When I started working on "Forest of Time" I had no idea of the challenges that came with solo development, especially as I had just begun to learn about Unity and C#. Though the art and sound ended up settling nicely, the game had little to no substance and no clear direction.
Multiple things changed through development, like the enemy and character art, attack combos, movement mechanics and an added parallax effect for the background environment. Most of the ideas that I has formed in my head before translating them into the engine were most definitely out of the range of my abilities, consisting mostly of complex AI behaviours and mechanics that were 1 on 1 replica of more popular games within the genre. This was also the first time I worked in 2D, so the limits were further decreased meaning that most, if not all, of the ideas I drafted, didn't work through a severe lack of understanding.
Sadly, with most of the ideas I had in mind (including multi-hit combos and complicated spells), couldn't come to fruition due to both time and experience constraints. The things that I was able to add made the game, in my opinion, a lot more interesting and even educational to work on.
If I were to continue this project I would first start with a simple calendar to track progress and set dates for certain tasks, this would create a scope for the project that would be achievable. This would also be done in conjunction with some smaller learning prerequisites that include becoming accustomed to Unity's Animation and Animator packages as well as Cinemachine. I would also re-design the levels to fit a consistent theme that "Forest of Time" does not currently include. I would also have the goal of creating a more platformer-like environment, similar to "Dead Cells".
Dead Cells Level Design
Though I will most likely work on this project on in small spurts over a very long time, I had fun inventing, exploring and testing what Unity had to offer and was capable of.
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