The Half-Baked Idea for my First Game: "Orion's Playground"

Ah, my first game idea... no idea what to name it yet, although I've started calling it Orion's Playground. Lame, but okay. It's based off the fact that I'm making it for my son and it will be his world to explore and that some of his notions and ideas will be put into the game. For now, it's time to put pen to paper and just start something so it goes somewhere. Even in the evolution of a single day, I've already got a clearer picture of what I want to do and accomplish than I did yesterday. Onward!

So. Many. Ideas.

As a creative individual learning a new field, it is absolutely impossible to imagine limitations and boundaries when your mind starts to see all of the possibilities in front of you. As someone whose also taken on many hobbies successfully, I also tend to believe that if I set my mind to something (and stick with it) then I will achieve it. In some ways, this is fantastic because fear is not a factor for me so much. The flip side is that it is hard to settle into a project scope that is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based). 

This is certainly something I come across a lot in my day job as an engineer, and it's super easy to go down the rabbit hole with ideas and solutions that can get abandoned as the project grows too large and the goals too big for the allotted budget. I am familiar with this concept and apply it regularly within the bounds of my job, but I'll be honest, I don't always apply the same vigor to my hobbies. Why? Maybe because I do it all day at work and sometimes I like the space of dreaming and pretending I don't need to follow the same rules when I'm working on passion projects. It's not true, but we all delude ourselves a little, no?

Right now I'm taking a few courses simultaneously on Udemy and YouTube and I'm loving it. Learning is my thing, and I'm enjoying this new world. The more I learn, the more ideas pop into my head. The more ideas pop into my head, the more I've been spending my free time learning more. I've even, for the first time in my life, started listening to some podcasts. And not just the technical bits either, I've started listening and watching the videos on the pitfalls of new game developers, tips & tricks, the I-wish-someone-would've-told-me-this-when-I-started advice. 

So knowing a common pitfall is starting with too many ideas and a scope that's too large (and given my own inclinations to do just that), I've started thinking I need to narrow it down from the start, since I don't believe I'll suffer from a lack of ideas in the future. I can put new ideas in a "parking lot" to use for later projects and try and focus on learning the game engine and finishing a game that is suitable enough for my son to play.

Luckily for me, since my goal is not to make money on this (although it could be nice to one day turn passion into more income) and the target audience (my son) will likely overlook the rough edges that the game is certain to have, the pressure of creating something ground-breaking has eased. My goal is just to make something fun that he'll like. What a better start than having to start with something serious!

Orion's Playground Idea

What will my son like to play? 

How about an astronaut whose living on a moon, exploring different areas, building and breaking stuff along the way? Since I want it to be fun and intuitive for him (and potentially simpler for me), let's make it a top-down game... the initial thought was Stardew in Space (cue "Lost in Space" voice)... but farming won't be the focal point, naturally. And I'd like to go for either stylized or realistic graphics instead of pixelated art, in order to use some of the cool functionality of the Unreal engine. We'll see how that plays out though! 

I have yet to fully develop the backstory for this astronaut, but I have some ideas already on where he came from, what he's doing there and what his goal is to frame the barriers he'll need to overcome. My plan is to start small, in a grid-like fashion with an initial area called "home base" that consists of part of the existing habitat and some outside area to explore.

Starter Map

Here's the original concept sketch of the "home base" area:

Once I started sketching out some basics, I started having some additional ideas on how to expand this to a bigger map using a grid layout to call out general areas of interest. 

Here's the "starter map" idea sketch:

The Plan: Create a "Demo" around Home Base

My plan is to start with the "home base" area and develop that while ignoring the rest of the map. I like having the bigger map so I can see how it could expand and keeping it in mind for future extension, plus it helps to get the ideas out on paper so I can clear them from my mind without losing them. 

Ultimately, I know it will be better if I focus on a small area to see how much effort will go into this region and what I may want to change in gameplay, graphics, etc. before moving on to other areas. I think it's going to give me some idea of the time required for the full project and if I can knock it out, it will give my son something to play (even if small) sooner than later. 

Last Thoughts for Tonight

I've got a ton of notes and ideas on this small, simple game already and I'll share them in a later post, mostly because I'm tired and need to get some rest before getting up to make the donuts. I am excited though, because I thought this would be the hardest part, settling in on one idea and running with it (thanks, YouTube, for recommending tons of videos of people saying just do something, anything and run with it!). 

Now I think this game will be cooler than I initially thought it could be and that's a good feeling. Until next time!