A Chime Caster's Game Dev Experience

On January 15th, I released the Feature Complete Update, marking the beginning of the Pre-Alpha development stage of Project Under Root.

Here are some notes to myself from the last six weeks of development.

NPCs

In the beginning of the Pre-Alpha stage, I may look to developing NPCs to have more complexity, as right now there is only a very simple wandering AI available for me to use. Having at least one town with NPCs is something I intend for Project Under Root. I would like for there to be a town to help give the player some backing for the story they will be a part of and to make the world feel lived-in. I am unsure what mechanic-wise a town would offer for the player currently.

I will likely redesign the one character that first showed up in the Core Flow build - Gwi (formerly Gitu) the Kasna, a humanoid savanna creature. I may make him a goblin-like creature while still keeping some armadillo-inspired aspects of the design. His design was my first foray into animating a 3D character, and his look was an experiment with trying a more light-hearted aesthetic.

With the one NPC type potentially being a small creature, I think something interesting may be to have a town in the world that is underground or in low-roofed areas where the player would need to crouch down in order to traverse.

Player Movement

A design limitation I’ve set on myself from the very beginning is that I do not want any hostile enemies throughout the game world. It has been an interesting experience, and from this limitation, I have gravitated towards platforming and crafting mechanics.

I’ve found early on through testing that I really enjoyed basic platforming and climbing up trees to forage for fruit, and I wanted to make game-play involve this simple platforming and exploration. As part of developing the tree climbing, I added a simple ledge climbing system and the ability for the player to crouch in order to prevent themselves from falling off of the edges of tree branches. I think it could be interesting to experiment having some areas with hazardous floors that the player must leap and traverse across with spell-grown platform mushrooms and ample use of tree branches.

I want to use the climbing and crawling system for exploring caverns as well as forest canopies. I may try to make the game feel dream-like as the player explores the different lands ahead of them.

Swimming

Alongside tree climbing, I also found swimming to be an area of interest. I had a glitch during the initial testing of the player’s swim movement where the player would leap out of the water when emerging from a surface. I found the effect to be surprisingly fun.

After fixing the bug that caused the player to leap, I decided to make an upgraded version of the swim movement that had acceleration and allowed for the player to leap like before. Combining the leap with acceleration, I found the player could glide through water in a way I found fun. As an end-game item, I could see the upgraded swim ability being a fun reward for the player to complete the game’s story in style.

World Design Ideas

An idea I have for developing the over-world is to make above-ground areas that jut out from a hazardous mist that covers the world. To traverse the land, I may make it so that the player must explore caverns in-between the few safe regions of land. I intend on making the project semi open-world with a number of interconnected areas. With star constellations playing the role of setting warp points and allowing for the crafting of artifacts, I believe their significance may be more pronounced by making the night sky only visible in key areas.

I may have some regions of the game start in a “frozen” or “petrified” state where plants cannot grow, water is dried up, and NPCs and/or creatures are frozen solid in time. I think it could be a good goal for the player to restore and “unpetrify” sections of the world as they progress the story, and to use that progression to also change the ways in which the player can traverse said world.

Mana and Spells

One mechanic in the game as well is that the mana bar itself can be destroyed in chunks by hazardous regions. I may make it so that way moonlight is needed to heal the mana bar, which could be another way that the night sky would have significance to the player.

I want to experiment with having the Grow spell lens do more. I may add simple machines and/or moving platforms the player can turn off and on with the Grow spell lens. I would like each spell lens to be able to do a multitude of related actions that allow for them to have a certain level of depth. The Grow spell is currently what could see the most improvement.

Atmosphere and Lore

For the atmosphere of Project Under Root, I’m currently considering attempting to strike a balance of technological and mystical. An example would be the Tempest’s Valor. The armor is meant to invoke a mechanical aesthetic with the gear-like teeth accenting it, and a mystical aesthetic with the colors and swirls upon it.

An area of development I have enjoyed preparing future developments for is creating the fantasy language of Uryava for Project Under Root. It is something I’ve worked on from time to time before starting the project, and I’d like to imagine that it will help make the game world feel that much more lived-in. You can see snippets of it throughout the game. There is a real lexicon and simple grammar system behind the language.

Thank You

If you decided to read through the notes, I hope they provide some insight into the trajectory of Project Under Root.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

DeterminedRabbit