Welcome to our Game Development Tutorial Blog

Hey there

We’re Solo Run Games, a new indie game studio currently hard at work on our yet to be named first title, don’t ask it’s a long story. Speaking of story, we all have a passion for single player RPGs and that is exactly what we want to bring to you. Our game is the first in a series of story-rich, turn-based RPGs filled with tactical depth, unique characters, and a world we’re excited to bring to life.

While we’re building our game, we want to do more than just make something—we also want to share what we learn along the way. Hopefully this will help you build games that we want to play.

So, welcome to our game development blog, where we’ll dive deep into the systems we’re building and how they take shape, both from the design and technical perspectives.

Why We're Starting This Blog

Game development is one of those magical spaces where art, logic, and chaos collide. It’s also one of the most difficult realms in which to be successful. We’ve learned a lot from following other developers over the years — reading blogs, watching tutorials. and digging into code samples — and now we’d like to return the favor.

If you’re a game developer looking to learn how to implement a system in code, a designer curious about how to design new systems that fit within your game theme, or just a fan of old school turn-based rpgs who wants to get a peek behind the wizard’s curtain on how we’re solving the problems we are facing, then this blog is for you.

We believe that great development requires both the thinkers and the tinkerers. So, we’ve decided to structure our blog around two separate sections, Mechanics and Mindsets.

Dual-Post Format: Theory + Code

For each feature or system we build, we plan on publishing two companion articles:

Part 1: Mindsets

In this post we’ll explore the hows and whys of the approach that we took. What specific things we wanted in our system and how these things shaped the final result. We’ll also talk about the weaknesses to our approach and what modifications can be made to expand the system beyond our needs. The goal is to provide a look into the theory of game design without getting bogged down in the technical code aspect. This is perfect for those who are interested in game feel, player experience, and systems thinking.

Part 2: Mechanics

This post will be about how we took the system we developed in Part 1 and implemented it in code. We will be using Godot 4 as our engine and gdscript as our language. We’ll talk about why this choice was made in our first system code post.

Along with the code itself, we’ll discuss why the code was written as it was, what “good” programming practices we are violating and the reasons for it. Where we are designing the system to be expandable for future games and other tips for things to look out for. This is ideal for programmers, tinkerers, and developers curious about the nitty-gritty.

We’ll keep them separate and tag each one with either Mindset or Mechanic, so you can go as deep (or shallow) as you like and always find the perspective that suits your interest or skillset.

What We're Building

Our first game is a turn-based RPG set in a Steampunk, Art Deco world. The game will be built around tactical decisions, rich storytelling, and a diverse cast of characters. You’ll see a lot of posts related to:

• Turn-based systems

• Combat mechanics

• Dialogue systems

• Character stat-building

• Narrative event triggering

• Skill Systems

and a lot more. Every system we discuss is one that will appear in the actual game — no “toy” examples here. You’ll be seeing the real systems we plan to use in production, successes and scars included. We feel this is the best way to show you the true process of building a complete game instead of a one-off system that you struggle to combine with others.

Follow Along

If you’re excited to join us on this journey — whether you’re here to learn, build your own game, or just want a front-row seat to indie development — we’d love to have you along for the ride.

Subscribe to our devlog newsletter using the join box below or follow us on X @solorungames to stay updated on new posts (and get sneak peeks of the game as we go).

Thanks for reading. Our first real topic will be dropping soon, and it's all about designing flexible turn-based combat!

See you in the next post,
Fuzzy Piglet