I have been playing around with the BlitzBasic series of products for the last 10 years or so and just experimented and done small things. I have been doing the same thing with Monkey since it came out. I bought the Playniax Framework, Jungle IDE and have been going through the Beginning Monkey ebook by Mike Hartlef and finally decided that I need to finish something for a change.
I have a notebook with lots of different game ideas. I think that part of the issue in the past with never getting too far or completing anything is that I have been too ambitious with my projects. I would start writing a game and then get stuck on a certain aspect and when I couldn't figure it out I would let that kill the project. This time I have decided that I need to pick a game that is moderate in scope.
In the game the player is going to be a miner in a fantasy world that digs underground to collect various ores and gems. I am planning on having basic crafting and very light RP. The character will be able to improve on a few of his skills and upgrade his mining equipment, some gear and items in their house.
This past week I have finished the base tile engine that scrolls around and is centered on the player sprite. I also plan to use this as a foundation in the future for a roguelike. The game randomly generates the levels using a basic cellular automata algorithm. The player can dig and collect gems right now.
I am going to work on this regularly and I plan to release this on multiple devices since Monkey is so cross platform. I may do a release on mobile and then flesh the game out more, add features and then release on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Stay tuned for more dev diaries and some screen shots!
