A New 2D Resource Game

Over the past few days I have begun creating a new XNA game that I am quite excited about. This game is a resource gathering game with rpg elements. I have found a new love for Minecraft and have discovered how much fun 2D resource games like Terraria can be. Truth be told, the fact that Terraria is written in C# using XNA Game Studio gave me new inspiration and motivation to create my own game.

The problem I usually face when creating a game is finding the motivation to finish it. It's true, I've only finished one game really (a space shmup) and have dozens of unfinished games lying around. I am determined to make sure this new game will be different though and I'm using this blog to help me accomplish that.

The basic premise of the game is to survive by gathering resources and building things (i.e. crafting weapons, constructing buildings, etc.) while monsters try and attack you. Later on there will be a day/night cycle and monsters will only come out at night, but that's for later. As for now I will focus on building the game in small increments. This will allow me to focus on the pieces of the puzzle as opposed to looking at the whole (and incomplete) picture itself, thereby keeping me more focused on the features in the game. One element of the game that will make it different from other games like Minecraft and Terraria is that the player will have skills that they must level-up in order to (for example) craft better tools, cook better food, make better potions, gather rarer resources, etc.

So far the things I have in the game are:

• Random world generation
• Platformer-style physics (modeled after the Platformer Starter Kit on the XNA site)
• 2D camera that follows the player and does not allow him to leave the map (modeled after Nick Gravelyn's camera in his Tile Engine Tutorial)
• Map saving and loading with the player's position saved as well (modeled after Nick Gravelyn's saving/loading in his Tile Engine Tutorial)

Other things that I will implement may include:

• Items, gatherable and creatable
• Enemies with basic AI
• Block gathering / placing
• Basic inventory
• Menus
• Crafting
• And more...

Like I said before, I am only focusing on one or two features at a time to keep my spirits up and my mind focused...

Please check back for updates about the game and feel free to offer any comments about my game. Oh, and here is a screeny for your viewing pleasure.