It all started on YouTube
About 3 years ago, more or less, was the last time I developed video games. I had a channel that I started around 2020-2021, called ocelotdev back then. It was a channel focused on being an extension of what Brackeys was doing at that time.
Brackeys was, back then, the main content creator focused on video game development tutorials. I decided to do something similar, a channel focused on video game development tutorials.
My first video, was a tutorial on how to make a "3D Flying controller in unity". I wanted to make a useful tutorial and guide for a complex flight system, based on the rules of how airplanes work in real life. And it was an interesting challenge, even more so because I wanted to build systems that respected something that already existed, reading NASA flight documentation and all that.
From then on I kept going with the tutorials, until November 19, 2021, when I released a video where I shared that I was going to become an independent video game developer, mainly because back then I felt I was like those university professors who have never worked in the real industry. I had a strong and complex impostor syndrome.
But what happened with that first game?
Nothing
Literally, I started developing a bullet hell video game, which was going to be in 3D, inspired by games like Touhou Project, but completely and merely isometric, and with a story inspired by the movie "The Thing".
Although I made great progress on the 3D assets of that game, and on multiple mechanics, like when I started to improve my game's design.
I never managed to finish that game. Back then I was learning on the go; I didn't have the general development concepts cemented in my head. Everything I knew came from tutorials like Brackeys' and from experimentation.
Which showed in the quality of the development I did on FROSTIBITE (official title of that dead project).
What happened to my channel?
Death is the beginning of immortality.
- Maximilian Robespierre
The Emilio Blacksmith project, my development channel, and my idea of a "solo-dev" kind of company, had died. Since I started working officially at a startup called finsphera, my development time was completely dedicated to working and giving my all.
Time passed and, when I least expected it, my YouTube project had no more videos. Officially my project died in 2023; at the end of that year I stopped making things for my channel. Despite wanting to keep going, my time was dedicated to other things.
But what does this mean for you?
The comeback, and I don't like the idea of dwelling on the triumphant success of returning to YouTube. Obviously, it's going to take time, and I'm not sure of the glory that awaits me in returning to YouTube and picking up game development again, in my free time.
Thank God, I currently have a partner who supports me in this process. The fact that she's a designer allows me to ask her to put time into helping me with the design of my future project.
A new project?
Yes, it sounds like an afterthought after a shower, but this time I'm going to be consistent and serious, and above all disciplined. That is, I'm going to pick up game and project development again on my YouTube channel.
What's the next game, you might ask. And indeed, it's a video game, untitled, without a genre; the only thing I can confirm so far is:
- It will be developed in the GODOT engine
- It will take inspiration from Super Mario Wonder and Thank Goodness You're Here. (I won't say specifically what things I'll take from them, because I'm still in the process)
- And the plan is to make weekly videos, or as consistent as possible, showing the constant progress of developing this video game, little by little
If you're interested, look for my YouTube channel, tell me how you're doing reading my interesting story. Hopefully you learn something from all this. Or that I learn something from all this.
The important thing is to understand that it's never too late.
