PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:
Hello, I am Mark Bannister. My studio is - Freemana. And I am responsible for the production of Codex Lost - and hopefully many more games going forward.
TELL US ABOUT CODEX LOST.
The game I have been developing, and which is releasing on November 14th 2024 is Codex Lost.
A third person fantasy action RPG in the soulslike paradigm.
I have long been passionate about soulslikes and have been learning game design for several years. I knew I would one day want to start creating games in the sub-genre I love so much.
I also love fantasy RPGs in general and particularly I enjoy playing mage classes.
This is where the inspiration for Codex Lost comes from - as it is a soulslike where you play only as a mage.
HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN
When I was young I got into rom hacks, for pokemon and so on. Later I started messing with RPG maker and similar programs. Five years or so ago, I decided to take the plunge into proper game dev engine - like Unity. However, I found my aptitude for coding languages was... well
I didn't have any.
WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
This is when I stumbled upon unreal engine 4. Which used a blueprint system - basically a node
based visualisation of code. As an artistically minded person this spoke to me immediately and
I began learning.
Lots of struggles and several practice games later - I began work on Codex Lost. Which is
constructed entirely using the UE4 blueprint system.
WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?
Whilst nothing in development is easy, and it all takes a long time to learn. Honestly the largest hurdle for me has been (and remains) advertising and marketing. It is an incredibly stubborn area to break through it and it's ins and outs are something I find to be particularly obnoxious and irritating. But I am learning.
ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?
Time and patience, you need these in spades. For me taking a 'zen' attitude towards creativity is really useful. if you're making a level, and it takes 3 weeks to make - you might find that by the end of the 3 weeks the level is rubbish, and you need to start again. Ideas are transient and you must let them go if the overall vision demands it.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
-Yes, go and get Codex Lost and play it!
-Mark
❤️
