The Journeyman: Defining Basics and Prototype 1.0 Launch

Log 02 - 2.21.25

An in-game still from "The Shelter" prototype, Feb 2025

The following entry includes stills and information that may contain spoilers.

I'm excited to say that the last two months have seen major movement in terms of the development of The Journeyman, including a lore and design bible, a pitch deck, an outline, and as of this week a working prototype built in Ren'Py, which is currently being tested.

An Overview: Chapter One: The Shelter

The Shelter 1.1 prototype playtime currently stands around 12-15 minutes and features an ambient gameplay scenario, two characters, weather effects, hundreds of lines of dialogue, and some basic gameplay systems which, in the next months, I plan to make more robust and responsive to player input. Right now, I'm working as a solo developer while putting in hours every day.

Currently, I'm testing out the 1.1 version of the demo with a small group. I'm hoping for around 10 players to complete the demo and fill out a survey; a small sample with focused responses that I can put toward refinement and a more robust prototype in the next two months.

Over the first stretch of development, a lot of my time was spent learning the engine (I'd never used Ren'Py), defining the fundamentals, including the basic look and story shape, and then learning how to put that into gameplay form and code. Not to mention working through the holidays, my birthday, the flu, and the LA fires. But the dev must go on.

Moving forward, the pace should quicken now with a greater focus on character integrity, dynamic gameplay systems, and story content.

The core themes and focus of the game remain the same, for now.

This is a story about survivors on a journey north through a post-apocalyptic West Coast. Post-apocalyptic survival, ambient storytelling, and slow-burning relationships (with romance!), with an emphasis on player choice and input, are at the heart of the experience. Whether it will remain a Ren'Py game is up for debate pending further prototyping and experimentation with assets and production workflow. Unreal has not been ruled out.

Core Gameplay Loop:

• Over the last month, I worked to create a house exploration system by tracking visited rooms requiring full exploration before the player advances. This system is still in question (and not in the 1.1 version), and I'll be debating and looking closely at feedback to see if I should allow players a faster route into the next phase of the game.

  
  

  Right now, I want to encourage exploration without forcing the player's hand. And yet, the character, in my mind, should and would clear and search the house for supplies. Here we have a design decision somewhere between character integrity and player autonomy. The question is, which should be emphasized? In any case, a system that allows for exploring "regions" that are then demarcated as explored is in reach.

  
  

• Another design decision that I want to address is resource collection and found item chains. Right now, I've focused on narrativizing the supply and resource aspect of the character's progression -- but this is a survival scenario, and resource scarcity is a driving factor. The ultimate goal, if I do install a loot system, will be creating a search and loot dynamic that doesn't feel superfluous. What you find should feel a necessity technically and narratively speaking.

  
  

Narrative & Choices: 

• The player character, currently named "Caleb," experiences his first survivor encounter in the early phases of the prototype. Much work went into establishing a meaningful, dramatic, and cinematic encounter with the other character (I will simply call "The Stranger" for now), featuring several dialogue choices with branching routes, as well as a thread into the throughline plot. This exchange will be made more robust by the next iteration.

  
  

  This may be a personal preference, but as of now I am not interested in creating a system that leads to facile choices just for the sake of choice, and would rather maintain some level of pace and story integrity over an excess of choices.

  
  

  This will be a careful balancing act and as a result not every dialogue or action option will be a branching choice. Some of the dialogue will come in the flow of the story, while at key moments the player will have input on what action to take as well as shaping the course of the dialogue.  Bottom line: the player should feel the impact of their play.

  
  

An encounter with "The Stranger."

Character: 

• I spent a long time debating whether or not to use character portraits or sprites in the prototype. For the moment, I chose to avoid it (at a painstaking cost of time), though I did experiment, in the final scene, with an attached portrait system with plans for dynamic portrait changes in the future. I don't think it's ideal for ambient immersion, but it can go a long way toward connecting players to characters by having some kind of visual cue and emote reaction system.

  
  

  For now, my primary goal for character remains to create dynamic characters that can be placed in-scene and can be lit and moved around on stage with some expressive flexibility. Rather than floating over the stage, sliding in and out like puppets, or simply as portraits.

  Another subject of debate on character is whether or not to have the player character as a fully customizable figure, as a nameable character, or to establish the character as preset and pre-named. If the latter, I'm considering the possibility of narrating the game from the third-person. As it stands, it employs the second person present in the narrative text with a narrative voice using "you" and a first-person play perspective.

  
  

Atmosphere & UI: 

• Weather Effects and Dynamic Environment: Another area that took considerable time this last month was learning animation and implementing weather effects into the Ren'Py demo. So far, snow, haze, fog and sleet have found their way into the prototype.

  
  

  Including some kind of weather, motion, and dynamism in the scenery for The Journeyman is crucial for me, and right now I think I have done that fairly well, albeit with a lot of room for improvement (I'm excited to do something other than bleak snowscapes).

  
  

  Sound Design: In many respects, I think of this project as a soundscape-oriented game, inspired in part by Youtube ambient mixes. Thus creating an immersive sound environment is very important. So far I've utilized a variety of sound effects to create environmental indicators, with background ambient tracks that underscore a mood between unsettling and calm. Of note: I'd like to hire a composer going forward to really achieve a lasting effect.

  
  

  Minimal UI: I believe it is important to the ambient design model that the UI is kept to a minimum in The Journeyman. As such, I've removed the bottom buttons from Ren'Py, and integrated the choices options into the narrative text menu (normally, they display the center screen.)

Art & Visuals: 

• As mentioned, animations have played a big role and the demo currently features about 20 Webm animations including fire and firelight effects.

  
  

• Using a combination of photoshop painting, generated images, and animation, I've achieved the look of the game so far, though it will likely be subject to drastic change as my workflow evolves and I create more unique assets.

The Flatlands

Next Steps and Recap

• My primary goal for the next month is to improve the integrity of character design and the range of on-screen and in scene theatrical performances. In short, I want convincing characters that can be placed in a scene and be lit with a range of emotional responses that players can respond to. This doesn't necessarily need to be fully animated, but at the very least I should be able to position characters in the scenes. As it stands, it looks like I'll be learning some 3D and playing around with different options for character design and then seeing what works best.

  
  

• The next priority will be making choices more robust and impactful. Implementing dynamic dialogue systems and portrait changes with reactive character art to player inputs are two basic features that are well within reach.

  
  

• Expanding environmental storytelling with more interactive objects in scene, while balancing interactive elements with a minimalist UI, is another feature that I can add to the prototype.

  
  

• Ensuring the exploration doesn’t feel too linear or too aimless. Testing and refining player movement and room transitions.

  
  

• Managing scope creep while still refining immersive details.

  
  

In summary, by the end of March, my goal is to expand the prototype, refine the core mechanics, and experiment with a second prototype in Unreal.

The Flatlands

Closing Thoughts & Engagement

Beginning work on my first game as a solo developer has been an incredible so far. From code to level design to animation (the list goes on) I've learned a huge amount already. And then, a pleasant surprise after focusing on primarily writing in recent years, I've also been able to dust off some of my old multimedia design and filmmaking skill sets and apply them here in meaningful and novel ways. It's felt great, and in some ways I feel like I've been preparing for this most of my life (if that doesn't sound altogether too lofty).

While stressful and with long hours the experience has been very invigorating creatively, and I cannot wait to continue development and see how far I can take this.