Hi, my name is Matthias Thomann and I am the developer behind CuCumbersome Life.
I’m a 23 year old, Swiss software developer and have been coding web-based applications for the last couple of years. I’m studying IT as well, in hope to one day be able to teach others and give lectures in software development. I love gaming, am into Magic The Gathering and fulfill all the other requirements to be a nerd. My dream as a solo game dev hobbyist is to sooner or later publish my own game.
My motivation
For about three years I have been fantasizing about creating my own game. I was inspired by well-known titles amongst indie games like Banished and Northgard, thus it had to be a real-time strategy game. It would be 2D, grid-based and would not include combat, for the main goal is survival through resource management.
After thoroughly planning and creating the concept, I thought to be ready for it all and started programming using MonoGame (C#). In only a few days time I finished a basic menu and created the first (empty) scene.
Later, while working on the fundamentals of the project I started to realize how many things I didn’t define ahead of time, like what victory conditions the game actually has or how pathfinding works for units that are not the same size. Interestingly enough, I found the perfect quote to describe my progress and approach to game development:
Nobody in this industry knows what they’re doing – we just have a gut assumption based on the games that we can play. — Cliff Bleszinski
It really puts the root of the problem in the spotlight. I had no real project management, no real task planning and no real time tracking. Some of those things still aren’t present, but it gets better the longer I’m working on this game.
At last, I have to admit that the thing, that really kicked it off was actually an asset pack from Kenney. Usually, innovative game mechanics or pioneering design ideas make you want to create a game, but my story is different in that part.
The cute Sci-Fi RTS pack really grabbed my attention and I thought to myself: “This is it. Grab the asset pack and start creating your own game”. And so I did.
CuCumbersome Life 