Well, another year has come and gone, and what a year it was! 2024 was my most productive year in game dev with 4 new releases, beating 2021 and 2023. What’s more notable is all the new games were released on Godot, and engine I only started using this year.

Here’s the overall stats of my released games for those interested:

(I should also note that Neptune's Children has 453 browser plays, and Dangerous Hunts has 122. For some reason itch doesn't show those numbers in the main analytics page.)

I know this yearly post is coming out several weeks late, but some IRL stuff left me drained for the past 2 weeks. So, without further ado lets dive into my 2024 game dev journey!

January-February: Thesmothete Expansion, Godot, FNAFBA

2024 started off how I expected it to. I had another private release for second level of the Thesmothete expansion. The second level has multiple new mechanics included so I was a bit nervous to see how people would initially respond. It seemed like everyone who played it liked it, though it still had issues to iron out with the design.

The level design is still poor enough that usually the optimal way to play is to stand in a doorway and snipe with the revolver. Which for a game that was intended to be centered around movement is a very bad sign.

After this however, I got sidetracked HARD by a stretch goal I had for the year. Inspired by the Samurai Jam early in the year, I decided to try looking at Godot. The jam would be two weeks so I figured it should be more forgiving for trying out a new engine. Instead of a nice simple idea, I discovered the developer who wrote the unit formation template code I used for Mons Badonicus also released multiple versions of the same system for Godot.

Soon enough, I was working on a new Total War battle clone. Of course, I didn’t finish it, but I managed to implement more advanced movement and AI logic than exists Mons Badonicus. And simply working on the game helped build experience with Godot.

My first actual release of the year was Fun Night At FunBaseAlpha, largely a joke game I made for the game jam hosted by the eponymous FunBaseAlpha. It felt good getting something completely new out in the world. FNAFBA was my first finished Godot game, and while it is very, VERY rough, I’m happy I released it. I wrote my first postmortem of the year for it here.

March-May: Neptune’s Children

In March, I participated in the Dungeon Crawler Jam for the second time. This year went much better in that I finished my submission. Or at least it was more finished than my 2023 submission. Beyond that, Neptune’s Children was a surprise hit! Within a week it became my most played game ever (and still climbing)!

It was genuinely mindboggling how much attention it’s received. For the first few days I would refresh the analytics page every minute or two and the view/play count would actually increase! Numerous streamers and small youtubers recorded playthroughs of the game, so I got a lot of good feedback on how the game played and what I can improve for next year.

I released an update in May addressing the major issues and added some little details I missed the first time. I’m happier with it now, and it provides a stronger base to build off for the 2025 Dungeon Crawler jam.

Also this was the first time I won something tangible from a game jam, a new dungeon crawler jam branded mouse mat!

I had actually been meaning to get a new one anyways, so it was a nice surprise.

I didn't get around to releasing a postmortem for this game because I was actually planning to make a video about it. Of course, that obviously hasn't happened yet, so maybe I'll finish it, maybe not.

Another first for this year was my first game dev conference! On the suggestion of a co-worker, I attended Gamedev Atlantic which turned out to be surprisingly fun. I watched several interesting presentations and panels, and I got to have pizza and drinks with several other indie devs afterwards. If I’m free, I’ll probably go again in 2025.

May Continued: Test Projects

After spending a couple months on Neptune’s Children, I decided to start experimenting with building out more features in Godot.

As with Unreal, my first step was implementing a grid inventory. Having now worked on grid inventory systems in Unity and Unreal, I now had a better idea of how to make the various components more modular. I wanted an inventory system that could work in a grid-based Tetris style but could also easily be used in a more basic style like Doom or Halo.

I also tried stencil shadows in Godot, but that didn’t get anywhere either and I only investigated it for a couple hours.

June: Not A Game

June ended up being not too exciting for me game dev wise.

Probably the most notable thing was I created a fake game for Not A Game jam. I used an idea of being a meteorologist on an alien planet, originally was inspired by a submission to the famicom cover jam a couple years ago, and then further refined by reading Dune and it’s focus on alien environments.

The result was Storms Of Minos, and while it wasn’t an actual game, people seemed to like the idea. I like the idea; it’s just I’ve never had the time and drive to really try it out. Personally, I think it would require a developer who has very strong writing and design sensibilities, and frankly I don’t think that’s me, at least not yet anyways. My ideal vision of the game is somewhere between the simulation of the Democracy series, with the story telling and world lore of Suzerain.

July: SBIG, Dangerous Hunts, New Zealand!

In July, I continued my tradition of participating in the So Bad It’s Good game jam on itch. And this year I returned to the FPS genre with Enygmatic's Dangerous Hunts 2024!

This was my first attempt at a free-moving FPS in Godot, and the result was a resounding success! I ended up ranking 2^nd overall, and 2^nd in gameplay.

I implemented a LOT of new features, and the game has proven to be my most stable SBIG release. Behind the scenes though, this ended up being the second most painful development cycle behind Ja Wizardman.

I won’t go into too much detail though, as I covered most of my thoughts in the postmortem. But I will note that I mentioned in my 2023 postmortem that I wanted a less ambitious idea that I could submit on time. And obviously that didn’t happen this time.

Another important event was I got to travel to New Zealand for work, something I never thought I’d be able to do. I did more walking in 2 weeks than I did in the previous 6 months, met some cool people, saw some neat stuff and ate some good food.

I also managed to get a Steam Deck just before the trip, so I spent some time experimenting with using Godot on it. It’s not practical, but it is possible!

August: Controller support, test projects again

After the NZ trip it took several days for me to get back into the swing of game dev.

Once I did however, I hit my stride in experimenting. Most notably I added controller support for the first time ever, and I think it works pretty well in Dangerous Hunts. It hasn’t been thoroughly play-tested by others, but it laid the foundations for future games, and marked another long-term goal achieved.

I also did a few small experiments, such as a simple driving prototype, a dialogue system prototype, and a project merging the grid inventory I was previously working on with the FPS controller I used in Dangerous Hunts.

I also started testing out behavior tree logic, which I found much easier to implement after my long series of sufferings in Unity. This last one served as the basis for a couple future games.

I also started some light work on my Unreal project again, but was quickly distracted by yet another new project.

September-October: Unreleased 32Bit Jam entry

In September after being inspired by playing and watching videos on Kings Field and Lunacid, I decided to try my hand at another PSX game. This time the PS1 aesthetic was less of a creative choice and more of a pragmatic one. I knew I wanted a Halloween themed game, and I knew that many free horror or Halloween themed PSX asset packs were available online. I also chose it so I could submit to the 32Bit B4 Halloween jam, in hopes of having something spooky done before Halloween, and so the game could get more feedback.

Unfortunately, this didn’t happen as I never finished the game. But the work wasn’t wasted as it was a big learning experience, and I managed to implement a whole slate of features I’ve already started to reuse.

I also got to spend some time attempting to add detail to a game world. I didn’t do nearly as much of that as I wanted in Dangerous Hunts, so I took a little bit of extra time to attempt to put my own touch on the asset packs I used. Including making gamebox textures for Hugh Mann, Ja Wizardman and Mons Badonicus.

I figured it would be better to fill the game with my own stuff rather than copyrighted material.

A major silver lining of this project was I never crunched for it. A few days before the jam ended, I realized I wouldn’t be able to submit, so I just continued working on it more leisurely and adding and refining things.

November: More experiments, FUN jam 2

In November, the spooky mood had largely left me for the time being. Not wanting to burn myself out and being intrigued by the new VR game Metro: Awakening, I decided to dip into another stretch goal for the year and try VR development in Godot.

The setup was surprisingly easy, and I managed to get much further along than my attempt in Unity. The community-led Godot XR Tools project REALLY helped, and I got basic movement and interaction working in under an hour.

I also took part in the second ever FUN jam, I THINK I was more successful in constraining scope, but still ended up taking more time than I wanted it to. I got to advance my AI setup in Godot which is great, and it’s the first of my games to combine my FPS AI logic, with actual commands being given to AI like my RTS projects. I had wanted a companion AI in my games for quite a while, and with the jam having both a hard requirement for a dog to be present and dog AI being less demanding, it was a perfect time to try it out.

I built some systems that really weren’t that complicated, but I just hadn’t bothered to spend the time on them. So expect future games to be slightly more feature complete!

I won’t go into too much detail as I have another full postmortem on Knife With Dog here.

December: VR Stuff continued, Vacation

December started off slow dev-wise. I think between wanting a bit of a break after FUN Jam, and just being busy with other things IRL, it was never going to be a productive time. Eventually though I hopped back onto the VR project, with a more defined plan for turning it into a small game. Though once vacation hit, I only worked on it in bits and pieces.

My honest thoughts on the VR project are that I don’t know if it will be fun, but I genuinely think it may be another great leap of accessibility and design knowledge comparable to the early versions of Sub Mortis. For those who haven’t tried VR, it magnifies every detail in a game, and bugs and lack of polish become glaringly obvious. So, I expect even if the game is a dumpster fire, it will be for the betterment of my later games, VR or otherwise.

And while I would love to promise a non-VR version of the VR game, I honestly think it would be fairly mid. Even Half-Life: Alyx can be boring in certain parts when you play without VR, and that’s currently the best VR game in existence (in my opinion anyways)!

Plans for 2025

I plan to take part in my usual jams, namely So Bad It’s Good and Dungeon Crawler jam. I have an idea for SBIG already, as I jot down ideas all the time, but I’m more focused on trying to slim it down or implement mechanics in other projects to prepare. For Dungeon Crawler jam I also have an idea, but it could be too ambitious, so I may reconsider it.

If I do FUN jam again, it will likely be another experimental idea not too different from the scale of Knife With Dog, but ideally with more actual gameplay.

I will be getting back to work on the Unreal FPS sandbox, adding new mechanics and tightening up existing ones. I would love to just have one level where the player can perform world interactions and fight basic enemies. Not even a real game, just something that I can release and use for feedback.

While I didn’t manage to release my RTS project, I’m hoping to have it out in some form by the summer. The current plan is to start fresh in a new project so I can integrate the updated scripts from my other games with the RTS related logic. Plus, I find starting a new project is always a great way to highlight and eliminate or reduce project-specific hacks.

I don’t have any real plans for updates to my released projects. In the past I spent too long supporting my games after their release (looking at you Thesmothete). The one exception may be creating the original idea for Neptune’s Children, but we’ll see how that pans out.

Speaking of Thesmothete though, I have mixed feelings on finishing the expansion pack. On one hand, I’ve finished 2 of the 3 planned levels and I’ve already implemented the most difficult mechanical pieces. But on the other hand, making levels is what I find to be the most tedious part of the process. And honestly a huge part of me has mentally moved on from Thesmothete, as I no longer think of it as my most entertaining game. It’s all up in the air right now.

One goal that I’ve already started on is making a short isometric game. In the vein of Fallout and Arcanum, though on a micro scale.

I’m using only free pre-made sprites, and I’m using the project to test turn-based combat, inventory system logic, companion NPCs, and just generally learning to make a 2D game. I anticipate it will release after the VR project, but you can expect a short, linear game. Something where you get to the end and go “Oh, that was it?”. It’s not glamorous, but I want to actually FINISH this project.

The unreleased PSX game I would like to finish, as I’ve completed a fair amount of actual level design and content.

Though I might get carried away by re-integrating updated AI logic from Knife With Dog, so I’d have to be careful. If nothing else, I can salvage various bits of logic and ideas from its corpse.

For the past several years I’ve promised more Out Of Order and Sub Mortis, and nothing came of either. Not for lack of trying mind you, though I’ll probably have to dig into that in a separate post. For 2025 though, I will have at least something for Out Of Order. As for Sub Mortis, I take the view that every game I’ve release is helping me progress towards working on it again. Even in my simple projects I’m trying to make tutorials as clear and concise as I can, but also try not to compromise on immersion too much. I also used Neptune’s Children as practice for building atmosphere and making a sort of horror game without a focus on loud jumpscares. So, while I make zero promises for a Sub Mortis build in 2025, I will be prototyping various ideas across multiple projects.

More broadly, I still suffer heavily from scope-bloat and pushing myself too hard. Every jam I start, I tell myself not to crunch, but it always happens. This past year I really felt the physical effects from lack of sleep. I felt frustrated and even despondent at points from having to cut corners and just wondering if anyone would even enjoy the end result. So, my dev goal for 2025 would be to have at minimum one jam where I create a wholly new game, with no crunch time. I’m hoping that my expanded array of features and knowledge will make this less common going forward. This year starting with Godot felt like I had to push to get back up to par with my Unity projects, and now I feel I’m just about there.

I’ve always wanted a “1-month game”, something slightly bigger or more polished than a jam game that avoids crunch time. I got a recent burst of inspiration on this front from a video by Memoria covering the games of Rod Fisher, a man who got into game development in his 70's and pumped out multiple niche games through the 90's and 2000's. The man is genuinely inspiring.

I’ve reused a lot of stuff from my past games, but Rod was an expert in recycling. I’m especially impressed by his reusing an existing game as a minigame in a new project. Not that I don’t love making new stuff, but it would be fun to just take various parts from my games and quickly kitbash something stupid out of it. Maybe that’s a 2026 project though…

While I never got around to the planned “polish-only” game idea, I like to think I improved on the polish front this past year. Not that my games were incredibly juicy, but they became less buggy and janky compared to my past games. Neptune’s Children has probably the strongest atmosphere and sound design of any game I’ve made, and Dangerous Hunts had combat more accessible than Thesmothete but still fun. Even Knife With Dog had a fairly polished AI command system, not entirely flawless, but certainly better than I expected.

To sum everything up, 2024 has been my most successful year in game dev. I hope to carry that momentum into 2025 and experiment with new projects while putting more emphasis on polish and scope-control. As with every other year I’ve tried to plan for, I won’t hit all my goals, but it will be entertaining.

Thanks for reading, and have a happy new year!