The 2DF Project
Well, we're halfway into 2018, guess it's time to take to the old blog again and talk about what's been going on in the world of Nick.
When we last spoke, I was embarking on a little side project, though I was being a bit coy with the details. I did mention that I hoped to have the project complete by May and considering it's almost the end of June, you can imagine how that's going. So here's the skinny: in January I started working on a project I called 2DF, a project that I also have referenced in the past as my "master plan." It was to be a simple fan recreation of the Main Gate Defense game mode from the original 2D version of Dead Frontier. Dead Frontier is a game I've played on and off for over 10 years now, and was a huge influence in me getting into game development. The game is a fairly small web-based zombie survival MMO, originally made by one guy. It started out as a 2D Flash MMO, but eventually made the transition to 3D with Unity. It was actually through Dead Frontier that I learned of Unity in the first place and got my start in game development. With the transition to 3D, though, the 2D version was basically abandoned. Recreating the game mode, which can no longer be played, seemed like a nice way to pay homage to the game, while also testing out my skills.
My project started off great. I got my workflow down and was really making headway. I decompiled the original Flash game to acquire the art and sound assets I needed and used old videos and screenshots of the game to recreate the menus. I went all in to get every detail as close to the original as I possibly could and from very early on it really did look and feel like starting up old Dead Frontier. By the start of April I was all set to start working on the backend and get rolling. That's when life happened.
The first couple weeks of April for me were chock-full of family stuff. Easter and birthdays (my own included), left me with not a whole lot of time to work. I was in good shape with the project though, so I wasn't concerned. Then in mid-April I switched back to the night-shift at work. At first that wasn't a problem either and I did continue working, but night-shift has a way of completely sapping me of my motivation and energy, as well as digging into my free time with overtime shifts. Even this blog post is several days beyond when I intended to write it because I simply didn't have it in me to get behind the keyboard.
So as it stands 2DF is in a rough state, over a month behind schedule with no actual game yet and a developer with no energy to work on it. The pieces are there on the front- and backend, I just need to program the game logic and hook it all up. However, May was the 10 year anniversary of me signing up for Dead Frontier and missing that deadline was a huge blow. Furthermore, the actual game systems are a whole lot of uncharted territory with a lot of ifs that could bring the whole project to a halt. Multiple game instances running on a cheap server could bog everything down, I could completely fluff the server-side physics, I still haven't made sprite sheets of the ripped assets (which may require more than a simple crop job), and on top of everything else, I don't know for sure if I will get permission from the creator of Dead Frontier to even use the assets and release the game.
Truth be told, I'm not even actually worried about these ifs, I think I'm just looking for excuses to back out of the project. I hate abandoning projects, and I've been doing it far too much lately, but I do feel like this project is blocking me from moving on to something new. I have a new plan moving forward that I want to try out, but I'm telling myself I have to finish 2DF, while not actually making progress on it. So right here, right now I'm going to say I have until mid-July to get this project in a good place that I can confidently continue working on it, or it is done. I'm switching back to day-shift in July which should help me get back on track with my projects. Whether that be 2DF or something else entirely.
When we last spoke, I was embarking on a little side project, though I was being a bit coy with the details. I did mention that I hoped to have the project complete by May and considering it's almost the end of June, you can imagine how that's going. So here's the skinny: in January I started working on a project I called 2DF, a project that I also have referenced in the past as my "master plan." It was to be a simple fan recreation of the Main Gate Defense game mode from the original 2D version of Dead Frontier. Dead Frontier is a game I've played on and off for over 10 years now, and was a huge influence in me getting into game development. The game is a fairly small web-based zombie survival MMO, originally made by one guy. It started out as a 2D Flash MMO, but eventually made the transition to 3D with Unity. It was actually through Dead Frontier that I learned of Unity in the first place and got my start in game development. With the transition to 3D, though, the 2D version was basically abandoned. Recreating the game mode, which can no longer be played, seemed like a nice way to pay homage to the game, while also testing out my skills.
My project started off great. I got my workflow down and was really making headway. I decompiled the original Flash game to acquire the art and sound assets I needed and used old videos and screenshots of the game to recreate the menus. I went all in to get every detail as close to the original as I possibly could and from very early on it really did look and feel like starting up old Dead Frontier. By the start of April I was all set to start working on the backend and get rolling. That's when life happened.
The first couple weeks of April for me were chock-full of family stuff. Easter and birthdays (my own included), left me with not a whole lot of time to work. I was in good shape with the project though, so I wasn't concerned. Then in mid-April I switched back to the night-shift at work. At first that wasn't a problem either and I did continue working, but night-shift has a way of completely sapping me of my motivation and energy, as well as digging into my free time with overtime shifts. Even this blog post is several days beyond when I intended to write it because I simply didn't have it in me to get behind the keyboard.
So as it stands 2DF is in a rough state, over a month behind schedule with no actual game yet and a developer with no energy to work on it. The pieces are there on the front- and backend, I just need to program the game logic and hook it all up. However, May was the 10 year anniversary of me signing up for Dead Frontier and missing that deadline was a huge blow. Furthermore, the actual game systems are a whole lot of uncharted territory with a lot of ifs that could bring the whole project to a halt. Multiple game instances running on a cheap server could bog everything down, I could completely fluff the server-side physics, I still haven't made sprite sheets of the ripped assets (which may require more than a simple crop job), and on top of everything else, I don't know for sure if I will get permission from the creator of Dead Frontier to even use the assets and release the game.
Truth be told, I'm not even actually worried about these ifs, I think I'm just looking for excuses to back out of the project. I hate abandoning projects, and I've been doing it far too much lately, but I do feel like this project is blocking me from moving on to something new. I have a new plan moving forward that I want to try out, but I'm telling myself I have to finish 2DF, while not actually making progress on it. So right here, right now I'm going to say I have until mid-July to get this project in a good place that I can confidently continue working on it, or it is done. I'm switching back to day-shift in July which should help me get back on track with my projects. Whether that be 2DF or something else entirely.