Ioannis posted on October 26th, 2026 in Dev Blog

Day 1: As an Indie Game Developer

Every adventure has a beginning. This is mine.

Hello everyone!

Today marks the beginning of my indie game development journey.

Tides and Blood is an isometric, dark fantasy RPG that I am developing entirely on my own. Inspired by games such as Pillars of Eternity, and Divinity II, my ambition is to create something epic in scope.Am I shooting for the stars? Absolutely. But then again, why not?

The End of an Era, the Beginning of Another

As I write this, the gaming industry has just received some heartbreaking news: BioWare is closing its doors after more than three decades.

As someone who grew up playing its games, I find this genuinely saddening. Despite its shortcomings over the years, BioWare created worlds, characters, and stories that shaped an entire generation of RPG enthusiasts, myself included. In a strange way, this news became the final push I needed to begin my own journey. You see, I've been developing the world and ideas behind Tides and Blood for years. But I always found reasons not to start. I wasn't ready. I didn't have the right skills. The project was too ambitious. There was always another excuse. Then something occurred to me: Wouldn't it be far sadder to never attempt to create the game I've imagined for so long than to try and ultimately fail?

After all, BioWare had a remarkable run of more than 30 years. Whatever its faults, that's no small achievement.

And so, here I am.

Making the Most of What I Have

One of the biggest obstacles holding me back has always been my inability to draw. I have countless ideas for characters, creatures, environments, and entire civilizations, but very little skill in bringing them to life through traditional concept art. And as a solo developer, hiring a team of concept artists simply isn't realistic. Professionally, I work in IT, where I've learned something important over the years: ideas are plentiful. Execution is what matters. My experience in project management has taught me how to break down complex problems, build processes, organize workloads, and turn seemingly overwhelming objectives into manageable tasks. So I decided to approach game development in much the same way. Rather than allowing my lack of drawing skills to prevent me from creating the world I've imagined, I began exploring ways to work around that limitation. One of those tools is comfy ui.

I have mixed feelings about generative AI in creative work. I firmly believe that creativity, artistic skill, and craftsmanship are fundamental to making something meaningful.

However, I've found that AI-generated concept art can be useful as a starting point despite it’s flaws. It allows me to visualize ideas, experiment with designs, and establish references that I can then turn into actual 3D assets with my Blender skills.

My Development Workflow

I've been using Blender for more than two decades, and 3D art is where I feel most comfortable. My current workflow begins with exploring and refining concept art until I arrive at a design I like. For characters, I create reference sheets and T-poses before moving into Blender for modeling, sculpting, and retopology. Texturing is handled through a combination of Blender and Substance Painter, while Godot is my game engine of choice. I also use tools such as Affinity, Pixelmator Pro, and Character Creator 4 for various aspects of asset creation and visual development

This process will undoubtedly evolve as I learn more, and I intend to document those changes along the way.

Learning as I Go

While I'm comfortable working in Blender, creating an entire game is a different challenge altogether. I'm currently learning game design principles, Godot, programming, sound design, and everything else that goes into building an RPG.

And there's a lot to learn!

I believe that developing one's craft is what gives creative work its character, meaning, and soul. This applies to games just as much as it does to filmmaking, music, writing, or any other creative endeavor. I don't want to create a game by simply pushing buttons and letting technology do the work. I want to understand the process, make mistakes, develop my skills, and hopefully create something that reflects the effort and imagination behind it. It won't be easy, and I have no illusions about the scale of what I'm attempting. But that's part of the adventure.

What's Next?

My goal with this blog is simple: to document my journey, share what I learn, and hopefully connect with others walking a similar path. I'll be sharing development updates, artwork, experiments, technical challenges, and probably a fair number of mistakes. I've also started building this website as a way of holding myself accountable, with plans to launch a YouTube channel documenting the development process.

I don't know where this journey will lead, or whether Tides and Blood will ever become the game I imagine it could be.

But I do know one thing.

I'd rather spend my time trying to create something meaningful than spend another decade wondering what might have been.

So, here's to Day 1.

Let's see where this adventure takes us.