Hello, all!

Thanks for stopping by. This will be the first devlog for 25D_Fit. I'll be outlining the journey of the game's development to this point. So without further ado, I'll start from the very beginning.

Since I was a wee lad, about ten years old, I started programming video games with my brother; granted, they were simple in nature and very unpolished. Nevertheless, my curiosity in game design developed into a passion ever since. I started a lot of small projects over the years, but nothing really stuck. There were very few games I felt like I could show off despite all of the years I had been making them. Around the time I was 21 in 2019, I decided to stop the trend and make a game I'd be proud of. Hell, maybe even one that'll be on Steam or PlayStation! And so came along the concept for 25D_Fit (WIP title).

I wanted to create a game with characters and story in mind. Inspirations like the Final Fantasy XV, Persona 4, and Fire Emblem Awakening created experiences which had me attached to the characters, making them some of my favorite games ever. Wanting to create a similar attachment within my own players, I plan on having a heavy focus on not just the gameplay, but the characters in the world of 25D_Fit. To achieve these, one thing I had to consider was what I could do with myself and a small team in my arbitrary deadline of two years. I started with an open-city GTA idea, but it wasn't realistic since the scope was far too large. I decided to condense the city into a fighting game. I'm a big fan of fighters like Guilty Gear and Tekken and I'd programmed a few fighting prototypes in the past. An immediate concern was that fighting games aren't really known for their stories. Really, the best known ones are notorious for how convoluted they can be. In spite of that, I want to shape the game in a way that the player could explore each character more if they so desired. And to not be a chaotic flowchart that people give up in trying to comprehend.

Extremely excited, I started conceptualizing and researching right away. I visited sites like dustloop and booted up some of my favorite fighters to extract as much info as I could from their training modes. In time, I was able to build my own custom system for the 25D_Fit. It handled handling inputs, logic, attacks, and more. I was programming this and that, but all that was there visually was a couple of boxes fighting each other. Besides missing the appeal, visuals also play a functional role in fighting games as well, even if you already know the exact layout of the hitboxes. So I downloaded a free fighting 3D model (life-savers, I tell you) from the Unity asset store. Then the feel of the game started to shape up quite a bit.

Boxing boxes just got a makeover.

From there I took that free model, my meager animation knowledge, and made some custom ones to supplement what was already there. When even THAT wasn't enough I used animations that an online community ripped from a certain *ahem* popular 8-player fighting game. Needless to say, these are only used for prototyping purposes. But they certainly did a lot for getting that feeling I was looking for!

Oh yeah. My pro-animation skill in action.

When I finally released the game's prototype, I decided that I was ready to start building my team. I reached out to friends from my hometown and college whose skill I had confidence in. At first it, was nerve-wracking asking people to take time out of their lives to work on something of mine. But we turned it into something we could all benefit from. We're all young and trying to build our portfolios and skills. It was refreshing when we finally got together. I felt an energy from everyone I never anticipated. Sure, it's my game, but at the same time, this is collectively our project. Also, until someone brought it to my attention, I hadn't realized that my team was comprised mostly of people of color. As a black game dev myself, that was huge. I felt renewed and ready to take on the rest of the project and I will certainly make a point to give my team shout-outs when I can.

Along with a team came the need for better management on the project and what things had to get done when. With a full time job and only 24 hours in a day (anyone else have that issue?), I needed to create some order in my life. With online research, tips from my brother who's also a game dev (@Mangoku418), my team members, and other indie games' communities, I was able to begin to better organize the timeline for the tasks needed to complete. While the ideas are still very much in progress, all the guidance I've received is making me more confident than ever that we can do this.

Going forward, we plan on posting more of the cool things we have in the works on our social media. This will include some upgraded visuals, some more sick beats, and the oh-so important characters and story. It's going to be a wild ride, but is that really such a bad thing? Feel free to join us on the game's Discord and be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

Looking forward to what's to come!

Take care and see you in next month's devlog,
- SepM

P.S. Thanks for reading this to the end. I complained to my brother about how long his first devlog was, but I think I'm just as guilty now. Next one should be shorter, though, haha.