Intro

Skeletim was my first foray into the world of game development. I had recently discovered the Godot Engine, and I was eager to try it out. I found a tutorial series on how to make a game akin to old 2D Zelda games and used it as inspiration for this game. While I followed it pretty closely at first, opportunities arose for me to do things my own way and actually build my own game.

About

The story of Skeletim is that an enchantress had come to the island, raised the dead, captured the villagers, and held them as prisoners in 4 structures on the island to steal their life force for a powerful spell. Of the dead soldiers she raised, one was immune to her brainwashing. The skeleton of an old hero named Tim. Thus you begin your adventure as Skeletim.

Although only a few small level areas were built, the scope for Skeletim was quite large. A big map with 4 dungeons to be completed in any order, and a 5th secret final dungeon at the end. In addition to health and magic upgrades there were items/weapons to be collected in the world and in the dungeons, including bow and arrows, shield, jump boots, a gun forged in a volcano, and a fishing rod.

Development

Skeletim was developed in the spring of 2020. The beginning of the process was just following along with the tutorial to build the foundation of the game. Eventually I had enough code to use and re-use to build different environments. I would sketch out a layout on paper, then head into Aseprite to begin production, starting with the floor/ground tiles, walls and paths, environment objects (trees, houses, etc), and whatever enemies/entities the level called for. Finally, I would bring these assets into Godot and add functionality, using the tutorial as a guide when needed.

Retrospective

Skeletim was a project burdened by rookie mistakes. Minimal planning and a massive scope burned the candle at both ends, and I didn’t have the stamina to finish the project. I was also held back by my own inexperience. There were a lot of things that the tutorial didn’t cover that I had to figure out myself, and when something went wrong it would halt the entire process. Eventually, the project was dropped when I hit a bug that I couldn’t and still can’t figure out.

Despite not becoming a complete game, Skeletim was still an invaluable learning experience. Through the project I was able to get a solid grasp on GDScript, Godot’s onboard scripting language, and It’s been my favorite language to work in ever since. I also got used to Godot’s sprite, tile-set, and animation systems, which I enjoyed using.