OlderQuest IndieDB First Post

Note: This was originally posted on IndieDB, I’m putting it here to document things.

A game I’ve been working on for three years

With OlderQuest slowly taking shape, I want to start talking about it on a few more platforms.

This is a game which tries to distill the feeling of exploring a large fantasy open world into something that fits well onto a mobile device.

The controls have been designed with mobile in mind, with one of the central ideas being that the game can be played with just one finger.

I’ve been working on this project for the past three years full time, it’s my first attempt at making a proper commercial game!

Gameplay

With the power constraints of a mobile device and also my limits as a single developer, I was stuck with the limitation of quite small worlds. However I tried to use this limitation as a strength, and built a gameplay model and story around the basis of small worlds that you could move through quickly. The game uses procedural generation to make a new world for you each gameplay session, and you’re encouraged to complete many worlds in a single sitting.

Through this sort of repetition I want to give the impression of a world that’s big and complicated which comes to you in bitesize pieces.

OlderQuest small worlds — OlderQuest uses an algorithm to generate worlds, although things like towns and places are designed by hand to help with the story.

Story

OlderQuest will also focus heavily on the lore and story. I’ve already started work on a wiki system which I’m currently hosting on my website. The game is set on a fantasy island named Olderand, a place where humans cannot stay long for risk of losing their minds.

I plan to explain the quirks of the gameplay with the story and setting, so hopefully the random elements will benefit the finished game.

I’ll talk more about the story as I go!

Technical

This game is built using my own game engine, the avEngine.

OlderQuest gameplay — The game's engine supports Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS and Android.

I built this engine while at university, and it is fully MIT open source licensed. It uses a few common libraries including Ogre3D-next, Squirrel programming language, SDL2, etc.

I’d like to make a few games with this engine, and OlderQuest is the first commercial game I hope to ship using it.

Lastly, I’ve been documenting the progress of this game on YouTube for the past three years. The game is starting to become complete enough now that I want to target other platforms so people know that it exists. If any of that sounds interesting to you give my YouTube channel a quick subscribe!