4 weeks later: Results

At the 3rd of April I wrote a post regarding my decision to stop working on a RPG I had been working for a whole year, because I realized it was a project too large for me to do on my own in a reasonable span of time. I decided to start working instead on a simple single-player FPS, as FPS games tend to be generally a lot simpler than RPGs. A week after I had started working on the FPS, seeing how much faster the game was progressing I estimated that it would take me about a month to have all main systems of the game functional. I'm talking about gameplay mechanics such as shooting and jumping, and systems like saving and loading the player's progress, etc. Although a year had passed, I still hadn't reached that milestone for the RPG game. So I came up with the conclusion that a RPG requires at least 12 times more time than a FPS. Again, I'm referring to single-player only. So what's the state of my FPS game 4 weeks since I started working on it ? 

Early version of the Shotgun's 3D model.

First of all let me start by saying that I did get the basic systems on a functional state. Here is how my development progressed week per week: 

Week #1: 

• Player movement (walk, sprint, jump,crouch)
• A functional "gun" with bullet physics
• Working simple Enemy AI that shoots the player if it sees him.
• Working medkits and ammo pickups.
• Minimal gameplay GUI that reports stuff such as health points and ammo.

Week #2:

• A slot for an active weapon, and ability for the player to cycle his weapons
• Working doors and keys. 
• Secret Area Triggers
• Collectible Items
• Enemies dropping their guns on death.
• Four new functional weapons.
• Body Armor
• Bullet Spread
• Effect that makes the screen red when player takes damage.

Week #3:

•  Weapon Inertia, that animates weapons as player moves.
• The screen that shows when the player dies.
• A timer that counts the time the player spends in each level.
• Bullet holes
• A Pause Menu
• A Main Menu
• Saving & Loading System
• Preparation of the Audio Mixer, creation of Mixer channels, addition of some sound effects.

Week #4:

• Options Menu
• Screen that allows the player to choose which save file to load.
• Post processing effects added and tuned.
• Difficulty settings that change a number of things.
• A trigger-spawn point system, so when the player gets in a certain area, something is spawned somewhere else. (e.g. an enemy, a power-up)
• Static Analysis, Code Cleaning, AI Stress Testing, various optimizations
• 3d-Models of 3 weapons and a few animations for them.

I've got the main and absolutely necessary systems working. Not only that, but I moved on to the next step, preparing for a First Playable. From what I gather through articles on the internet, "First Playable" is a state between prototyping and an Alpha, where all the main systems of the game work (although more might be added later on, and some might change), and there are assets representing the final product, but still unpolished. So I'm currently making some assets. I started from making the 3D models of the weapons, and then I'll add  animations to them, sounds etc. After the weapons are made, I will work on the enemy to give it an actual humanoid body instead of the egg-shaped whole-white mesh it currently has. Then I'll build a testing level to test out gameplay, to help me fine-tune various mechanics and perhaps give me ideas for new ones, and then I'll focus entirely on content creation.

 

A version of the Shotgun for the "1st Playable" phase.

So I won the bet I placed with myself. I did in less than 30 days of work for an FPS what I didn't do in a year of work for an RPG. Lesson learned. I now feel confident that I managed to do it.