TEC: The Eastgate Chronicles

March 6th will mark one year since the North American release of Mass Effect 3. The final DLC for the trilogy will be coming out soon (I suspect within the next week) and then it may be years until the next BioWare release.

What is a neophyte gamer to do? Why, design her own game, of course.

Wait, Rora, have you even programmed before?

Not extensively, no.

What exactly do you mean by "not extensively"?

Ummm, "Hello, World!"

That's it?

Yup.

Uh-huh. Do you know anything about game design?

Well, I wouldn't call myself an expert...

Really. This from a woman who hadn't played any video game in earnest until the middle of last year...Okay, we'll bite: what would you call yourself?

Naïve and ambitious?

The good news is that there are some excellent open-source game engines out there. I've decided upon jMonkeyEngine 3.0. As recommended on various sites, I've already drafted a design document and sketched-out the storyboard for an original IP. The bad news is, not only will I have to learn Java, my artistic skills leave much to be desired. Ah, well. If nothing more, making TEC: The Eastgate Chronicles will give me a better appreciation of what goes into game creation. Wish me luck: I'm going to need it.