Developing My Text-Based RPG Game: Lessons Learned

This past week, I began developing my text-based RPG game, and I’ve already learned many valuable lessons along the way. The biggest hurdle was simply getting started. However, writing down the story and brainstorming the game’s mechanics gave me the motivation I needed to begin coding.

Understanding how to start a large project like this was a new challenge for me. In school, I usually had some guidance or clear steps to follow for completing assignments. But since I’m developing this project entirely on my own, it was difficult to determine its scope, identify the necessary classes, and figure out how to structure my program.

During the first phase—defining the project’s scope—I realized just how big this project could become and quickly understood the need to scale it back. The next challenge was learning how to start a game in the console and how to integrate each file effectively. Researching solutions was not easy, as this is a unique project, but I discovered that writing pseudocode made all the difference. For example, after deciding that the player would create a character, I realized I needed to initialize a character object and determine what attributes and methods this character class would require.

This project has opened my eyes to what is possible with the skills I’ve acquired so far. My hope is to present this project to my class and friends to receive meaningful feedback and continue growing as a future developer. Next week, I aim to set up a basic script with character creation and a tutorial area.