A NEW BEGINNING
This week marks the beginning of an exciting journey. I’m building a fast-paced wave survival shooter set in medieval times — with a twist. You play as a young alien who’s come to Earth, officially to prove himself in combat, but secretly on a mission to recover a rare gemstone his grandmother once spoke of. It’s a wild mashup of alien tech and medieval brutality, and I’m aiming to make it feel responsive, stylish, and just a bit quirky.
OWNING ACTOR
Before starting this solo adventure, I spent 8 years working professionally as a game engineer. I’ve been lucky to contribute to some amazing projects including SCUM, The Cycle Frontier, Dune Awakening, and Exoborne. But after years of building other people’s visions, I wanted to create something personal — something raw and fast and fun — under my own studio, Narog Games.
TECHNICAL FOUNDATION
This week was all about laying the technical foundation. I set up a custom Perforce server on a Linux machine to manage version control, and got a clean Unreal Engine 5.5 project up and running. Combat was the first thing I tackled: hitscan shooting with semi-auto, burst, and full-auto firing modes, complete with muzzle flash, bullet trails, and firing sounds.
I added a simple UI showing health and ammo, along with basic player systems like health tracking, reloading, and a working Game Over screen with a restart button.
EPPUR SI MUOVE
On the movement side, I implemented dash, double jump, a FOV-based ADS system, and even an early version of a physics-based grapple — which is already proving to be a lot of fun. The camera now has mouse lag via a SpringArm component, making everything feel more dynamic. For enemies, I built a simple AI that uses sight sense to detect and chase the player, dealing and receiving damage. It’s a minimal setup but already gives a good taste of the loop I’m aiming for.
WHAT’S NEXT
Next week I plan to expand on enemy behaviors and start implementing wave-based spawns. I also want to iterate on the game UI and polish up core movement systems before jumping into level design. The first part of developing a game is to nail core mechanics and game feel. Polish comes later. There’s a long road ahead, but the pieces are already starting to click.
Thanks for reading and being part of this from the start. If you have feedback, ideas, or just want to say hi, feel free to reach out on X or Facebook page. Comments, likes, and shares really help solo devs like me stay motivated. Also if you are interested in specific topic, please let me know and will make a post about that. See you next time.