DevDiary 1 – Demo Release & Vision:
First, I wanted to thank everyone for the reception given to my demo release!
This is my very first DevDiary for The Emigre: Wagon Train.
After being quiet for about a month, while addressing my first public feedback, I’ve decided to share this premier installment of my developer diary. This is the first in a series where I’ll be sharing insights and decisions involved in this project’s development process.
To start, I’d like to share with you my decision to release the public demo and my insights gained from doing so. Originally, I thought that announcing too early would be a bad idea — that I’d lose hype and momentum quickly, and that some people might have been dismissive of both an epic and a historical-based story.
After receiving multiple private feedbacks that I should share this game with the public, I finally decided to revisit my original decision to hold off, and instead push forward a retail demo that would help me refine the end-game.
I believe, now, that doing this was the correct decision.
Taking the wonderful feedback received, I have now revisited and redesigned a few non-player characters and their role in the story being told. As a result, an Origins design that started out with 12,000 words is now approaching 40,000 words. (The total update should be somewhere under 50,000 words).
What were once throw-away characters, originally designed to show up once and never be seen again, are now reoccurring characters that will make appearances throughout the entire story.
This change, as involved as it is, should allow my game to be more enjoyable and better received in the marketplaces.
The Emigre: Wagon Train’s Vision
For the premier edition of my devdiary, I think it is important to discuss the primary developmental aspects of this project.
The primary aspects of development derive from the genre of game I am making.
- Interactive
- Historically inspired
- Fiction
- Epic
By “interactive,” I mean there is a story-rich game which emphasizes player-driven choices, creating an immersive narrative involving an extremely customizable player-protagonist. This does not mean the MC is a pure “blank-slate”, but rather a protagonist that starts out within a historic framework that helps create a believable fun world to enjoy. Through interactive choices, this historic framework of a protagonist is shaped and molded into a different experience, each time played.
In order to help me build a believable and in-depth world in which my narrative takes place, I have chosen to take inspiration from history. Historical based characters and events start out with a complexity that fully imagined characters sometimes do not. This is especially helpful for newer writers, or those not used to forming completely imagined characters out of whole-cloth.
The most important vision of my game is that it is fiction. We have history and historians to help us explore historical events and people… no one needs a simple writer, such as myself, to explore and enjoy the past.
What I am here to do, is to take the narrative history gives us and to provide a connection between my audience and the lessons of the past. Outside of nostalgia, the goal here is to use game systems focused around building and growing a relatable and interactive protagonist. This is to foster an understanding of the past and give insight on how that past is relevant today.
Lastly, it is a core belief of mine that an epic can be the vehicle to best experience the building and growth of such a protagonist. If everything goes well, and the retail release of the full game warrants it, I do plan on continuing this narrative forward with the same protagonist experiencing at least a decade’s worth of fun.
This concludes the first devdiary in my planned series.
Next up in Devdiaries will be a more in depth exploration of game balance and its importance.
Also, before I forget: I am still working on the new material involving: Jesse, David and Jill in Origins. It is taking a little longer than expected, but I plan on getting the update out sometime next month. It will be a major update that breaks saves, but I think it will be worth restarting.
Happy Holidays.