My name is Dmytro Yarynych. I’m 38 years old, currently living in a village in Kyiv Oblast (Ukraine) with my family — my wife, 6 y.o. son and a 9 y.o. labrador retriever named Obi. I’ve been working in the design industry for the last two decades. Several years ago I decided to switch to making games, but I was unsure what exactly I would like to do. Game design and writing are my focus for now.
Tailgate is a third-person narrative adventure about an aging dog searching for his Human. One day Hyde (the protagonist) wakes up after having a bad dream and realizes that his Human is gone. So Hyde goes out to investigate. The player will have to use the dog’s senses to find clues, smell traces that lead to objectives, and communicate with other animals to find his Human. The core mechanic of the game is pathfinding, but in a doggo way. The main idea is to teach humans to see the world with a dog’s eyes and from a dog’s perspective (both visually and narratively).
Why am I making a doggo game? I had a couple of ideas for games that touch important (at least for me) topics, that being animals, kids, and the importance of empathy and communication. I chose the dog theme because I’m living in a country at war, and among other terrible things happening every day, I’m heartbroken about animals suffering. And while humans hold at least some degree of control over their fate, animals are bound to our decisions. But I thought, what if a particular animal could stand up and fix the mess? That’s how I came up with Tailgate’s idea, setting and mechanics.
Artistically, Tailgate is a love song to animals and the Ukrainian countryside with its peaceful and laborious way of living. Ukrainians are hard-working people who tend to their homes, villages, gardens and have a special bond with nature and living creatures (Ukrainians are very friendly to stray animals, for example, we greet them from cars, feed them, there are even generic names for stray dogs in our language like Sirko (the grey one) or Brovko (the ones with funny brows)).
I have a small dream that the game will do good financially and I would be able to donate substantial sums to animal causes, feed and heal all them doggos and other multiple-legged friends.
Surprisingly, at least so far, everything goes according to the plan, more or less. I had some minor previous experience with Unreal Engine (I worked on a VR adventure called Proze some years back, but had to leave the project because I couldn’t keep up with being a father of a newborn, running my agency and working on an indie game, but that’s another story).
I’ve chosen UE 5. UE is quite friendly, well documented and the commercial side of working with Epic isn’t that bad. I’m quite happy with my choice so far.
The main hurdle of being a solo dev is having to deal with everything on your own. Being an art director for so long certainly helps, but the inability to parallel any task sometimes gets to me. I need to do things that take time even if you’re good. I don’t have any prior experience in engineering or coding, so I’m sometimes surprised that some things even work. But it’s also very rewarding (I had my moments, when I thought, well, maybe I’m not that clueless about how tech things work).
Another problem is funding. So far I’m living off my savings (I’ve worked my bum off in 2023 to save up some cash). But frankly, I’m not worried too much, mainly because I don’t need that much. Hopefully, I will get some support when there is a demo available.
I don’t think I’m in any position to give advice until I ship the game. But if you insist, here are some thoughts:
1. Be patient. Especially to yourself. Games are complex projects, so struggling is normal. If making a good game was easy, it wouldn’t be so fun and rewarding, right?
2. It’s a long game. Even if you choose wisely, I mean, even if you work on something simple, it won’t be. The simplest game you can think of will take all of your resources and then some. Be mindful of the scope, every extra feature, NPC or model.
3. Be nice to people. It’s just general advice.
Don’t forget to pause, and recover. Play that game, go for a walk, play with your kid, sleep, work out, or eat a donut in a parking lot.
- Developing your very own game can be the most rewarding experience and there is no way to do it right, there are still no rules. Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t forget to breath!
If you are interested in Tailgate, I’ll really appreciate the wishlist. Join the game’s discord, follow me on Twitter — it will help me and my game a lot!
Thanks!
-Dmytro
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3046820/Tailgate/
❤️
