I just want to say a few words about the direction of the project, where I am with it now, and also what I plan on using this devlog for.

A Quick Summary:

Mol Dano is a top down shooter with heavy inspiration taken from Studio Ghibli and specifically Princess Mononoke.  Which is no surprise, I think, when you see the main character, a Shepperd, with his or her trusty mount, Moca.

This game is the result of a top down space shooter project from a course I'm currently taking over at Udemy. 

Cool! Okay so where am I now?

Currently, I have been finishing up a lot of experimentation.   There are a lot of things Unity is capable of doing that I've been intimidated to try in the past.  I'm using this opportunity to scratch the surface on some of these features:

• Tilemaps
• Shaders
• Lighting

I absolutely plan on posting more about my experience and also  some basic tutorials from what I have learned.  That's part of what I would like to do with this devlog.

Now that I have played around with those features and feel comfortable enough, I am moving forward with the game development.  No wait - I'm going back to the drawing board.  

As with any project, as I experiment with new fun things, the actual game design starts to get away from me.  I switched the layout from vertical to horizontal (and back again), drew up some assets that I think look great but don't make sense for this project (like these trees), and had about a million loose ideas swimming around my head with no road map on how to reach them.

So I've spent time  on my Game Design Document - another topic I would love to chat about here.  I am now at  a point with the GDD that in order for me to test it out and make changes, I once again need to create some assets and continue working on gameplay.  I think in part that stems from my own lack of experience in game development.  It's hard for me to see what the project will look like in  my minds eye, so I have to spend a lot of time actually drawing it out.

Alright, what's next?

So, I'm going to continue working on the Game Design Document - currently sketched onto a lined paper notebook - while creating assets and testing basic gameplay.  This will also allow me to share my updates with you!  I plan on writing a devlog weekly, although I can't commit to any rigid schedule at this time.