In this update, I will give a quick look behind the scenes of what choices I have taken tech-wise, and why. If there are anything you want me to dive deeper into - let me know in the comments and I will look into making posts about that.

Margoq's lair is being developed using a custom game engine, called Onyx Engine, which are build on the monogame framework - currently with DirectX for handling graphics.

The reason for using DirectX was that I initially wanted to enable distribution to the Xbox platforms, but at the moment I am unclear whether to pursue that further, or change direction and perhaps enable Linux/Mac distribution instead, by switching to OpenGL. 

The reason not to use a full-blown engine like Unity, Godot or Unreal is:

- They have so much functionality I don't need, so it gets a bit bloated to work with in my opinion - especially when the project isn't more complicated.

- I have full control over patterns and architecture and even though I can do everything I need in one of the big engines, it's not always the way I would like to do it.

- Knowing the tech that you work with to the core, allows easier optimizations when bottlenecks arise imo.  

- I simply love creating technology, so running my own is much more satisfactory when developing.

The engine is split into 19 visual studio projects excluding projects that aren't used for the game, and the game itself have a dedicated project by itself. The work on the engine started the 1st of april, and the game itself has been under development since 1. of may, after the initial structure of the engine as well as example projects and a prototype had been developed. 

To give an idea of the size of the project this point the demo is around 35.000 lines of code, with the game/engine split being around 50/50.  

The graphics is being done using Asesprite and I've chosen to use pixel art for everything, including logos, concept pieces etc. The reason for this is that the game was envisioned to provide the nostalgic feel, that I have when looking back and playing video games from the 90's and the board game "Hero Quest" which inspired me back then as well as now. Thus the game tries to combine dark atmosphere with the pixely charming art for giving a retro-level feel for dungeon crawling. 

Audio-wise I use Audacity for sound effects - I voice everything myself and find objects to hit, swing, grab, you name it, to make cool sounding effects and then mix them in Audacity.