hello, and welcome#
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hi there, this is where I plan to write out any updates or devlogs about this game I'm making.
for context, im unsure if i'll ever finish it or what it's meant to be. all i know is that since i started playing games with friends and older cousins, i've wanted to create something of my own that could create some of those experiences i had. the joy of discovery, of opening up my childhood eyes to the potential of worlds yet unexplored (even though i didnt really have an idea of how limited some systems really were, it didnt matter). i'd spend so much time in my head designing ideas, whether for ski hill tycoons, ripoffs of runescape classic, simcity or command&conquer strategy gems on pen and paper, the inspiration was endless.
Then Zelda: A link to the past and links awakening came long. And pokemon. And ultima online (which I was never convince my parents to get me a real subscription for). I was blown away. But there was always something limited about pretending to go on Vacation to Cinnabar island with my friends. Firstly, I couldn't actually go there together with them on the gameboy. Secondly, the whole experience had to be created by my imagination, the game was pokemon, not vacation with friends with pokemon and do whatever you want in the world. visiting your mum, while sweet, did nothing tangible in the game. it was like role playing tied up in a very limited rule set.
I never got around to learning how to code as a kid. I've always been afraid of anything rigorous. I definitely installed Ultimate shards and messed around with my parents PC with other things like first star online servers etc. I bought a used Pentium 1 133MHZ PC from a school buddy for 20$ so that I could have a PC to mess around on for myself. Still didnt know how to code.
Highschool ended and college came, and I discovered Dwarf Fortress. This was new. This was something emergent! The simplicity of the graphics let me imagine a lot more than was there, but also, theres just SO MUCH THERE. Then Rimworld -- which I found by accident. It blew my mind. Simulation games were now way more open, way more emergent. But still, both didn't have multiplayer baked in, and while Dwarf fortress had some really great graphics sets that I used and loved, Rimworld was attached to an art style that for me was just a shade too complex. I wanted something simple, minimal, like dwarf fortress in aesthetics (maybe not full ASCII), but with multiplayer baked in. with the ability to create your own town, your own vision.
Some of the first things I'd always ask my buddy when we tried a new MMO or RPG or Farming game or what have you: "Can you buy a house?" I don't know why that customization and that personalization were so important to me. And not in the Sims way (although thats a great set of games, at least the earlier ones). But multiplayer, player owned housing in a real limited phsyical space kinda thing. Now that I have a mortgage this kinda makes me laugh but still, that ability to create/own your own little slice of a digital pie. Habbo hotel had a cool idea around this, but i digress.
So here it is, the very first thing I'm really willing to share that kinda approaches this lazily laid out vision. It's called Echoes of the Lake. It's been through 7-8 rewrites and reimagingings since I started writing code 16 years ago. Of course as soon as I could write a line of code the first thing I did was start trying to write a game engine. And no, not a 3d game engine for some AAA style game, but this bespoke, iterative engine that this is in front of you.
I failed so hard so many times. but each time got closer to what we have here. And this one might yet fail, but I've learned so much about computers, web frameworks, networking, graphics, and everyting else along the way. I wouldn't trade those commits into those failed repos for anything. It's helped me on this and it's helped me as a developer writ large.
Im not even sure what I wanna do with this yet. but i wanted to start putting it out there. Maybe it's something, maybe it's not. But now you've got the backstory.