Project TSRA - Intro
| Backstory
It's 1996. My best friend just introduced me to Heretic and Hexen on his PC—shareware, of course.
It's burned into my mind as one of my more influential gaming experiences, and I've not experienced anything like it since.
Around this time, I remember starting to think about video games a little differently than before. Hexen is one of many games that have contributed to this, of course.
Regarding the FPS genre, these games make up my foundational experience.
Immersion & Flow
Around this time, I remember paying attention to immersion and its impact on flow states.
I remember a few things happening while playing games during this period.
I started paying attention to the art and presentation of games more than the challenge or story. Instead of something I was trying to beat or play "the right way," I started to focus on the qualities that factored into making the experience more immersive and which games my friends and I felt were more intuitive than others.
I started to pay attention to the presentation, the visuals, sounds, levels, UI, etc.
The layers of the cake, if you will. I took time to eat it slowly instead of shoving it in my mouth and swallowing it as fast as I could to get to the next bite.
God, that was a weird analogy…
| Twenty Years Later
Fast forward 20 years, and I'm working at Raven Software. Working here was never a goal but a surreal and fantastic learning experience.
At Raven, whispers filled the halls about a potential reboot and what might have been.
These tantalizingly tasty words cast a magical spell on me, and I convinced myself that one day, I'd convince the right person to get this game going, or I'd somehow will it into existence.
At this time, I also find myself playing a reboot of another influential game from my childhood, DOOM.
Doom 2016 added water to the seed planted in my mind. As soon as I started playing it, I had memories of Heretic and Hexen rushing back. Not any of the original Dooms, ha, but HEXEN. Doom is fantastic, don't get me wrong.
I wanted to play DOOM, but with dark medieval fantasy vibes, and like others, this got me thinking... Perhaps one day, Heretic/Hexen would return and get a proper Doom-style reboot.
I wanted to convince others that it was possible, even if that meant embarrassing myself.
DOOM
Heretic running via Doomsday Engine.
I realized how unlikely this was; I'm not THAT naive. I was at least going to try, though. Whatever that meant.
Part of my passion for this comes from my desire to play something revolutionarily different. I want that feeling I had in 1996 again.
If you can think of a game right now that you feel is so different and unique and has just absolutely blown your mind, changing your gaming experience paradigm, please comment the name of this game.
I've asked several of my colleagues and friends this question, and they always shrug.
These titles can usher in a new and unique gaming experience and bring to life an untapped franchise. It's truly an untapped IP, and I hope to convince those of you who don't know this to be true that it is.
| The First Attempt
I didn't know the best place to start, but after growing accustomed to putting together decks, I decided to start there. I wanted to inspire folks and hoped to connect with someone willing to work on it for fun. You know, a nights and weekends kind of project (Listen, I didn't have kids at this time 🤣).
I ended up with a 10-ish page deck loosely covering some initial ideas. I created a new logo and cover for the deck, bashed and ripped mood images from probably an unhealthy amount of collected ref (please don't sue me), and blasted it out 🤢.
These characters are reference images to inspire mood. Not my original art.
| Until Next Time
I'll touch more on that in the next post when I talk about my initial inspiration(s) and showcase some of the original ideas, mechanics, team comp, characters, etc.
This project is my first time doing anything like this with a blog. I will have to get better at the flow and ending these.
I will try and post every Friday, but we'll see how that goes… I appreciate anyone taking the time to check this out. It means a lot! Take it easy ✌️