Hi, I'm Josh Sacco, Creative Director and Game Dev of Deadleaf Games. I've worked in the Games Industry for over a decade as an Art Generalist. I've always loved making and playing games from an early age. Where I began learning programming on the Commodore 64 and drawing characters.
Our game Junklands is a 3D action adventure game with metroidvania elements where you morph the environment around you. The Idea started from a character idea about 10 years ago where I made this 2D game about a paper character in a recycled world. I've always wanted to make an adventure game and this world was a place I wanted to dive deeper in and explore. All the gameplay mechanics tie back into changing and exploring the environment which goes hand in hand with the theme.
Development on Junklands has been a journey in itself. We took our time exploring what the game could be and how the our theme could influence the mechanics. I'm happy with the trade off as the time taken has produced some great ideas with a solid base.
I am using Unity as my game engine as I've spent many years using it, so it's just faster to create games using it.
Biggest development hurdle so far has just been the planning and time to create a project like this. It's kind of a massive undertaking to create an adventure game so progression can feel slow at times.
My advice to other game devs out there are:
- Pick something you are passionate about, it will carry you through the hard periods and mundane stages of development.
- Add constraints to the project, it will force you to formulate new and creative ideas to solve problems.
- Productivity doesn't always equal creativity. So take breaks and come back with a clearer perspective.
Making games is hard work, we need to remind ourselves to have fun on our journey!
-Josh
❤️
