I'm Making A Video Game: Hourglass

"Spiral Island"

I’ve dreamed of making video games since I was young. I’ve loved playing them for years now, and I always thought I would excel at making them. I’ve tried to get into the lucrative world of games before, several times actually. But I was overwhelmed at how much went into making even simple games.

The idea never died; making in games in theory was never hard for me. but the practicality of such the task had died inside me. It wasn’t until January of this year that new life was breathed into the notion that I could be a game designer: Project 20 and UNDERTALE.
 

I’ve talked about UNDERTALE before on this blog, and with good reason: the game is one of the greatest I’ve played. It broke the rules, went places that games don’t normally go. I played it in very late December 2015, and was, as a matter of fact, the last game I played in 2015.
 

UNDERTALE inspired me in several ways. One of which was the fact that the game was primarily made by just two people: Toby Fox and Temmie Chang. Temmie just did art, I believe (I’m not devaluing her work at all: she did good work, lots of it), while Toby programed it and did the story. That blew my mind. Like truly blew it wide open. This amazing game that I’ve played through more times than I can remember was made primarily by two people. If that doesn’t inspire, I don’t know what does.
 

The second thing I mentioned, Project 20, is something I’ve never talked about. Well, in short, Project 20 is this idea that around 20% of your work week is dedicated to doing something you’ve always wanted to do. Something personally productive, like learning how to play piano, or how to use sign language. Post-It notes were actually created this way. Well my Engineering teacher assigned us a Project 20, and, to roughly quote him: “Go do something fun. Make sure you like it, cause it’s a grade.”
 

UNDERTALE lit the torch and my teacher gave me a real reason to use it: passing his class because Project 20 is a huge grade. Plus, I don’t have the greatest grade in his class, and when I finish this will drastically improve it [insert happy face here].
 

Anyway, enough small talk: let’s talk about Hourglass.
 

The premise of Hourglass is simple: you take on the role of David, a guy who wakes up on a strange island with no memories at all (ha I didn’t use the old ‘he only remembers the name of his lover deal’ talk about breathing new life into a cliche). The only thing he has in his hand is a letter and a sword. Written on the letter are the words “David (that means you((yes you)))” Our lovely hero opens the letter to find that David himself wiped his own memory for reasons unknown after he and his team fail to stop an, again unknown, force of great evil. The letter also talks about the island he’s awoken on, Spiral Island (yep: that picture up there is Spiral Island), and how it sits at a weak point in the fabric of existence and can access several different dimensions. Well, one of these dimensions is a prison, and it just so happens that your partner-in-crime Clara is in there, and you should probably break her out if you want to continue on your journey.

The story then goes on from there. So far I’ve only finished the first little prison bit, but I’m working on the rest. For those of you wondering, I don’t have to finish the game to be able to turn it in. All I gotta do is make progress with it, and I have. I’m rather proud of it, even if it’s short.
 

I might put what I’ve got so far on Gamejolt, but I don’t like to put things out a fraction of the way finished. I am a professional procrastinator and people getting mad at me for sporadic updates, even though motivating, sucks. Plus it’s just an “RPG Maker’ game, which is apparently not something to be proud of. That’s the most stupid thing about this. To The Moon, a truly great game, was made in an older version of RPG Maker than I’m using, and yet people talk down towards RPG Maker games like their not to be held at the same standards as any other game. Hell, UNDERTALE was made using GameMaker Studio, and it was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2015.
 

I’m getting off track. You guys have read my rants before; you know how I get.
 

Anyway, let’s keep talking about the game.
 

Hourglass takes several inspirations from UNDERTALE. I personally believe in the whole “You don’t have to kill the guys that seem bad” mentality that UNDERTALE uses as its primary message. I think UNDERTALE takes it a step too far, however. I understand that it’s satire, I really do, but don’t you think that, sometimes, the bad guy needs to die. I’m not saying all the time or even every time, but sometimes, some people are just better off dead. In Hourglass this is especially true. Sometimes you will need to kill people to be on the right path.
 

Speaking of the right path, I am not a fan of the hint. I like UNDERTALE’s approach to playing a game: you need to screw up bad a couple times before you get it right. I won’t drop any more hints than that.

The battle system is probably the only thing I didn’t steal (I didn’t really steal anything don’t get mad toby) from UNDERTALE. No, that’s Final Fantasy standard RPG battling. I also use the random encounter (don’t hit me toby) even though I hate that system of battling (yet Pokemon is one of my favorite games).

That entire last paragraph was a stew of hypocrisy and I apologize for that.
 

That’s really all I can say about my brain child without spoiling her. Sorry guys, you’ll have to play her yourself. Don’t fret, potential player: it might be years before you can play it but until then, have some photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading, dear reader.

 

Man I hope Bethesda doesn’t sue me because I use the word scr[CENSORED FOR ‘COPYRIGHT’] in the game like once in a throw-away line. Whoops sorry guys.

-Robert