My Fungi Game

Yesterday was my last day of employment at the wonderfully supportive ustwo games, where I’m very proud to have worked on the games Alba, Desta and Monument Valley 3. After nearly 5 years there I have decided I am ready to commit myself full time to a project of my own. And so what better time to start dev-logging the journey.

In this maiden post I will give you the backstory, a brief overview of the project, and what kind of content you can expect in future posts.

Me & Fungi

In 2012, whilst London hosted the Olympics, I was attending a Permaculture design course in the Lea Valley. Among the many things I learned there it was the fungi science that intrigued me the most. How some species hunt for nematodes by growing noose-like traps and, more significantly, other species known as mycorrhizal fungi.

What are they? I’ll pretend you asked.

Beneath the soil they grow large networks of fine hair-like branching filaments called hyphae. These networks can grow around and even inside the roots of plants. At these fungi-plant intersections a symbiotic relationship is often formed. The fungi deliver to the plant essential nutrients in exchange for some of the sugars that the plant has produced via photosynthesis.

Besides helping me to grow very fruitful tomato plants, I retained this information mostly in fascination. A whole decade later I listened to a marvellous audio book titled Entangled Life, written and read by biologist (and perhaps wizard) Merlin Sheldrake. Merlin’s descriptions of life under the soil expanded my imagination, and his enthusiasm inspired me. It was then I realised there was a game hidden down beneath the ground.

Me & Games

I have obsessed about inventing games since I was a little kid. I dreamt of making computer games long before I had a computer of any kind. Trips to cousins’ and friends’ houses were opportunities to marvel at the games they had, which would then fuel my day dreams.

When I was 8 my dad gave me an empty sketch book and told me I should use it to design my games. When I was 10 my dad came back from work with an Amstrad CPC 464 Plus that his friend had given to us for free. It came with a thick book full of Basic code which I would copy, tinker with and tentatively learn the basics of coding from.

Perhaps it was inevitable that game development would become my career, although it didn’t seem realistic to me for a long time. I first tried my hand at film production, music production, graphic design and web development. It wasn’t until I was 23 that I lucked into my first games-industry job as a test engineer and prototype developer. So my game dev career began in 2009, right at the cusp of a global economic crisis. I was laid off twice in my first two years.

Becoming professional didn’t stop me from dreaming up my own games in my spare time. I lost count long ago of the number of projects I have started and eventually abandoned. During my recent years at ustwo games I found myself soul searching to understand why I eventually lost interest in all those many projects.

I realised that the biggest reason was a lack of connection between my interests, my values and the central meanings of these games, if they had any meaning at all. An idea should be much more than just cool or fun if it is to keep me interested long term. It has to mean something to me and at a deeper level.

Another reason is simply aiming too high, which is so easy to do even after you’re aware of it. So I realised I needed a project that was modest in scope, and yet appealed deeply to my interests and values. Two more abandoned projects later and inspiration struck once more as I started listening to Merlin read passionately about the lives of fungi.

The Project

So I started designing a game where you play as one of these mycorrhizal fungi. I envisioned it as a 2D, single player game where you start as a single spore at the surface, you grow downwards, and outwards, exploring the dark layers of soil and rock beneath. You find nutrients for the plants and in return the plants give you the energy that you need to continue growing, competing, mating and mushrooming.

This Dev-log

In future posts I plan to share more information on my design choices, the reasoning behind them and whether they ultimately worked out or not.

I will also write about the technical choices and challenges I have faced. The tech topics will include:

• Game engines, frameworks and other third party tools.
• Tool development.
• Rendering techniques.
• Procedural generation.
• NPC systems (yes, that’s the term I use now)…
  • Pathfinding.
  • Decision making.

And further into the future I’ll write about the visual art, music, sound design and narrative that is mostly yet to be made.

To finish off here’s a little glimpse of the game in it’s current state.

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll enjoy following my progress.