Hello!
This has been a weird month. With all the planned documentation work finally done, I got to spend the entire month working on the game without interruptions.
I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting someone to show up and ask me about some documentation task I had forgotten 😅
But no. I guess I am officially a full-time game dev now!
And here's the funny thing: now that I can finally devote all my time to making a game, I'm discovering just how much of that work involves getting other people to make it with me.
So, no documentation progress reports or time distribution charts this month: it was all XYM City, all the time!
Let's jump into it!
The highlight of the month is that I started contacting Quake mappers and texture artists that I admire, to see if they’d be interested in working on the game. What’s the worst that could happen? Well, a couple of them actually answered.
Understand this: these guys have been in the community for a long time, regularly releasing maps for free that could easily have been sold as full games. Their work is nothing short of legendary! Them replying was the highlight of the month? Try the highlight of a lifetime!
Turns out they’re also super nice human beings, and even though they weren’t available to work on the project, we chatted a bit and they shared some incredibly useful tips that changed the way I’ll be working on the city.
Bottom line: don’t be afraid to reach out to people you admire. You never know what might happen unless you try, and sometimes, being honest and upfront about your project is enough to get a reply 🥲
And as a bonus, they said they’d spread the word about the project, so the hunt continues!
<aside> 🌐
These are some of the places where I’ve been hanging out lately.
Join the Quake Mapping Discord Server!
Join the Map-Center Discord Server!
</aside>
One of the first things I knew when I started this project was that I wanted to use brush-based maps, like the ones in Quake or Half-Life.
Not only because I love their retro look, but because they are honest: what you see is what you get. If you see a ledge, you can probably climb it. If you see a building in the background with open windows, that’s normally an invitation to explore until you find a way in.
I’m the kind of player who, no matter how many monsters are hurling grenades at me, will be standing in the middle of the courtyard staring at a wall, planning a route to jump from window to window and reach that roof. Because there has to be a secret up there, right?
Compare that feeling with some modern games, where the background is only meant to be looked at, not touched. That’s an instant immersion killer for me, and definitely not what I want for XYM City. I want to tell the stories of the people living in the city, and I want players to feel like they are living there among them.