PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:
Hello there, I'm Helge, I'm the creative lead on Ardent Seas, and as of last month I can officially call myself Creative Director (which is nice)
Aside of working on Ardent Seas, I'm currently in an apprenticeship to become an IT Specialist für Systems Integration, I just finished my first year there.
I speak 4 languages, and have lived about half/half of my life in Germany and Spain.
TELL US ABOUT ARDENT SEAS
Ardent Seas is a naval RTS game, if I had to compare it to existing games, it would be a combination of Homeworld and Red Alert 3. The player has a flagship, and their goal is to sink the enemy Flagship.
To do that, they first need to take control of islands spread across the map, and build up their bases there, unlocking bigger and more powerful ships, vehicles and aircraft. The Flagship is no easy target - fully upgraded, it can shred a small fleet.
We have three factions, in total I think we're going to end up at around 100 Units and 30 Buildings spread across them.
The idea came about while I was working on Rogue Republic over a decade ago. I was bothered by the lack of RTSes that focus on naval warfare, and I wanted to do something about that.
HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN
It's been up and down, all of us are working on it in our free time, I've changed jobs and even moved countries in the time I've working on this. I wouldn't trade it for anything, though. Gane development is one of the most fulfillng things I've ever gotten into.
WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
We chose Unity, because after Rogue Republic's demise, Koen - with whom I started the game - had an RTS framework available to use in Unity. This made it an obvious choice. Recreating all of that from scratch would've been...quite a lot, at the time.
Otherwise I likely would've picked Unreal Engine - UDK in particular. Nowadays, I might have picked Godot.
WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?
Available free time has been the biggest hurdle. Ardent Seas is not a small game, and we are not a big team. Scope Creep is also no stranger.
ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?
Avoid scope creep at all cost, haha. Write down what you want your game to be, and stick to that. It's very easy to explode the scope of your game.
Also don't be afraid to ditch bad ideas, even if a lot of time has gone into it.
Start small! Make a lot of small games, get to know your engine and tools in-and-out, learn what works and doesn't. Modding other games is also a good start, and is how I got started.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
Making games is fun, but also a lot of work and effort.
I can wholeheartedly recommend getting into it, even if if you don't plan to make a career out of it.
With engines like Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine, and tools like Blender and Armor Paint, it's never been easier to get into it.
-Helge
❤️
