Inspiration
When approaching VR as a genre, I wanted to create a game that truly felt designed for the system. Not something that just felt like a port from PC, but instead something where the player actually felt they existed within the world. While thinking about creating something original, my thoughts wandered to the RTS genre and how that might be implemented in VR.That’s when the game Black & White came to mind, and how the cursor was a hand, as well as Dungeon Keeper, both becoming big initial inspirations from a big picture viewpoint. From there I started imagining how you’d interact with the world, how you’d have to knock on buildings with your hands and actually bend over and grab things, as well as of course tossing them! Visually, since I have kids, I wanted the game to be lighter and more approachable. Also, I was limited to the art that was available to me, eventually the idea of islands coalescing and the idea of a protector watching over them.
What it does
I combine RTS gameplay with touches of wizard simulation, along with physical interaction of the world to allow players to embody their role as the “Warden of the Isles”, as they play across an original campaign and uncover the mystery of what befell the previous Warden.
How we built it
Unity Engine. Along with blood, sweat, and cookies. Lots of cookies. I also worked over Drive sharing documents and building out the world etc… with a writer and voice actor, who recorded and edited original audio, voice lines, and narration through Mixcraft.
Challenges we ran into
Art. My Achilles heel. Or perhaps wrist, since I don’t have the gift of that particular skill set. I utilized available resources and hired artists for additional assets.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Multiplayer and Skirmish mode! As a solo dev, I’m very proud of the fact that I was able to build and successfully implement a fully functioning multiplayer mode, as well as a skirmish mode with 3 levels of AI that are assigned with a specific personality from a pool that affects how they play the game. In order to initially build the multiplayer, I was using multiple headsets at the same time… it was quite the headache!
What we learned
Don’t eat too many cookies before playing VR for hours on end. On a more serious note, the whole Multiplayer integration is something that I learned to do as I was implementing it. The scale of the project allowed me to refine all of my Unity skill across the scope, and also that many times it is better to simplify and streamline for the betterment of the project, rather than adding more and more systems and complexity. Critically, I will absolutely take away the fact that advertisement MUST begin ASAP on a project. Things can be posted and shared very early on and at the end of the day, no matter how great a project may be, the marketing needs to compliment it or it will get buried. So market early, market wide, and market organically as much as possible.
What's next for Warden of the Isles
More game modes. My aspiration is to make it the #1 RTS for VR. I want to add a map editor. Additional story levels. And a whole new campaign expansion featuring Elves. Maybe even a Co-Op campaign mode. Lots of ideas!
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.