Lords of Illic

Devlog

• Architecture and Testing Scenes
  January 09, 2025 by OrangeDrake

  Hello there, It has been quite a bit of time since I last posted anything. I would like to start with why I suddenly decided to write this entry - my year based subscription to Adobe Illustrator is ab... Continue reading

  
• Version 19.0
  October 30, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Hello now that working on Illic has become fun again I have jumped into a new patch. This is a small patch to add UI to indicate status effects (stat boosts inside / outside of combat). It took a lot... Continue reading
• Version 18.6
  October 08, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Hello once again. When I started this patch my plan was to take a break from making new content for Illic and focus on some more technical issues. The next step in Illic’s grand rebirth. Right away... Continue reading
• Domain Driven Design
  October 07, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Hello, A while back I read a book called Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software . The main message of that book is that the true goal of software is to model a real world p... Continue reading
• Version 18.5
  September 03, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Hello again, It is time once again for an Illic patch. The focus for this patch was “what is missing.” I didn’t want to be ambitious, instead I just wanted to add a few small things that would a... Continue reading
• Burn away the Thorns
  August 18, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  With the release of Shadow of the Erdtree I’ve been playing Elden Ring. In your journey to become an Elden Lord your path is blocked by impenetrable thorns. You cannot reach the golden centre of the... Continue reading
• Second Hand Musings Part 3: Shareable
  August 13, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Let’s take care of the last point in my second hand musings series. That is to make a shareable game. According to my notes I first wrote this entry on the twentieth of May. Today is the thirteenth... Continue reading
• Version 18.4
  July 16, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Hello once again. I went into this patch in the hopes that the next time someone plays Lords of Illic there is a better chance they will want to continue to play the game. I have come to a realisation... Continue reading
• Version 18.3
  May 27, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Hello there! I have the promised content only patch for Lords of Illic. The focus was adding in the content I most regretted wasn’t in the game. That is the sprites for the Dragon Sister’s dragon... Continue reading

  
• AIE Livestream
  May 13, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  Hello, I feel like it has been a while - I have been needing a break from Illic. Despite my best efforts it hasn’t been a break from game dev entirely. I have published a small arcade game called Je... Continue reading
• Version 18.2
  April 22, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  “The time has come”, Walrus said. He was not talking about the latest Illic Patch, but I am. The focus of this patch has been to improve the flow of the game as much as possible. I was fortunate t... Continue reading
• Second Hand Musings Part 2: Vision
  April 04, 2024 by OrangeDrake#Second Hand Musings

  Hello again, In part one I talked about a four point list of ideas I picked up from Game Developer Conferences. This is part two: “Have a well defined creative vision.” This entry may have less of... Continue reading
• Version 17.12
  February 10, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  It has been three months and not the easiest three months, since the last patch. Now it is finally time or perhaps in the words of Sothis “It is almost time to begin.” Time to begin working on new... Continue reading

  
• Second Hand Musings Part 1: Scope
  January 25, 2024 by OrangeDrake#Second Hand Musings

  Hello, I have been watching more Game Developer Conference talks. Since I find them interesting I’ve decided to make a blog series to collect my thoughts. One of the best ways to refine your knowled... Continue reading
• Christmas Break
  January 01, 2024 by OrangeDrake

  It has been over two weeks since I opened Illic, let alone worked on it. I had looked forward to the Christmas period as one where I would be able to consistently work on the game. Between work and my... Continue reading
• Tooltips and Displayables
  December 04, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  I feel like my last entry was a mess. So let’s refocus and talk about what everyone is most interested in - the UI. I like games with diegetic UI (where the UI is part of the game's narrative) or mi... Continue reading

  
• The Road to the Next Patch
  November 27, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  In a previous entry - I realised how bad my patch notes were, so I decided to write down what I had completed as I completed it. It has since developed into a story of its own. I could distil this int... Continue reading
• Inheritance and Lego Blocks
  November 20, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  I'd like to talk about framing and not because I went out to the local art gallery this weekend. Adam Savage talks a lot about finding the correct framing - that is the correct outlook or way or think... Continue reading

  
• Version 17.10
  October 29, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  I think it is time for the next patch of Lords of Illic. This patch was pretty much ready last week, but I decided to immerse myself in the wonders of the local museum instead. I recommend going to on... Continue reading

  
• Issues and Stories
  October 12, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  In the process of preparing to finish development in Lords of Illic, I have been cleaning up issues on my board. This has made me think about what kind of issues are helpful and which are not. I use a... Continue reading
• Making Models in Lords of Illic
  October 08, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  As I mentioned in the last post, I’d like to talk about the path to making Lords of Illic a 3d game rather than a 2d game. I think part of it comes down to the name. I have said this before but the... Continue reading

  
• Making Maps in Illic
  October 07, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  Today I think is the perfect time to start to talk about how I make maps in Lords of Illic. I had a very optimistic issue on my issue board about making a player map making tool that I deleted recentl... Continue reading

  
• The Future of Illic
  September 25, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  Okay so, let's get this out of the way. I will admit it. The last patch of Lords of Illic is not the actual last patch of Lords of Illic. I have already spent some time creating a portrait of Queen As... Continue reading

  
• The Final Build
  September 17, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Progress Report

  This patch for Lords of Illic is a juicy one. I have been working on a lot of noticeable changes to the game including new art, new controls and bug fixes. This will, sadly, have to be the last versio... Continue reading
• Experiment Driven Development
  September 15, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Test Driven Development

  Hello there. I started to write this before Unity started talking about charging for downloads. I am aghast at the news and I will write my next blog entry about my thoughts (not positive), for the mo... Continue reading
• More thoughts about dependency injection.
  September 02, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  Last week I said I was going to talk about the process of writing a test but instead let’s revisit this blog entry about dependency injection . Since then I have done two rather interesting things... Continue reading
• Art Style in Illic
  August 28, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Progress Report, #Art

  Since I have been talking about TDD for the last two entries, I was going to follow up with a third entry on the topic. I think that can wait a week or two because this weekend I decided to work on so... Continue reading

  
• TDD Series: To Write A Test
  August 20, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Test Driven Development

  Let’s say with the last entry I have convinced you that you should learn test driven development. Wouldn’t it be nice if I was right and there was an easier way? Well in that case you need to star... Continue reading
• TDD Series: Unity Test Utilities
  August 19, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Test Driven Development

  Hello Recently I have been thinking a lot about how to communicate the benefits of test driven development. I know I have spoken about it before on this blog, but I think it is an idea that needs fine... Continue reading
• Asset Store Pains
  August 13, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  1

  Hello, A Silly Disclaimer: I include asset store links only for interest not because I get anything from anyone clicking on them. I have been aiming to update my blog once a week, but it looks like I... Continue reading

  
• Version 17.6
  July 31, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  Hello again. Despite the exhaustion from last week’s Avcon I have just managed to get a patch ready before the new month. I would have loved to have gotten more done - after all I have been itching... Continue reading

  
• Thoughts after AVCon
  July 24, 2023 by OrangeDrake#AVCon

  To everyone who played my game at Adelaide's Anime Video Game Convention - AVCon - this weekend. If you have read some of my entries before AVCon you might notice how I have been lacking confidence ab... Continue reading

  
• Waterfall Thinking
  July 24, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  I am writing this on the bus to exhibit at Adelaide’s Anime Video Game Convention. I have helpfully forgotten the grid I intended to use as part of my display (visible in the last blog entry). I was... Continue reading
• The night before AVCon
  July 21, 2023 by OrangeDrake#AVCon

  I am writing this on the Bus heading to set up for Adelaide’s Anime Video game convention. I have a working build to demo, paper decorations for my stand and a hi visibility vest in case I need it... Continue reading

  
• Version 17.5
  July 17, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  The time has come, the Walrus said. With AVCon so close there is not much choice regardless of what a Walrus may or may not say. Somehow or the other I think the new build is just about ready. Which i... Continue reading
• Menus and Abstractions
  July 02, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  I started a blog entry yesterday about laundry or rather a metaphor about doing laundry. I’d explain it, but then well… as much as I like it as a metaphor I didn’t end up actually having a point... Continue reading
• Exploring the Caves of Creativity
  June 21, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  I kind of wanted to start this one off talking about motivation. Except I found I couldn’t figure out what to write. The reason was simple it was… I was feeling a bit down but largely it was becau... Continue reading
• Dismissing the Dismiss Button
  June 12, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Progress Update

  Today is the last day of my break. Or at least that is how the entry originally began. A full week has passed since then. What originally was supposed to be an announcement about the new patch for my... Continue reading

  
• How did it come to this in the first place?
  June 08, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Philosophy

  Last week on Monday I had a plan. Which is never a good sign. I wanted to fix a couple of things and have an announcement of what the new version of the game was like. The first stumbling block I had... Continue reading
• Progress Report and on Advice
  May 27, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Progress Report

  Are you enjoying winter? I know I am not. Not that I am here to complain about Winter, instead I would like to talk about my game Lords of Illic. If you read my blog you would know I have been writing... Continue reading

  
• Is Programming Art?
  May 20, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Art Philosophy, #Programming Philosophy

  Greetings, I would like to take a moment to talk about an idea that has been rolling around in my head. I have already mentioned it a bit, but I would like to talk about the similarities between progr... Continue reading
• Goals and the Desire to Create
  May 15, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  1

  #Art Philosphy, #Goals, #Agile Development

  Morning, I say this because this morning I woke up at 5:30 and went to the bathroom, but before I could get back into bed my thought factory started to spin up. The reason? I had this blog entry on my... Continue reading
• Dependency Injection and Editor Scripts
  May 08, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Test Driven Development, #Test Driven Development Series, #Dependency Injection, #Unity Editor

  Hello all, I would like to make an entry about one of the biggest obstacles I found to making nice architectures in unity. You want to be able to make nicely decoupled systems with good separations of... Continue reading

  
• Swans, Ducks and AVCON
  May 06, 2023 by OrangeDrake#AVCON

  When I was a kid I had this dream of having my own games studio called “Orange Drake Games”. So when I had to come up with a name for my company (to fill it in Unity, I don’t actually have a com... Continue reading

  
• Version 16.7
  May 01, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  Welcome to version 16.7 of Lords of Illic! This version has the promised content of a new design for Ilenia - one that my brother says is wasted on her because she looks like she could be the protagon... Continue reading

  
• What is Art? Part II : Actually really what IS Art?
  April 22, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  1

  #AI, #Art Philosphy

  A bit of a disclaimer, the main reason I wrote this was to try to explain what I felt was implicit my view point in the previous post. I also want to say: I know I can be wrong, in fact I expect that... Continue reading
• ​What is Art? Part I : On AI
  April 22, 2023 by OrangeDrake#AI, #Art Philosophy

  A bit of a disclaimer, that I know I can be wrong, in fact I expect that I am never entirely correct, so no opinions are final (a hazard of being human). Even if I work at a company which works with A... Continue reading
• Foxes and Cats
  April 17, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Art

  Hello all (even if it is just a number of crickets chirping). Since I have spent a lot of time this week working on getting the blog up and running I have only had my free Monday to work on Lords of I... Continue reading
• Simple Trailer
  April 15, 2023 by OrangeDrake

  A friend of mine put together a trailer for me very quickly for the game. If I had done it myself I would be incredibly happy with it, but he disagrees since he works professionally in the area. A rem... Continue reading
• ​Test Driven Development Series Episode I: A New Hope
  April 15, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Test Driven Development, #​Test Driven Development Series

  Since I have started this blog, I think I should start with the most important thing that I have come across when working on Lords of Illic: Test driven development. It is on its own line to accentuat... Continue reading

  
• Who are the lords of Illic?
  April 11, 2023 by OrangeDrake#Progress Update

  Who are the Lords of Illic? Originally the world of Illic was a setting that I created for dungeons and dragons. It is a remastered version of a map I made for my first dungeon game set in the world o... Continue reading

  
• Version 16.4
  March 18, 2023 by OrangeDrake#MajorRelease

  Here is the latest version of Lords of Illic along with a big refactor for the project. Edit: I forgot I made this post when I started to blog more recently. My next two posts do a better job in talki... Continue reading

  
• Version 14.8 Bug Fixes
  September 05, 2022 by OrangeDrake#Progress Update

  Major Patch: Adding in: Adding 6 new playable characters, levelling, campaign map, inventory system, shops and modifiable equipment, controller support, new map type where the player chooses deploymen... Continue reading