It took me over a year to plan my multiplayer VR game.

https://luchenator.dev/bucketpark A piece of game development advice that’s been shouted towards solo or indie game devs the most is to “just start”, whether that be if you’re just beginning to use the Unity or Godot game engines for the first time, or are starting one of your biggest projects yet. However, I feel there is far more nuance to this advice than simply opening up a game engine and working straight away. For over a year now, I have been planning and preparing the development of my small-scale social, multiplayer VR game, Bucket Park. I’ve taken huge inspiration from both the social VR platform Rec Room, on top of other game franchises I enjoy like Animal Crossing. I’d like for it to be its own thing entirely instead of directly copying Rec Room or other online “metaverse” VR games, such as VRChat, Horizon Worlds, etc, which is why I’ve spent so long preparing for development. I also want to avoid any scope creep or feature creep to the best of my abilities, which is why I’m taking my sweet time with planning exactly how large I want it to be. There are dozens of factors you have to consider and so many hats you have to wear in indie game development, especially as a solo dev: art direction, the gameplay loop, sound effects, worldbuilding, networking/multiplayer, replayability, marketing/branding, and so many more I would have to do either on my own or with the help of someone else. Over this past year, I’ve spent my time writing a Game Design Document for Bucket Park, creating several drafts for concept art, updating my website, and researching and prototyping with multiplayer tools such as Photon PUN (not Fusion lol), PurrNet, Edgegap, Normcore, and more. For the most part, I’m a solo developer working on this game with the help of his friends. This is the second devlog in a series of videos discussing different game design decisions and aspects of my passion project/portfolio piece, Bucket Park. If you’d like to learn more about Bucket Park, click the link at the top of the description :) I definitely want to truly begin development of the game by the end of the summer. I can’t just keep “preparing” for it forever. ANIMATION/WRITING/EDITING TheLuchenator    / @theluchenator   VIDEOS USED Jack    • EASY VR MULTIPLAYER - How to set up Unity ...   PlayStation    • Rec Room - PGW 2017 Trailer | PS VR   Rec Room    • Rec Room 2022 Storefront Trailer   MUSIC USED Rec Room OST    • Paintball River      • The Ink Space      • Clearcut   Gribbly    • Dodgeball Slow Dance   Rivals of Aether OST    • Customization   Animal Crossing: New Horizons OST    • OST 58   6 PM   Animal Crossing New Horizons   SHAMELESS SELF PROMO My Itch Page (https://theluchenator.itch.io) My Discord Server (  / discord  ) My Website (https://luchenator.dev)    • Developing A Social VR Game