I wanted to create a set of chunks in a grid along the X + Z axis in Unity (with the power of DOTS). To track which chunks I have already instantiated, I created a NativeArray<float3> named chunkPositions. I set the size of this array to my world size (width by height) and I have a job that loops through all of the positions on the screen, checking which exist in chunkPositions. If the position does not exist, I can create a new chunk there.

I’ve had a lot of thoughts as to what my game might be, and I have some interesting ideas of cool gameplay mechanics. When approaching new projects (not just in game dev) I always have a general “feeling” of what I’m trying to build. I can’t always visualize or explain the feeling, but I’d be able to tell you if I saw it.

Over the past week in my evenings I’ve been looking at procedural generation in both Unity and Unreal - exploring the options available to me here. Unity’s DOTS stack is very interesting, but there are some holes in both my knowledge and their current implementation which make my goals challenging.

To get started, I want to first outline my goals for the foreseeable future. In my first post, I mentioned that I have limited time to spend on my game dev ambitions so it’s important that the hours I do spend are productive. I watched a GDC talk by David Wehle (The First Tree) who mentioned he spent roughly 10 hours a week on his game, due to work commitments and real-life - and that he never had a 0% day. Every day should have some progress, no matter how small. These are tenets I’d like to follow.

When I was in my early twenties - with not much going on in my life - I decided to make a change. I remember being in my parents garden on a sunny day kicking a ball around with Ziggy, the dog. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, I’d quit my job and spent most of my days sleeping and playing video games.

I used my first computer at age 5, a Windows 95 machine my parents were eager to show off. Having a computer in 1995 was an expensive endeavor, and we were not from an affluent area - so this was a big deal. One of my earliest memories was waking up in the early hours to find my parents setting up the new computer, not expecting us to use it until morning.

Here are some games that I really enjoyed - they aren’t necessarily inspiration for my current project - but games that inspired me and captured my imagination (and time). I expect to add to this list over time.

Ecco the Dolphin

One of the first games I played. Loved the feeling of diving deeper and deeper into the unknown (might be why I enjoyed Subnautica so much).