• ·January 29, 2025

I am about half-way through my sabbatical and I estimate that my sabbatical project is a bit more than half done. But, of course, the last 20% of any project like this is the hardest so maybe I’m less than half done.

I have learned a ton about using GML, GameMaker’s built-in language to make games, even though I have been teaching students how to use GameMaker for more than a decade. I have really pushed myself to delve into some details of GML that I had never had to pay attention to before. I developed an inventory system that I am using to hold objects of various types: cameras, lenses, mounts, targets, enemies, and tools to fight the enemies. I thought I had the game mechanism all worked out but I read a fascinating book, called Everything to Play For, that made me rethink what I wanted the players to do in the game. The book is a kind of manifesto about what games can do to improve society. The author calls for games that can make positive progressive change in the world, despite the many negative aspects of the games industry. For example, she discusses the exploitive processes used to manufacture the hardware that games are played on and calls for game designers to figure out ways to destabilize the status quo of hardware manufacturing. I realized that a big part of my game was focused on capital–material capital in the form of money and equipment and social capital in the form of the reputation and skills of the player as astrophotographer. In my original conception, players used virtual equipment (hardware) to capture images which increased their skill level. The higher their skill level, the better reputation they had and the more money they could sell their images for.  They then used that money to get better virtual equipment and the cycle continued. After reading Everything to Play For, I decided I want the cost of the equipment to be demonstrated in more than just monetary value. I am working on ways to incorporate the other societal and environmental costs into the game. This is requiring some major rethinking.

I am also working hard on improving my drawing skills because I am creating all of the assets used in the game rather than using pre-made images, sounds, music, etc.. For example, I drew three types of cameras that I’m pretty happy with.

I am also working on various types of characters. For example, here’s one of my latest sketches.

I am using my own astrophotographs for the targets in the game. For example, this is an early version of a card representing the Crescent Nebula as a target. I captured the image of the nebula myself. Since I captured this image, I have updated the target cards so that they contain more information on them. I wrote about the process I’m using to create these cards in my previous post.

I have a ton of sprites that I still need to create and add into the game. Currently, I am using placeholder images to represent most things.

So I still have a ton of work to do on the game but it is very fun and hardly feels like work. I am lucky to have a job that provides me with an opportunity to take on a large project like this. I already have a lot to share with my students when I return to teaching in August. And I know I will have a lot more by then.