I get thrown off pretty easy these days, the wind blowing in the wrong direction messes with my head and makes me not able to push forward on the game.

So anyway, I decided I'd at the very least decide what I'll be working on in the near future.

The hard bit of working on a game, is that there are no wrong thoughts, everything sounds like a good idea. Someone might think "If we create sprawling dungeons the game will have cool new points of interest" And they're not wrong. If we do this system this way it'll be fun! Yeah. No one has a wrong idea in gamedev. Everything is possible, anything can be attempted to be implemented and this is a big part of why most projects fail. Not enough focus on feasibility, in how systems interact and build on each other. Too many idea people who don't put in the elbow grease and therefore have no frame of reference for implementation, how 0's and 1's are more important that pirates or space marines.

The real kicker for gamedev is picking that thing to do that will fit into the game, the existing systems and actually be fun. It shouldn't draw away from other things it should build on the core. It should make the entirety of the game better. Too often we end up down rabbit holes adding secondary content that exists on its own and we build out horizontally rather than building up a singular core experience.

I always look back on the greats, in minecraft you craft shit and punch blocks. In Mario you jump around with a super tight control scheme. In Zelda you explore with a nifty combat system. VERY SIMPLE.

So to this end i've decided to take a step back and re envision what I want SeaCrit to be. Super dense, super repayable, with lots of fun upgrades and considerations to your build. So I've decided not to build out this massive world, but rather keep the game very small for now. Just a few  zones and I will be working to craft secrets and upgrades and shops within these zones to be very prices.

This is what I view as the core thing for me right now: How do i make the swimming about of the ocean meaningful? How do i get the player to get upgrades and think to themselves, "ok I got this weapon, that means I should go here and get this powerup and then go here, and if i get this thing I should do this". I want to build a very small, very dense world with meaningful choices, and fun play that encourages min maxing but doesn't require it.

I'm probably getting ahead of myself, I need to get a few zones setup with fun fish to fight first and foremost.

Trying to learn from past mistakes, CONTENT IS A PRISON! Going to keep things fast and loose, build on these levels over and over again, figure out what sort of secret setups work and really lock in the progression and world exploration. Once I feel really happy with it I should be able to knock out a few more zones and expand things.

(ok, so this song might be a little overplayed, i dont' have the energy to find something more obscure :P)