Fracterebus

I’ve been a software engineer professionally for over 25 years. I’ve always wanted to make a game and even went to college for a computer science degree with a game development focus. The trick is actually doing it. Using a game engine (Godot) will almost undoubtedly make it way easier than building my own engine from scratch, but I’ve had pretty bad luck with that in the past. Since all of this is actually pretty new to me, I’ve been focused on planning instead of making a game right out of the gate.

While I learn I think I need to break the actual development of Fracterebus into several phases. Each a bit more complex than the last so I can sort of ease into it instead of getting overwhelmed and giving up by trying to go for the whole enchilada right away. Come back to this post from time to time to see any adjustments to the plan.

• Phase 00
  • Work on basic underpinnings and common systems.
    • Random number generator (RNG)
    • Seed codes
    • Objective planning
    • World generation framework
    • UX and UI planning
    • Create generic dev art. This will actually become the template for the actual art used by the game.
    • Purpose
      • By coding my own RNG, I can improve the chances that my world generation is deterministic.
      • This phase is primarily to start getting things figured out. There is a ton of planning and coding involved, but not a ton to show for a lot of it.
      • This is the hardest phase to get through because it has a ton of complex problems to solve and it’s hard to see that progress.
• Phase 01
  • Build a basic small map with the generator
  • Basic player sprites and movement controls
  • Basic camera control
  • Purpose
    • Figure out how doors between rooms work.
    • Which platform parts and world pieces make rooms interesting.
    • Start figuring out specific types of room and structure generators.
• Phase 02
  • Upgrade item collection and implementation
  • Save system
  • Purpose
    • Add more advanced movement tech like double jump and wall grab.
    • Allow the player to collect items that affect their state (like health or ammo count).
    • Keep track of the state between play sessions.
• Phase 03
  • Attack systems
  • Enemy sprites and AI
  • Loot tables
  • Purpose
    • Start creating basic enemies that fill the world and .
    • Allow actual combat mechanics and integrate enemy spawning systems with world generation.
• Phase 04
  • Biomes
  • Biome bosses
  • Elemental enemies
  • Elemental weapons
  • Purpose
    • Make additional biomes and the bosses that rule over them.
    • Add the enemies that live in those biomes.
    • Create special weapons and the items that power them.
• Phase 05
  • Mini-Bosses
  • Purpose
    • Implement some mini-bosses so biomes aren’t just a collection of rooms with a boss at the end.
• And then…
  • Fix this list because of all the things I forgot or goofed up.

Hopefully this gets a pile of work lined up and helps to keep this project manageable instead of overwhelming.