DEVLOG .01 - The Beginning

Nine months ago this game didn’t exist in any form, except for in my head. Not in RPG Maker, or on paper and definitely not in some massive design document made by a guy who actually knew what he was doing. It was just an idea stuck in my head while I was at work, driving home, sitting outside with my kids, or trying to steal an hour at night after everybody else went to sleep.

A little about me - I’m active-duty Marine, I’m a husband, I’ve got two kids, and most of this project got built in the leftover time between everything else I am trying to do, as the case with most indie devs.

A little something on how this idea became a game - The weird thing is, the game didn’t really start with combat as most projects do, it started with stories from an absolute legend.

My dad was one of those guys who could make sitting around a fire feel bigger than life. Every time we went camping, we would beg him to tell us a story, and he would take 15-20 minutes to think about it then blow our minds. Half the lore in this game came from stories I still remember from when I was younger - some weird little details here, some warnings. I loved that these stories that made the woods feel wrong after dark even if nobody could explain why precisely. That feeling of being afraid of the forest for no legitimate reason eventually became Thornvale (base area of the Demo).

Originally, I didn’t even care that much about the combat side of things. I figured I could create a great game without that...but I wanted replayability and progression...I wanted the world, the gods, the lore, the choices, and the slow collapse of reality to be what kept people playing. I really wanted players thinking about decisions they made hours ago instead of just mindlessly grinding wolves/bandits for a slightly sharper sword. Then I realized during one of my earlier demos that if the combat sucked, none of the rest of it really mattered. Combat needed to be memorable and compelling, or it needed to be erased. Unfortunately for me (and maybe you), that turned into four straight months of me trying to force RPG Maker MZ to do things it was absolutely never designed to do.

Now the game has elevation combat, AP systems, directional attacks, weapon-specific behavior, armor calculations, reactive enemy AI, survival mechanics, psychological systems, boss phases, custom lighting, and enough odd story beats that I hope you discover that will probably just end up being confusing.

The height system in battle alone almost killed me. There were days where cliffs rendered upside down, enemies floated into the air like they’d achieved enlightenment, actors clipped through walls, and every fix somehow created three brand new problems immediately afterward in files I didn't even think were connected. At one point I seriously considered deleting the entire elevation system and pretending it was a stupid idea from the beginning because it was causing so many issues. I honestly probably had that thought for most of the systems I have tried to implement. I have to admit thought hat I am glad I didn’t. Because the game finally feels close to what I originally pictured in my head -

A dark tactical RPG where positioning matters, choices matter, and the world feels like it’s slowly coming apart underneath you.

And honestly, this demo is still just the beginning of it. I have so many more ideas...some I think are great, some I think are going to slowly kill me. There’s still a ton I want to add - brutal executions, better enemy tactics, more reactive questlines, more god lore, more irreversible consequences, more areas where the world starts breaking apart in ways that make you question whether you should even be there in the first place - Just like the forest in my dad's stories.

Most importantly, and one of the harder parts I have had to try and pace myself with, I want the story to keep getting weirder. I don’t want the world to feel safe. I don’t want choices to feel reversible. And I definitely don’t want players knowing if they actually made the “right” decision by the end. Life isn't black and white - its morally grey...some "good" choices end up hurting people...some "bad" choices can have beautiful outcomes...I really wanted to catch that feeling.

Anyway, I digress a bit, but this is the first Devlog I have added on Steam, and I plan to continue to update you all on the progress of the game. Some days I will focus on introducing more content to the combat, and some days I will work on expanding the story. End of the day though - the big news is that the demo is finally here.

After nine months of broken plugins, corrupted saves, rewrites, debugging sessions that lasted until stupid hours in the morning, and me repeatedly learning that RPG Maker will absolutely fight you to the death if you let it, I’m genuinely proud of what this thing is turning into. I am also a bit nervous to release something that has so much of me in it - but I am happy to share this with anyone who might enjoy it.

This might be a train wreck....that is on fire...and derailing quickly....but if you want to follow the project while it keeps growing, mutating, and occasionally catching on fire, stick around.

There’s still a lot more coming and I am proud to share it with y'all!

Thanks for reading if you stuck to it this far, I promise future updates will be more concise.