Introduction to the Blog

  

Midland Game Development Blog 

What is this Blog about? 

Currently, as of right now, I have just wrapped up my first year of Video games programming at the University of Gloucestershire, heading into the prolonged summer holidays due to the Coronavirus I feel a slight emptiness without having some projects to crack on with, most of my life I have had a huge passion related to video games and now that I possess the skills to be able to develop one from the ground up is something I've dreamt of doing all my life. So, I have decided to finally produce my own game with my own assets, own scripts and code, my own concept, and to be able use all the skills I have learned over the past year and apply them to produce my complete own unique concept and experience. Therefore, during the development of the game, I feel it's professional to log, in detail the progression of the Title.   

 

What is Midland about?

Currently as of writing this, Midland is in a very early development stage and some concepts are completely flexible, meaning I can and will change initial concepts as development progresses.   

During all the time I had to reflect during quarantine, I couldn't help but to brainstorm and think of some realistic game concepts I could achieve all on my own with some minor exceptions such as music, etc. I've been born and raised in the industrial city of Birmingham, England's second-largest city, yet growing up and still today I feel its ignored on the grand scale of things. Everyone knows the city of manchester, home of the Gallagher brothers, and football player Marcus Rashford. Londons Known internationally as the center of English culture, and bristols are known for the port to the heart of the nation's logistics infrastructure. However Birmingham? With the exception of Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osborne, there isn't a lot were known for other than our industrial strength to the nation during the second world war, such as BSA manufacturing plant. Since many of the factories remain but desolate, and the city does quite resonate with many other people's names compared to other cities across England.  

Now, I'm not saying that I wish to have my own name associate with these people just because I made a cool game, except its more of an effort to bring the spotlight to the city I was raised in with something people will remember. Therefore I've decided to create a 2D brawler game set in Birmingham City, taking inspiration from classic titles such as Streets of Rage and Streetfighter, I have taken several photos around suburbs I grew up in for reference and will have the player progress around several key mark locations of the city, and took frame by frame photos of my friend for reference to animate a player. Using my own photos and my own drawings using Pixel studios for anything graphics related, the game will also run on the Unity Game engine. The name Midland resonated with me right away, Birmingham is in the literal center of England, giving the Region the name Midlands, or sometimes referred to as the Heartlands, inspiring the name for the title.