I will preface this with: I don't know where this is going, but I wanted to learn about isometric game making and it turned into something bigger.

Every game must have an engine.

I am doing my best to not think of the end goal with this game, but just to understand all of the main principles of the engine first. In the past, if a feature was giving my problems and I didn't fully understand it, I would likely write a hacky fix and move on. This time I am striving to build every basic feature a old-school RPG would have, and more. I am happy to say that all the features thus far are working as expected and with no knowledge gaps.

Here is a teaser demo, and don't focus on the art or style itself, that will all change. Focus on the engine:

So, now to explain the features I am excited about.

First and foremost, it is truly infinite. I love open world gameplay and loathe hitting invisible walls in games with prebuilt worlds. Don't get me wrong, I understand that developers, especially indie ones cannot make a infinite amount of buildings or detailed areas for players to explore. I really appreciate the balance of the two mindsets, a well thought out area to explore + large and interesting open outskirts for players to wander in.

Other features the engine includes:

  • Pathfinding for player and creatures
  • Different levels of terrain within generation
  • Shader for water ripples
  • Realtime combat
  • Creatures can become and attack and chase the player
  • Player can manage items picked up on their adventures
  • Players can speak with NPC's

That's it so far.

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