In 2014 I took a break from working on different web projects like CampChaser and Safari Feed in my free time to learn game development using Unity. While web development is fun, and I've even made a couple web , programming a "real" game has always been on the back of my mind. Fortunately the past few years have been really good for hobbyist game developers like myself with many (free) frameworks allowing a sole developer to do it all without having to write an engine from scratch. All the tools were sitting there for me to get use. If I wanted to make a game, nothing was stopping me.
So how did it go?
Unity has been a great tool to work with. It is well documented and the community hugely helpful and supportive. As a testament to these resources, in my first week with Unity while I was on vacation, I managed to put together a fun proof-of-concept space shooter. My personal take on the Asteroid shooter had a mini solar system with orbiting planetoids and simulated planetary gravity. As first experiment with Unity I'm still proud of it, and I'd like to build it out a little more even if it ends up being a one-level demo.
My goal for the year was to make a complete, published game. While each of these demos and weird experiments never turned into a full game I learned a lot from C#, to 2d sprite animation, procedural generation, relearning 3d modeling in blender and SketchUp, to game design and how to scope a project while keeping your ambitions in check.
In 2017 I finally released my first "real" game, Titan Escape . I think there are a few unfinished projects from that year, however, with a germ of something worth cultivating later.