Starting Development of Akasha

All my life I’ve loved games. I’ve been fascinated by them since I played my first games on my Apple II, including the Ultima series. I loved how I could explore a whole new world inside a game, go on adventures, and experience epic stories. Since then, I’ve watched games evolve into an amazing new art form, with stories as rich as a novel and experiences as immersive as a film.

I was so inspired by playing games that I wanted to make a game. In fact, I wanted to earn my living making games, but I ended up writing business software and apps for 30 years instead. I started working on several games, but I never completed one. I’m getting close to retirement age, and I’ve decided to draw a line in the virtual sand and commit myself to completing a game and transitioning my career into game development.

I’ve made multiple mistakes when trying to make a game, including choosing a scope that was too large and choosing a game engine that wasn’t a great fit for the game I wanted to make. But the biggest mistake I’ve made is not thinking about marketing before I made the game. I figured that if I built it, they would come. This time I’m putting marketing first.

Before I even created the game project for Akasha, I spent a month learning about game marketing, including which types of games are most popular on my target platform, Windows. I chose a game concept that fits into the most popular genres for Windows games. I’m not selling out or being inauthentic. I have over a dozen great ideas for games. They’re all very different, and I like them all. I’m just choosing the one that has the greatest chance of commercial success.

The game I will make is a procedurally generated open-world fantasy RPG with building and crafting. It’s actually very similar to a game I started making five or six years ago in the Unity game engine, but Unity couldn’t handle the realistic graphics I wanted, and I shelved that game after getting pretty far in creating the procedurally generated world. This time I’m using Unreal Engine 5, which is definitely powerful enough to create the game I envision.

The game is called Akasha. You’ll play a character who wakes up in a fantastic world built from the thoughts and dreams of the collective unconscious. You’ll learn to harness the power of your mind to reshape this world. You’ll explore forests, mountains, deserts, caves, and dungeons. You’ll build homes and other structures for yourself and your allies. And you’ll gradually discover why you are in this strange land and how you can return home. Although the game’s world is procedurally generated, the world and the game’s story will have structure.

You may be thinking that this sounds like a big game. It is. The scope is large. The game will take some time to make. But I’m confident I can make it, especially with procedural generation creating most of the game’s content. I could choose a game idea with a smaller scope, but I’m passionate about this game idea, and passion is super important. It will give me the energy and drive I need to complete the game.

Wish me luck!