Stack the Deck : INIT

Hey All!

I am a software engineer by day and over the last few years I have been experimenting with game dev on and off over the last few years. Progress on any side project has been a bit sporadic just due to my day job and not having a ton of energy at the end of the day. But over the past few months I have been looking for a creative outlet that is not satisfied in my current full time job. So I wanted to commit and work towards my first game release, which has brought me here. 

Now I still don't have a ton of time to spend on this project each day but the goal is consistency so I can make a bit progress each day to eventually reach my goal. So I want to start documenting my progress when it comes, as small as it may be. So as part of this first devlog, I'll finish up by explaining the inspiration and idea behind the game I am working on. 

There were two thing I needed to realistically plan for completing a game with my current experience and time. The first I already talked about : consistency. I may not have hours each day to spend on development but as long as I can chip away a little bit each day, there will be progress. So far I have done much better with that than any other prototype or idea I have had in the past, so as of now I will call that a win. The second is to keep the scope small and attainable. 

When I started thinking of smaller games or rather attainable core mechanics, I initially thought of some of the matching or stacking games I used to play. Bejeweled, Dr Mario tetris etc. So I wanted to start there, something where the core gameplay is already somewhat established and proven, as well as there being a ton of resources/examples on the basic version of the games. But I didn't want to only have that as a game I plan to publish, I wanted to add something a bit more unique so I can take my learnings and make it into something a bit different. I'll let you guess what the twist is based off the games I have been playing the last year (Balatro, Ball x Pitt, Megabonk). 

Yup it's a roguelike (I know original). But the idea of upgrades and experience building with each level pops into almost every game idea I have so why not start with that and maybe reuse it in a later project. So I decide that I would make a block stacking game where you would select upgrades between levels that allow you to increase your score when matching blocks. So that the idea. A Block Stacking game that is enhanced by the cards you add to your board after each level. Stack the Deck. 

So that's where we are now, I have been working on the core game play and plan to have another update on how that has progressed soon. It's not pretty but I have a game loop at least, but more on that later. Thanks for listening and hope to share more soon!