I was first inspired to become a software developer when I was very young when I got an original NES. Playing those early games gave me a passion to learn programming that was the foundation of everything I’ve done since. Back in the early days when I was just studying BASIC and Hypercard, I made a bunch of small games just for fun. None of them were very good, but I was extremely proud and desperately wanted to know how to do more.
Unfortunately, it was the 90s, and there wasn’t a lot of information out there about how to make games. The web didn’t exist yet, and the few library books I could find on programming were very academic.
In my teenage years I attended a computer summer camp (shout out to Computer-Ed High Tech Camps) where I was finally able to study programming. I quickly learned Pascal, C, C++, and Java and I was able to make the foundations of several simple games (mostly MUDs) with those tools under my belt, but the art of graphical game design was still out of my reach.
When I applied for university, I hoped to go to a school where I could study game development, but again, in the late 90s there was only a single option: DigiPen in Vancouver, and it wasn’t even a 4-year program. It was too far away and all the adults told me I should go to a more sensible school.
In the intervening years, I’ve occasionally played around with game making, but there always seemed to be a wall I couldn’t climb. There were many tutorials but all of them made assumptions about what you already knew. Even though I write code all day long, games still seemed like something I could never access.
This summer, I was inspired by a friend and I undertook the challenge to make a full game once again (I got close before), and for the first time, I did it!
Here’s what I started with: a quick and dirty metroidvania biome design along with a flow chart for the order of the abilities:
After four weeks of hacking (a big chunk of which was just learning how to use Phaser, Tiled, and TexturePacker), here’s the final map:
It’s pretty close to the design! Tiled is a really amazing level editor and was instrumental in making this come together so quickly.
If you’re interested, I wrote this game using TypeScript and the Phaser game framework. You can see the code itself on GitHub.
If you want to get a feel for the game, I made a quick trailer which you can watch to see a glimpse of how it plays.
It’s nothing very fancy and honestly I may have been too ambitious for my first game attempt, but even if no one else likes it I’m still very pleased. I can’t wait to figure out what game to make next!
Of course, I didn’t make everything. Sound effects were from Minifantasy. Sprites and graphics from Super Package, Adventure Begins, Red Sprite, Dungeon, Dark Pixel, Epic Pixel Packs, Assorted Pixel Icons, Mountain Dusk, and Pixel UI. The music, however, is by me (GarageBand!).
UPDATE: You can read more about how I built the game by following this tag on my blog
Give it a try and tell me what you think! You can play it right in your browser. May I present: The Lost Card, a top-down metroidvania.
Long ago a sage gifted a set of magical tarot cards to the six kingdoms to be used in times of danger. But now the cards have been lost…
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