You know that feeling when you're deep into a project and just want to bang your head against the wall—hoping that somehow, it'll help? Yeah… that's where I was with the game I’d been working on in my spare time.

So I decided to take a step back. Clear my head. Do something completely different for a while—just to stay creatively active.

That "something different" ended up being a simple turn-based RPG system. Think old-school Pokémon or SNES-era Final Fantasy. I didn’t expect much to come of it—I just didn’t want to sit around doing nothing. So I fired up a new Godot project, watched a few YouTube tutorials, and started writing some gloriously messy spaghetti code. (I don’t consider myself a real programmer, but hey—I get things done.)

Funny enough, I got completely sucked in. I worked on it for over a week and made way more progress than I expected. I didn’t document anything along the way, since I assumed it wouldn’t go anywhere, but here’s a rough summary of what I built:

Battle System

• A basic turn-based combat system.

• You control 3 characters and can fight up to 5 enemies.

• Visually, it looks like a budget Pokémon Red/Blue battle.

• The battle queue mostly works, though sometimes it behaves strangely—but it's good enough for now.

Character Select Screen

• You can collect a full crew of characters but only bring 3 into each battle.

• Simple, functional, and sets up some basic strategy.

Space Map

• A simple map where you fly a spaceship around a star system.

• The ship is a placeholder asset (found online), but the system itself is randomized.

• Each star is generated to resemble real types (e.g., blue giant, red dwarf).

• Every system has 3 randomized events or planets—each can trigger a battle or a bit of story/dialogue.

• It's got a bit of a roguelike feel, which I like.

Systems I Snuck In

• Basic spaceship controls (thanks, YouTube tutorials).

• Dialogue system using Dialogic2 (since I already knew it).

• A placeholder title screen and some test dialogue, just to make sure everything runs.

Honestly, I’m really enjoying where this is going. It started as a side distraction, but now I’m excited to flesh it out further.

What’s Next?

• More Content
  I want to add more variety in events, battles, and dialogue—to make each run feel unique and surprising.

• Item System (Optional)
  Could add a lot of depth and replayability. Would be fun to experiment with.

Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, I’ve uploaded a playable demo here on Itch.
Let me know what you think—I'd love to hear your feedback!