I’m writing this blog while my girlfriend snores next to me to hold myself accountable to a new project. I’ve decided to create a mobile game, a modernized MUD-like multiplayer game to be more specific.

I’m no stranger to programming (though no expert either), I’ve sat through college courses on C#, python, Java, database structures, and so on. Nor am I unfamiliar with games, having played more than my fair share as well as hosting private runescape servers and attempting to follow youtube tutorials to make web based games.

Today I work as a product manager for a cyber security platform. I like to create and build things, but I’m cursed with a logical brain and lack any artistic ability. I think that’s why I’m so drawn to these text-based games. They have little to no imagery or visuals yet I still feel the dopamine release when I watch the stat or gold numbers climb higher. I find myself playing these games and thinking “I could build this”.

The true catalyst was last night, when I downloaded an iOS game called “Warriors and Adventure”. It’s an overly complex idle RPG that was clearly translated to English from somewhere in Asia. It’s P2W, contains 8+ in game currencies, microtransactions galore, and you find yourself clicking a “claim” button 10 times to accumulate prizes and gold every time you open the app.

I was initially excited by the game, the ad showed it as a simple text-based RPG. You had standard classes: Mage, Ranged, Warrior. Skills, gold, gear, all the staples of a fantasy RPG. The combat was a 6×6 grid-based system, where your character attacks any mobs that appear in the grid squares bordering its own. You move around to new locations (new 6×6 grids) by clicking the location name in the map, and there’s towns with shops and everything else you’d expect.

The core system was simple yet fun. A few flashy animations for attacks but the rest was text. Again I found myself thinking “I could build this.. I could design this better”. So I decided I would.

I have no game design document. I’m entirely winging this process with a loose idea of the core components I want to implement, but for now it feels like it’s enough. I’ve been caught in analysis paralysis before, overthinking projects and never completing them. This time I’ve taken the opposite approach. I dusted off my Macbook, spent a few hours googling SwiftUI, and mocked up an interface for the game.

There’s no functionality built, just the bare bones structure to something that will hopefully one day be a fun and interactive game. I’ll continue to post my progress and struggles designing this game, if nothing else to keep myself accountable to push forward. With all that said, here’s a picture of Day 1.