I'm Raymond and my mission is to bring my imaginary world and characters to life. Since childhood I've been teaching myself to draw, design, code, compose music and make videos. I'm now using these skills to solo-develop my debut game, *Project Feline*, while publicly documenting development through my ongoing devlog on YouTube.
Project Feline is a high-speed 3D parkour platformer with a 2000's anime style. The game stars Gabi, a young catgirl fugitive with unique feline abilities. Players run on walls, grind, slide and climb to build insane momentum and rocket through complex 3D environments as fast as possible!
Project Feline rewards persistence, precision, speed and style through it's tight physics-driven movement, level design and scoring system. Players are ranked on how quickly and precisely they can collect cogs, defeat enemies and find (or make) the shortest route to the end of each stage.
I was raised predominantly by mascot platformers, Owl City music, and the hit 2000's anime Bakugan Battle Brawlers. I desired to make something of my own that imbued what I loved about those things with my own twist.
The idea started from Gabi's character design. I came up with her when I was a child and became very attached to her. As I started dabbling in coding and game design, I wanted to make an entire game based around her. She is half cat, so I figured she'd be very agile. That got me to start coding her a wall-run mechanic, and eventually to learn Blender so I could make her an avatar.
I've also always been very perfectionistic and obsessive. Whether drawing, coding, or doing chores, I derive joy in doing it with care and without compromise. But I observe in the real world these small things aren't appreciated. In Project Feline, I want to give players an escape to a place where they can run, jump, climb and slice through the air with passion and rigor and to never settle for "good enough". I want them to master Gabi and S-rank the game, and then to go forth and master themselves to S-rank life.
That attitude has inspired many of my decisions with Project Feline, from the movement mechanics, the level structure, the demanding art style, character design, and the music. Even Gabi's animations were inspired from Olympic gymnasts—I admire the discipline it takes to have that much control over your body.
The journey has been slow and steady. Since the first piece of concept art I've been consistently documenting Project Feline's development on my YouTube channel. Making a game solo is very demanding, but the enduring encouragement of my community has inspired me to never give up. I hope someday to repay their faith in me with an awesome end product.
I chose Unreal Engine 4 because of it's long running track record in commercial game development and its artist-friendly visual scripting language. Unreal has been around for over 25 years and was authored by Epic Games for their own development team to ship their own software. As a result, there is a level of craftsmanship behind Unreal that I feel is lacking in its competitors.
Securing funding and working with others.
The industry standard in Australia is much lower compared to the more established markets like the US, Europe or Japan. I've sunk a lot of time in trying to go the traditional "assemble a team and get a publisher" route, but it's been difficult to find quality funding opportunities and competent staff. I've since been pressing ahead doing everything solo and very frugally.
If you want it done right, you must do it yourself.
Stay away from courses promising you wealth and fame. Most instructors are there because they weren't good enough to compete in the industry themselves. If they were that good, they would be competing with you, not helping you. You must be willing teach yourself and make your own way.
Learn legalese. Contracts are necessary in this industry, but young passionate developers like me are ripe for being taken advantage of. You gotta be armored up and understand what's really going on between the lines. If something feels off, it probably is.
-My final thoughts are that you should REALLY wishlist Project Feline on Steam and check out my YouTube channel!
-Raymond
❤️
