The "Eriduna" project, how it all began

Even as a young boy, I wanted to develop my own game. It was one of my biggest dreams. But somehow it never worked out - either there wasn't enough time or I just didn't have enough experience. I've already started two or three projects, but each time I got lost in the details without a clear concept. Oh yes, and with a good dash of youthful green madness.

In May 2024, this dream came up again. And this time I knew: if I don't do it now, I probably never will.

I've had an idea in my head for almost ten years: a cool mix of Harvest Moon and Zelda – the SNES versions, it's not innovative, but I'd really enjoy it and I'd love to play it in a 3D version. These games completely enthralled me as a little rascal. So I set myself a kind of test to find out whether the project was even remotely realistic.

I gave myself two weeks to work out a few very rudimentary functions:

Day and night changes (with counters for seasons and years)
Floating weather
A grid-based placement system (for fields, plants and objects)
A simple combat system
A simple item system
And a basic save system

By the way, we are using the Unreal Engine to implement the project. I had already tested a little with Unity and also with the Unreal Engine in the past and I personally get on better with it.

So I sat down, watched tutorials, customized it to my needs – and did it! After just one week! You can't imagine how proud I was. Even though I realized that it would probably all end up in the garbage can again.

At the time, I didn't know that I would repeat the whole thing twice more.

I wanted to take you along on my or our adventure. Maybe our project can arouse your interest, we look forward to exchanging ideas in the Discord.

And no, the name is not final. I'll tell you why that is later. Stay tuned!

Kevin, Snailpace Games

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