A new journey begins

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Lately, I’ve felt the urge to get back into developing games. That unique longing to create something that not only I enjoy creating, but hopefully other people enjoy to play. So I felt like the desire to start a new personal project took over a good portion of my daydreaming time, to the point where it was more or less decided: I’m starting another game project… but what kind of game?

Finding an Idea

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A project… it shouldn’t be too hard to pick something, right? Most gamedevs carry a mental notebook filled with endless concepts they’ve always wanted to make around anyways.

But not for me right now. I haven’t worked seriously on a personal project in the last few years, and it feels like I’ve forgotten how to brainstorm for ideas - or even how to be creative. So I decided to take a more structured approach and wrote down a few key ingredients the game should have.

The ingredients for my game

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• Relaxed Gameplay - At the moment I really appreciate games that are layed back. Games you can just play a few hours every evening without having to commit too much to anything and spending hours on hours every day to get better.
• Action elements - Even though the gameplay should be relaxed, it shouldn’t be too boring and the player should always have something exciting to do.
• Simple, but extendable - In the past, many of my projects became overwhelming once the first prototype was done. Too many features too add and too much content to create. For this project it should have the scope of a game jam game - but with the option to extend it once I feel like it.

Take one mechanic and make it awesome

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I recently heard someone explain why indie games thrive despite massive studios dominating the industry - and one line stuck with me: “Most successful indie devs take a single mechanic and make it awesome.”

Some great examples:

• Superhot – Built a whole puzzle-FPS around bullet time.
• Baba Is You – Expanded block-pushing puzzles into a clever logic game.
• Stardew Valley – Reimagined the Harvest Moon farming loop into a modern hit.
• Absolute Drift – Stripped racing down to focus entirely on drifting.

That’s the approach I want to take. I thought about mechanics I loved but never really found a dedicated game that would “scratch the itch” for me. My mind went back to the planes in GTA: San Andreas—still one of my all-time favorites. I remember flying around just for fun or restarting the pilot license mission over and over. They struck a perfect balance: arcadey without being shallow; realistic without being a simulator. Why San Andreas specifically? Because in modern GTA titles, planes feel heavier, with random wind effects that add realism but strip away the carefree fun of flying.

So maybe the answer is simple: a cozy flying game?

Concept

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A cozy flying game - How would that even look like?

The characters

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At first, I wondered what kind of characters I could use for this game. Humans felt too grounded, too serious, and I didn’t want the game to lean toward realism. I checked out other cozy games and realized, a lot of them have a set of animal characters. They carry personalities more effortlessly, and without the awkwardness of the uncanny valley they are a great choice. The more I imagined them, the clearer it became: a world filled with animal characters would instantly set the tone. It would separate the game and it’s expectations away from a realistic simulator and will visually tell the player to expect a more casual experience - So another animal cozy game it is!

The world

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I would love the game taking place in a huge, exciting and diverse area - like buzzing cities, romantic countrysides and adventures mountains - but at the same time I know that I won’t have enough time or the skill to create all those assets myself. Since flying still requires a quite large world, it needs to be a more simple solution with specific well designed landmarks. I considered different open regions - The Great American Desert?, The Savanna?. In the end I decided to go with the Australian Outback. For me, it struck a nice mix of small towns, remote stations, and lots of animals, giving the world both variety and a simple, fun space to explore.

Prototype Assets

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With all that out of the way it’s time to finally fire up blender. I quickly made some Assets that roughly resemble the picture in my head. The result: A kookaburra that looks suspiciously like a penguin and a basic plane.