My latest project, and what I’m currently putting most of my time into developing, is a currently untitled 3D RPG set in the wild west made in Unity. The 3D models were purchased on the Unity Asset Store, and I’m using a plugin for Unity that adds a dialogue system, so that all you have to do is write the dialogue and code it in their plugin-specific programming language, Yarn. Mainly the skills I’m hoping to develop while designing this game are quest design, narrative design, and the ability to craft a dynamic world with lots of player choice. Combat will be available to the player, but most quests will be done through dialogue, by exploring the town the game is set in and interacting with the various characters.

After playing various masterpiece RPGs, such as Fallout: New Vegas, I knew that a game I truly wanted to make was one where the player could envision themselves however they could imagine, and interact with characters and do quests that had a variety of solutions, and which would require attention to dialogue to complete. Obviously this necessitates strong writing, so that is the muscle I’m trying to flex with this game, whereas my past games were me trying to find mechanic I enjoyed playing with that I could add to an existing genre.

The main objective of the game will be to gain enough money to buy a gun, leave town, and set up in a bigger town, so that you can have a fresh start in the West, with the characters having endings to their contained storylines based on how you completed their quests, if at all. There will be more quests than is needed to earn this money, so players can pick and choose; there will be multiple ways to complete each quest, and there will be a path through the game if you want to complete as few quests as possible, and say, kill everyone in town and steal from them because you’re roleplaying as an aspiring outlaw.

This is not yet fully fleshed out: currently the town exists, there are fully animated NPCs that will stand in place forever, and a few of them have dialogue you can access. If you fire your gun at one, they will become aggressive and begin to fire back. It’s a new project, but I feel very happy with the direction it’s going, and I can’t wait to write more dialogue and design more quests to finally fully flesh out this game.