Taking a game that you create as you follow a tutorial series and turning it into something that is "your own" is a daunting task. I don't want to spend months changing every element so it's unrecognisable from the tutorial, but at the same time I want to launch something original. Something playable. Something you - hopefully - will enjoy.

A few weeks ago I signed up for David Wehle's Game Dev Unlocked. You've probably heard of it, and if you haven't you might want to check it out (not an affiliate link - I genuinely think it's great). You might have even played one of his games, the most famous of which is The First Tree.

Part of the course involves creating a first person story driven game, and that's the bit I recently completed. And one of the tasks is to get people to play what you create. Which is why I'm here.

I'm now in the final stages (days? weeks?!) of finishing 'Virus'.

So, if you've also followed David's course you'll spot a number of things that are the same - or at least similar:

• The art style and colour palette
• The trees and the grass
• The first person controls
• Some SFX and music

But despite these shared elements, I think I've created something unique by adding in:

• An original story, with original voiceovers
• New graphical elements, objects and landscape
• A new gameplay element - collecting objects which help tell the story
• New music, new SFX, new enemies
• A 'beginning' and an 'end', menu screens - a 'completeness' to the experience of playing

There is still work to do, but my goal is modest one: At least one person I don't know downloads and plays the game to completion. Hopefully that's not overly ambitious.

This will be my first game publishing on Itch.io, and the whole thing is a learning experience. I hope I'm able to publish something that builds on the wonderful tutorials on Game Dev Unlocked, and yet is unique and stands on it's own merits. Because that will give me the confidence to go on and create original content with the skills I've learned.

I hope that if you've found this post you'll consider playing the game once it's released.

Thanks for reading,
Rich
Ranger Games