Starting with my dream game? 🌈🌈

Hi everyone! My name is Shawn, and I’m thrilled to share my journey as I start working on The Village, my first big game project and, honestly, my dream game. This is a cozy pixel art game where you build a gay village, creating a space full of charm, community, and life. I’ve been imagining this game for years, and it’s finally time to bring it to life.

A Long Journey Ahead

This project is huge and will likely take years to complete. I’m okay with that! I've seen a lot of advice to not start with your dream game as new developers can make mistakes and get frustrated. The best advice is to learn the ropes first then get into the big stuff. I definitely take that advice to heart and am starting small with a prototype. I feel if I can see my vision coming to like, it will motivate my to keep going.

Along the way, I’ll be making smaller, simpler games to improve my skills and keep the creativity flowing. This way, I can keep learning while making steady progress on my dream game.

Starting Small: One Bar, One Village

I’m kicking things off with a single building: a bar. The prototype for this bar will serve as the final project for my Game Development with Unity course. It’s a small slice of the village, but it’s already teaching me so much about design, AI, and world-building.

Finding Assets to Begin

Since I’m not yet experienced with pixel art, I’ve started by seeking out assets to get me up and running. I found the Modern Interiors asset pack by LimeZu on itch.io, and it’s just what I need! The pack has all kinds of furniture, decorations, and even a character generator, which I’ll use to populate the village with unique sprites.

While it doesn’t have as many bar-specific assets as I’d like, it’s flexible enough for me to make it work. For now, it’s giving me a solid foundation to focus on gameplay while I continue improving my art skills. Down the road, I plan to either create my own art or hire an artist to give The Village its final look.

A Cozy Vision

What excites me most is creating a space that feels alive and inviting. Villagers will have personalities, preferences, and needs, choosing where to spend their time based on the environment you build for them. Starting with the bar, I’ll experiment with these mechanics to make sure the world feels dynamic and full of charm.

I envision this as a "fishbowl" game. You create the space and watch the stories unfold.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll follow along as I embark on this adventure. If you’re working on your dream game or have advice for a first-time dev tackling a big project, I’d love to hear about it! Let’s build something cozy together. 🌸