open city

🔧 Tools & Tech Stack Recommendations Engines: Unity – Great for versatility (C# scripting). Strong asset store and community support. Unreal Engine 5 – Stunning visuals out of the box. Best for large, realistic open worlds. Uses Blueprints (visual scripting) or C++. Godot 4 – Open-source, lightweight, great for indie devs. Uses GDScript (Python-like). World Creation: World Machine / Gaea / Terrain.party – For realistic terrain generation. Blender – For creating and animating 3D models. SpeedTree – For generating trees/foliage procedurally. Project Management: Trello / Notion / ClickUp – Organize features, bugs, tasks. GitHub / GitLab – For version control, especially important with large projects. 🌍 How to Structure the World and Systems 1. World Layout: Start with a world map (can be paper or digital). Divide into regions (biomes, zones, etc.). Add points of interest (cities, dungeons, landmarks). 2. Systems: Modular architecture – Think in systems like: Inventory Combat Quest System AI behavior Day/Night cycle Build and test systems individually before integrating them. 3. Streaming & Optimization: Use Level Streaming (UE) or Addressables (Unity) to load parts of the world dynamically to save performance. 🎨 Where to Find Assets or How to Create Them Free / Paid Asset Sources: Unity Asset Store Unreal Marketplace Sketchfab Kenney.nl – Great for 2D/3D free game assets [CGTrader / TurboSquid] – More premium models Creating Your Own: Use Blender for modeling and animation (free, industry standard). Substance Painter for detailed textures. Learn modular modeling (e.g., walls, doors, rooftops) to reuse pieces creatively. 🧠 Tips for Keeping the Scope Manageable Start Small – Prototype one town, one quest, one enemy. Vertical Slice – Build a polished demo of all core systems in a small area before expanding. Cut ruthlessly – If it doesn’t serve the core experience, toss it (for now). Reuse assets creatively (e.g., recolor or rotate a tree = different tree). Plan for scalability – Build systems you can easily expand later.