Aaaaand we’re back! (again (for real this time))
April 23, 2025
Hey everybody. Welcome to the devlog!
To start, I’d like to briefly explain what these devlog posts are going to be for, and what you can expect from them moving forward.
In-short, these serve as a means for me to blab about whatever developing shenanigans I’ve been up to over the span of time between the current post and the last post. Since this is the first devlog post in, like, a year, it might be a little different from how the following posts are typically going to be laid out.
– So, where have I been? –
Over the past year, I’ve been finishing up a degree and generally side-questing. I graduated with my bachelors in business at the end of 2024, and spent a couple months after messing around with the Twitch API and a couple side-projects. I didn’t work on my main project quite as much as I wanted to, but I did still get some stuff done.
There really isn’t much else exciting to talk about over that period.
– So what’s next? –
Moving forward, the plan is to continue working on my main project (Scribes) with the occasional small side project thrown in to fight burnout. I also intend to start documenting game systems/mechanics in the design archive. These posts will break down how different systems are designed, coded, and implemented so other developers can use them in their own games.
Now, with all that out of the way, let’s talk about Scribes
For those who don’t already know, Scribes is the main game development project I’ve been working on over the past couple years. It’s an open-world ARPG about magic casters who live on an archipelago of floating islands.
When I started the project in earnest back in 2023, my programming and design skills weren’t quite up to the task (to put it softly). So, a lot of the systems in the game have been built and rebuilt multiple times over as I was improving my own skills as a developer.
Now, after the turmoil of its early development, the game has a code foundation that’s actually competent. Plus, that extra time spent allowed me to improve both the story and the design of the game’s central mechanics.
So, let’s talk about that.
As its core mechanic, Scribes features a magic system that allows players to incant and cast any of the game’s 84 spells in under a second (as long as they’re unlocked). Further, the spells have synergies with each other based on the game’s physics and chemistry engines.
The system is built for fast paced puzzle-combat action, encouraging the player to use different combinations of spells to overcome specialized enemies and solve dungeon puzzles. To that end, the player has access to three spell slots, which allows them to cast up to three spells simultaneously (Casting multiple copies of the same spell will instead cast a stronger variation of that spell).
My main goal with Scribes is to make a game with a magic system that works more like how magic works in books, shows, and movies. In those forms of media, wizards/sorcerers/mages/etc can typically access a large repertoire of magic spells at any time. In most games, however, developers are limited to whatever they can fit on a controller. So, it’s common for the player to only have access to a few spells at any given time when playing a faster paced game.
While there are other games out there that have complex magic systems, in my experience, they typically need to play at a slower pace so the player can keep up with casting spells.
Though it has taken many many many iterations, the Scribes magic system has finally overcome that limitation.
That’s all for today’s devlog. In the next one I’ll actually go into detail about what I’ve been doing recently. So I’ll see you there!