Back in business. I've been through a lot of trying stuff but this is not a blog about me, it's about the game I'm trying to make. I'm finally back at the mindset where I can concentrate more on the game. Started to write a design document, detailing how things should work. The final solution can change over time but it's a sort of a stepping stone. Meanwhile I'm laying out the big overarching story and started to learn Unity. After all this time. Yeah, I know, it was about time. I was in the analysis paralysis, it's a vicious circle I couldn't escape from. I wanted the game to be perfect (to be the closest to what I imagined) and didn't want to waste time on small random projects but I didn't want to start until I'm certain I can do what I planned, functional end enjoyable. Now I'm not so sure still on the second part but I got a firm idea of how things should work. The other issue was that I didn't want to start work on tests for learning because I wanted to actually start building the game. If I needed a feature I would look it up as I go but I had to accept it that I can barely do anything in Unity, I really need a good understanding on how the basics work and only then I could just cherrypick stuff I want to put in my game.

So I started a pretty good course on Udemy, Rick Davidson explains everything thoroughly and even made me laugh and smile at times. I'm enjoying my time with the course and as I'm learning new stuff I try to fit them in where I could use the features in the game, I'm jumping back and forth with ideas. I also bought a course from the same team on Blender. I followed Blender Guru for a short tutorial but I feel I need a little more focused lecture. We'll see how it goes. At least my 2D graphics knowledge is okay, I feel like I can paint textures, I don't need to hone those as much as Unity and Blender. But still, there are other skills I want to learn, but more on those later when I get there.

The courses if you are interested:

Unity - GamedDv.tv:
https://www.udemy.com/course/unitycourse2/

Blender - GameDev.tv:
https://www.udemy.com/course/blendertutorial/

Early prototype and idea

As I mentioned earlier, I built a game "inspired by" Trauma Center in Second Life. I decided to make a short video of it and post here. It was made around 2012... Damn, time flies when you are an adult. The basic idea was that I just learned that I can detect the coordinates on the click event on the surface of the primitive, thus accessing a fine grid to work with. I just get to know Trauma Center a year before this reveal so the two came together to form this game idea and I developed the main game loop for it. It handles cutscenes in visual novel fashion with different transitions, sound effects, fade-in, fade-out, etc, handles save data, uses a story approach with chapter selection and handles the operation itself with different events, stages, 7 different tools, timing, the health of patient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqwXByCIkSw

And I made this little test operation which showcases all the main features of the game. The conversation between the nurse and the doctor came from Egoraptor's parody of Trauma Center, I even have the sound effects in Second Life but I was unable to record audio this time... The story is that the patient swallowed his car keys and you have to take it out through the abdomen. At first, you have to disinfect the area, make a precision cut along the dots. Then take the key with the forceps. Now an evil PineApple logo appears (our old logo in Second Life) and goes around the screen. You have to use the drain tool 5 times to immobilize it, then quickly place it into the tray. If you are not quick enough it goes back to the previous stage of flying all around the screen. After you removed the logo, the key gets out too. Now you have to drain the area of blood, suture the wound along the dots and finally, place a bandage through the now closed area. That's all, patient is saved :)

Quarantine thinking

Right now I'm working from home. It's nice to be in the IT industry where you can work remotely and don't have to worry as much about the job, you have VPN, Hangouts, Teamviewer, etc... So it's quarantine season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and it had me thinking.

Is it the right time to release a hospital themed video game? I mean release is far away, but if I manage to release it in 2 years people will think it was inspired by current events. And people will be more sensitive about subjects of healthcare... But that's not the point. I was more worried about finishing anything at all in the first place. You see, I have some experience in game desing, I'm a programmer for over 10 years now. But I have a lot to learn still to deliver a game. And I was thinking about scaling back to the original idea first. It lets me practice 3D modelling and Unity, meanwhile I set a smaller, more achievable scope for the game. If it turns out well enough I can go further with the expanded idea where you can walk around the hospital and solve the mysteries of the cases. For now I just want the medical-drama and digital novel feel of the Trauma Center games and we'll see where it goes.

Rename the blog

Hi anyone that stumbled upon my dev blog!

 I had to rename my blog because I just found that there's already a game on Steam with the name Project Hospital. In my case it was just a temporary name, a working title, but I didn't want it to be confused with the actual game. It's a game similar to Two Point Hospital, a hospital building and management game. The new working title is Project Surgeon. But don't get too used to it, it will change once I'm ready to do so.

 My game isn't going to be anything like that, I'm aiming for a medical drama/RPG/arcade game. No real title has come to mind, the very first idea was Crisis Center, like Trauma Center but that's just a ripoff name and doesn't tell anything about the game. The other name that came to mind was Spirit Therapist but that's not for this game but the spinoff game that deals with psyche.

Music

The main inspiration for music is Shoji Meguro. No big surprise here. I love the music of the Trauma Center games, Persona 3 and Maken Shao. His music was also inspired by the score of House. So I would like to have similar music. My idea is something that is somewhat jazzy, with a lot of mild piano, sometimes hard beats. I might be over ambitious, or simply crazy but christmas came early this year (it's a KORG nanoKEY Studio and I'm testing it with the demo version of Reason):

Planning Phase

I'm knee deep in planning. I have many ideas, snippets, morsels that can make the game great. But I have to form it into a working game loop. I have gameplay ideas and little details that can enhance the mood, deepen the characters but these little ideas don't add up to a complete game yet. I have to start prototyping soon so I can see if the ideas gonna work. I know I'll have to sacrifice some of them because I can't cram everything into just one game.

In the mean time, I'm playing Persona 3 to get a good feel of the JRPG side of things, the navigation and the interactions. Also I'm playing Trauma Center 2 on DS because I just remembered I beat both Wii games and the first DS game but I still haven't beaten TC2 on DS, also, I started to watch House from the first season. Damn, this series is phenomenal. I'm collecting experiences, ideas while I'm trying to plan my own game right now. I have to do some Blender learning and start working with Unity soon. Damn, I have a lot to learn, a lot to plan but I really want to make this game.

Side note: when I said I want to make this game...

 Remember when I said I want to make this game and only 2 things can happen that stops me from it? First if I die, but yes, I'm still alive as I'm writing this post. The other thing I didn't want to talk about is out of the bag. So I feel I can afford a paragraph or two on the subject.

 I had a beautiful, wonderful girlfriend I built a relationship with. There were really high highs and really deep lows. A couple of months ago she left me. I felt desperate and destroyed. Partly that's why I decided to start this game project so I can give busy work to my mind and I might not think about her all the time and guide my dormant energies instead of self destructing by horrible thought towards something productive. The second option that could stop this project from happening is that if she comes back to me. A girlfriend needs a lot of attention and care,  even when you are not together. And I was planning to marry her. I was building something, I poured serious energy to repair our broken relationship, but the time has come and her answer was no.

 This means I no longer have her, I no longer have to be ready for anything. I'm free. But in a bad way. I'm free but I didn't want to be free. If she were to come back I would have sacrificed anything and everything for her. And doing a project like this takes up a lot of time. And even though I wanted to be a video game developer my whole life and it was my childhood dream, I was willing to put it all to the side and concentrate on her and our relationship 'till the end of my life. But life is not always as you plan it.

 So, I'm on my journey to deal with the loss and try to regenerate after the whole breakup thing. I'm dying a little inside every time I think of her. I miss her so much. But after I'm done mourning our relationship I'll do my best to keep this project going. Updates won't be as frequent as they were in the first weeks, but I think that's acceptable, considering I'm a one man team who wants to make a game beside a day job.

Farewell, Vv...