That was quite a hiatus!

I stopped blogging after only a few entries not because I no longer wanted to blog... but because I lacked direction. You either have something coherent to say... something that carries a theme... or you should shut up.

I've been working on games off and on since then, a project I was working on for a while was "Dominion Pass", a text based client / server game (I specify "client / server" to differentiate it from telnet style muds that don't have dedicated clients.) I have considerable experience writing text game clients (I wrote Windows clients for Darkness Falls and Bladelands when I worked at Mythic Entertainment.) I also wrote a DOS client for AUSI's "Dragon's Gate" while it was on GEnie, but that wasn't widely used, or really got out of a beta state.

The wall I ran into with "Dominion Pass" was I'm not a good writer. There are 4 crucial game development skills, writer, artist, designer, and programmer. Writer and artist are "creative skills", where as designer and programmer are "engineering skills." I'm an engineer, I do engineering skills well. I can do the technical aspects of writing, like spelling and grammar, but bending the written word to produce an emotional response? Not so much. Art? Forget it. I thought I could get away with Dominion Pass because as it's text game, there is little art. But I forgot about the writing. Fantasy RP games are heavy on lore and writing, so it wasn't working.

And then there was the 800 pound gorilla in the room. There is a game I NEED TO MAKE. One I started 18 years ago and never finished. Well, I did "finish" it 17 years ago. But only as a simple spaceship based arena fighter where you fought as one of 4 sides in MOBA style matches. People loved that game, and have tried to redo it to this day. But there is so much more that can be done with that game. The MOBA matches are fun, and will be the initial thrust, but there is an RP game aspect to it that needs to be explored.

So here's how it's going to go down. I'm going to blog about the development of my new game, "Sol One." The game is based in a near future where space travel is available to the common man, and the Earth is controlled by a small group of mega-corporations that will loan you the money to buy your first ship. After that, it's up to you! The pinnacle of human engineering at the time is the "Bemaeshal Drive", which is a star gate under construction outside of the orbit of Pluto. It's designation is "Sol One", being the first star gate in the Sol system. The long term plan is to build star gates in other systems, too. But we have to get there first.

This is going to be quite a ride!