What I tried today#
A few days ago my cousin encouraged me to set up a game dev log for my upcoming year-long solo dev journey, and here we are, a tiny blog hoping not to be noticed – so I can enjoy the vanity of exhibitionism while remaining in my introverted safe bubble.
Today I decided to put the Unreal Engine tutorial series I had been following on the back burner. It is time to start prototyping and stop worrying about whether I’m ready or not. I can watch another 100 hours’ worth of UE5 tutorials and not get started on my project which I have been desperately wanting to make. Sometimes, we should just put on the headphones, open our favorite playlist and put the pedal to the metal, and that’s what I did today – I started sketching the starter mobile unit.
Sketch#
Normally I would say “sorry for my messy drawing” but since this is my blog I will skip the self-deprecation part and explain the sketch to you. At the start of the game, the player will be dropped onto the world in a pod. Upon landing the pod can unfold its 4 petals and become a quadruped mobile unit. The player will be sitting inside the sphere. I was particularly not satisfied with the top space above the sphere, and wanted to add a bit more mechanical parts to it. I experimented with the dual jet units which are mounted on a fin-like frame and can be rotated toward whichever direction the mobile unit is moving. This means potential speed boosts or even jump boosts.
What worked#
Working with Adobe Fresco is a joy, and since I had this TourBox impulse-purchased a while ago, I really dipped into the flow state and lost track of time.
And what didn’t#
To be honest this might be too bulky and I might reduce it to a single propulsion unit in later designs. For now, I will remove the propulsions entirely in my first 3D draft in Blender to keep things simple.
The design is already vastly different from my earliest vision which is a literal bipedal bot. I will add a bipedal design for sure, yet for a starter vehicle, I want to keep the design simple.
Kuratas).