LETTER FOR DECEMBER (AND NEW SURVEY)
Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well. Recently, I shared a post showing all the progress we made in November regarding the knowledge and skills we’ve been working on to build our game.
I was really glad to read your comments and the messages I received asking how I managed to progress so quickly in such a short time. You know, it’s been a real pleasure to share everything I can to support other creators along the way. If you've ever wondered about this but, for any reason, didn’t reach out, I share on my blog and on the Boringverse Discord server all the courses, readings, articles, and videos I consume to learn and develop new ideas. Pros and cons: The blog receives less frequent updates, but the content there is organized by categories. On the server, progress updates are daily, but the content is mixed together.
This month, I was planning to dive into animation in Maya. But since I haven't downloaded the software yet, I pushed the Unity game development course ahead. I’m currently learning how to make a small game in the style of Supermarket Simulator.
I feel that learning to use these tools is not only important to support the team but also essential for my own development. If it’s simple enough, I plan to replace the assets that come with the course with objects created by me. But before that, I’ll finish the course so I have a complete “first game.”
My next idea is to apply some life simulation approaches to this game. Could I give the customers more “authored” behavior, like routine planning to go to the market? Could I assign needs to the characters to see how they react in this environment? Could I animate them convincingly?
We’re in the prototyping phase, so I want to do this small exercise to see what comes out of it. The advantage is that these exercises will have a short timeframe to execute, test, and learn. I wanted to share a bit of this process with you and let you know that I occasionally appear on our server learning part of these courses live. There’s no date or time, but it’s usually in the morning here in Brazil.
I’d also like to take this post to start a new survey with all of you about Simulation. More specifically: What do you love most in The Sims 1 and 2 that absolutely MUST exist in our game?
For me, The Sims 1 and 2 were exceptional at building complexity with simple mechanics. And maybe that’s the greatest treasure hidden behind the game’s programming. I hope we can bring that kind of humor, “exaggeration,” caricature, and humanity into our game.
I deeply appreciate your interest, support, and the time you took to answer our new survey <3 I hope you enjoyed the updates and the direction we’re taking for 2026!! <3
