Event System

Our main focus this week was building the events mechanism. In our game, events can occur that can either affect the current player or everyone.

Once the functionality was working, we started working on the style of the cards and finished our first illustration. Would love to hear what you think of the style.

We’re currently working on two more illustrations. Won’t spoil everything, but here’s a small peek at one in progress. (Reminder, we have about 500 of these to make. 😅)

Dice Mechanics

We also worked on one of the core mechanics tied to dice rolls. Each turn, the dice is rolled and players receive resources based on the result and the territories they rule.

Meet the Monkey

We took a short break from the game to make our studio logo. We originally thought about hiring someone, but ended up drawing it ourselves.

It’s a monkey wearing papaya pants and we’re really proud of it.

Going into week 4, we plan on focusing on the different actions that can be taken by a player during their turn, while continuing to create more card illustrations.

Have a good week!

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Building a Character Pipeline

This week we mainly focused on building some of the core systems in the game.

After coming to our design decision last week (if you didn’t read it check out Week 1 Recap ~ Dev log #1), we started working on creating the 3D scenes. We ran into two main obstacles right away. First, our computers were so old that they didn’t support Blender! So we had to pause everything, head to the Apple Store, and buy new Macbooks just so we could continue.

Second, while one of us has some 3D experience, we still struggled a lot with clothing our characters. We decided to try Marvelous Designer, and after about three days of trial and error, we finally got it working the way we intended.

We created a character-building template in Blender with our main 3D human model, all clothing options, poses, and animations. Everything works through a simple hide/unhide system with selectable poses. It took a while to set up, but now we can start creating our 500 card illustrations much more efficiently.

Dev Progress

While one of us focused on the 3D work, the other continued developing the core mechanics of the game. Since the concept started as a board game, the game itself runs on a turn-based system. We set up the main turn flow so that when a player ends their turn, the camera pans across the map to the next player, showing each turn as it cycles through.

Our game also relies heavily on dice across different scenarios. We created a 3D dice module that will handle all dice rolls.

Brainstorming

One struggle we’ve had even back when this was designed to be a board game, was we didn’t have a polished ending to the game just yet. Today, we finally came up with the flow of how the game ends and we truly think it’s an amazing concept and can’t wait to share it.

In addition to all this, we also threw out some ideas of some more small features that will really add to the vibe and atmosphere of the game, but more on that when we get there. For now they’re in our Jira backlog.

Catch you all after week 3!

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Week 1 was surprisingly productive despite being on a family vacation for four of the days. Somehow we always seem to start projects right before life gets busy 😅.

This week, we focused on building out some core functionality. Players can now choose the number of participants (3–5) and select which territory their house will rule. From there, the game transitions into the main game screen.

We also set up our first version of the 3D map. You can move around, zoom in and out, and see each territory represented by its castle (just cubes for now). Clicking on a castle opens a modal which will display that player’s stats.

Alongside development, we worked on naming territories, writing their descriptions, and defining their unique perks and disadvantages. We also mapped out a rough layout for the main game UI, which helped us build an initial version of the player stat bar (placeholder icons for now).

The Big Decision

Before diving deeper into visuals such as cards, icons, UI etc.. we had to face something we’d been putting off.

Our game has over 500 cards.
And each one needs an illustration.

We made a decision early on that we don’t want to use AI for our game. While one of us does draw, creating 500 detailed illustrations on top of development, marketing, and everything else just isn’t realistic.

At the same time, we didn’t want to lose the richness of the game by reducing everything to simple icons or text.

So over the weekend, we finally sat down and tackled it head-on.

After a lot of back and forth, we landed on a direction that feels right for us:

We’re going to build 3D scenes in Blender and bring them into the game, aiming for a cozy, slightly realistic pixel-style look.

It’s still not the simplest path, but it solves the scale problem while opening the door for more dynamic and interesting visuals than we originally imagined.

What’s Next

As we’re writing this, we’re working on a proof of concept for this art direction and setting up the tools and workflow to make it efficient.

We’re really excited to start sharing actual visuals soon.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this approach and on pixel-style visuals in general.

That’s a wrap on Week 1.
On to Week 2 ✌️

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Nice to meet you!

We’re a husband-and-wife indie dev team, and we’re finally taking the leap into building our very first game together.

Our game is an exciting strategy experience about expanding your empire and eventually conquering the realm. Build your house, make alliances, survive chaos, and eventually face the king himself. Every turn is filled with events, dice rolls, and choices that shape your path.

A little backstory

The idea actually started two years ago as a board game. We spent countless hours designing mechanics, crafting event cards, and imagining all the strategic possibilities. As we played and refined it, we realized that the game would be even better as a computer or console experience, allowing us to make the game bigger and more dynamic. (The game already had 500 cards and we still wanted to add more content.😅)

Underestimating the intensity of the newborn trenches, we had to pause for a little while after having our beloved first child. But now, after adjusting to our new routine we’re back full-force, locked in, and excited to bring this game to life.

Why follow along

On this Substack, we’ll be sharing our journey, the dev process, design decisions, bugs, progress updates, and the lessons we learn along the way.

If you’re curious about indie games, strategy, or just want to see how a husband-and-wife team builds a game from the ground up, hit subscribe and join us on this journey.
We’re excited to have you along for the ride, from concept to launch, and everything in between.

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