The game making process was as complicated as I expected it to be but I managed to get everything working in the time frame that I had left myself.
Below are some of the highlights of the 4 day process of making the game.
Godot
Important resources
This book has probably been the most useful in depth resource that I have been using. It lays out 5 Godot projects, provides free assets for the game and also has a link to a GitHub repository where you can inspect the code for the games.
Making these games forced me to learn the basic 2D game concepts and to understand some of the approaches that the different game mechanics could use. I ended up using 2 of the 2D games I made for the mini-game dream interludes (see below) and I think the contrast well with the more linear story driven part of the game.
I also used watched over 20 YouTube videos, visited many different forums and towards the end of the project also used a mix of AI models to help with the more tricky bits of code.
Overall I found that AI was mainly helpful when I needed something explained, or had a very specific situation I needed to the code for. A lot of the more complicated solutions it suggested generated errors in my game and I didn’t have the expertise to work most of these errors out in the time that I had. The most helpful solution that AI provided was a dialogue system that displayed the words as if they were being written. Most of the user tutorials I found explaining how to do this ended up being too complicated for what I needed or was able to understand.
Revising the narrative
The overall narrative of the story ended up staying the same but I changed the toilet scene position so that it became a device to help the character come back to the situation. I re-wrote the script in my own voice.
I used 2 minigames as content for the dream sequences and they are there to suggest a deeper narrative than what is going on. I wanted them to explore male desire and how simple and childlike it be at times and at other times how it can be grounded in fear of same-sex attraction.
The minigames
Boob Patrol
The shell for the minigame is one of the 2D games I had made using the tutorials in the book. I changed the background, removed elements like the lives and shield system and changed the player and enemy assets. The player image is hand-drawn and scanned. The other images are modified from pornographic images I found on the internet. The final ‘wake up’ image is part of a digital illustration I made a few months ago.
The game is supposed to be fun way for the player to think about the semeiotics of desire – the ‘boob’ and the ‘big cock’ and what it means to chase these things or try and evade them.
Desire
This is another remixed game. In the original – the character has to run and collect coins. I changed the player, using an image I made of a topless man, and gave the player a flashing animation that activated on movement.
I changed the backgrounds to use some of my paintings and gave them increasing amounts of movement to create visual interest.
For the collectable items, I used a combination of faces and penises from easily available images made for the porn industry. The moaning sound effect is from a royalty free sound download of a man masturbating.
The music for the game is all music that I have made and used in different settings. In the final level the music gets quicker as the background spins quicker to create a sense of panic or a build to a climax.
The idea for the game is to get the user to think about same sex desire, intimacy and shame that can come with thinking about or ‘doing’ sex. The moans get louder as the levels progress to try and increase the sense of risk.
The finished prototypes
For windows
For Mac
If I was doing this again?
So I have a better understanding of the game engine and suspect that I can streamline a lot of the processes and scene structures that I have made. I would choose a better screen aspect ratio and if I had more time think more about the inputs and interfaces. I need to learn more about shaders and effects and would like to try making a 3D game next.
I would also like to try doing a similar project in another game engine – like Unity, to see if it would feel easier to use now.
I’m very pleased with the outcome and look forward to testing the game with some players!
References
Bradfield, C. (2023) Godot 4 game development projects : build five cross-platform 2D and 3D games using one of the most powerful open source game engines. Second edition. Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing Ltd. Available at: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/-/9781804610404/ (Accessed: May 14, 2025).
