup of Fire Emblem and my battle system.

By itself, what this really represented for me was a logistics problem. Getting all the content needed to support the ideas I was sketching out represented potentially months and months (and months) of work. Not great news in terms of being a solo dev trying to get their next game out, but not necessarily an insurmountable problem.

That is, until I combined that with the second issue.

Playing around with the prototype I’d built so far was interesting, but it wasn’t fun. While I really liked the Fire Emblem-esque concept, the two layers I was operating weren’t meshing the way I’d hoped.

So, if I wasn’t having fun, what’re the odds other players would?

Having a Rethink

Fortunately, I had confidence this was not the end of the road for TMF.

Stepping back from it for a bit would give me time to think about what was working with it, what wasn’t working, and how I could take a new approach with it that would get me where I wanted.

So during the holiday, I did exactly that. While puttering around other little projects and generally trying to not stare at Unity all day, the answer came to me.

What I liked about TMF - and where it had started from in the first place - was the battle system. Outside of everything else, the tactical/puzzle hybrid still felt good, and it still felt fun. If I could bring the focus of the game back to that, I knew I’d be in good shape.

So how to keep the focus on the battles while still providing a sense of long-term growth and challenge? Well, to me the answer seemed obvious: it was loop time, baby.

Taking some structural ideas from work I’d done on Last Call at the Bleakwatch Inn, along with all the work I’d already done on the battle system for TMF, I was able to quickly sketch out an entire new gameloop structure built around a more traditional roguelite structure as opposed to a massive RPG.

Along with that, I thought about the story aspect of it. While I was happy with the story I’d sketched out for TMF, it didn’t fit this new structure. Also, to me, it felt a bit too serious. I am a silly person. I like my games to be a little silly as well (which you would know if you’ve played any of them). With things such as they are in the world right now, bringing some lightness into it also feels a lot better.

The core idea of the story remains the same: the tyrant must fall, after all. But now the onus of that task falls to Jairm, chosen by the Stone of Destiny to be the hero the land needs. Unfortunately for all involved, Jairm really, really does not seem cut out for the job.

But the Stone of Destiny is never wrong. It’s going to make sure Jairm lives up to his chosen fate, no matter how many times he has to try.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Back from the holiday, I got to work and began putting all the pieces of TMF back together in a brand new way. It doesn’t feel great to have to throw entire sections of a game out after you’ve spent time and energy building them, but if it’s all in the name of making the final product better, you do what you must.

On the positive side of things, there was so much of the work already done that I got to keep. Within just a few days I was able to have a fully functional prototype of the new design with all of the key pieces in place.

And the best news? It felt so much more fun.

After getting the groundwork in place, one of the first things I wanted to do was rebuild the entire tutorial section to both streamline the text (my old one was extremely dense) as well as get the player in line with the game’s new vibe right up front.

With the new build, I was able to do that much faster and more easily than with the old model. A nice bonus, to be sure.

While it’s still rough, I’ve already got the draft of the new tutorial section complete, and you can watch the early alpha here:

There’s lots more work to be done, for sure, but I’m incredibly happy with the new direction and I like to think the eventual players will be, as well. There’s still lots of encounters to design, UIs to streamline, and art to be done, but reaching a fully playable demo feels so much more within reach now than it had at any point in the last few months.

I’ll be keeping these devlogs coming, looking at some of the new ideas built around the game’s metaprogression, expanded unit types and abilities, and, well, all the other stuff that comes up as well.

Happy New Year!

Next Time: Progression, but it's kind of meta

P.S. You can always join the conversation at our Porch Weather Games discord!