Cancellation of My Dungeon Crawler And Future

So recently I took my old dungeon crawler project and gave it a new life, working on it for a while until I realized one important thing was missing. The game had gameplay loop, decent art style (Even if I suck at modeling) and some kind of development plan. But it was missing one thing, Hook. There was nothing that would make the game stand out. It would have been generic dungeon crawler experience.

So I have now decided to put the project on hold.

I had planned to make 5 levels to the game in order to release a playable demo version. I was working on third one when I decided to research some game development marketing advise. I have heard this advise before: You need a hook in order to make your game different from the rest. There's millions of games out there, gaming has been a thing since the 70's at least. Why should anyone play my game when there's other dungeon crawlers out there? I had no answer to this question.

Now, about my future as a game developer. I have been calling myself a hobbyist for a long time, and I still think I am one. But I've sometimes wanted to make this hobby bit more serious thing. This is why I want to follow the advise to have a hook in my game. I want to make better games, and it's only possible if I start treating it more than just a hobby. I don't want to turn this into a job but rather organize my workflows and make better decisions that help make better games than I used to make. Now that I'm starting from scratch, I should plan ahead before opening the engine. Write down everything regarding the game. Make a game design document. And my next project, whatever it will be, should have a hook. 

I have a ton of unfinished game projects and prototypes on my hard drive, all of them were started out of a simple plan, like making a dungeon crawler where you play as a wizard who uses a staff to fight enemies and collects loot as he clears each level. That's a game loop. But how could you make this project have something unique or interesting that no other game has? I didn't think that at all. And that's why I should come up with something new.

Stay tuned, and feel free to follow me on X, @Minari_dev That's where I post about my progress on projects and smaller development news. You'll also find links to this website and my Itch io page.

Minaridev