Press Start and Pray

Spawn Point: Confusion.

February 26, 2026

Small update. Big realizations. Mild delusion.

This was the day I confidently believed I could “just start building the game.”

Reader, I could not.

The Plan (Naive Edition)

The goal was simple:

• Build a small medieval test scene
• Import assets
• Get my character walking
• Maybe add a cute UI

Nothing wild.

Just vibes.

First Map Prototype

Built my first RPG-style prototype map.

It looked good.

Until I zoomed in.

And zoomed out.

And imported things into the engine.

Then suddenly:

• Scaling looked off
• Resolution looked suspicious
• Some assets were crisp
• Some looked like they had seen war

That was the moment I realized resolution is not decorative. It is law.

Character Setup

Got the player into the scene.

Movement? Working.

Animations? Working.

Collision? Mostly behaving.

Which felt like victory.

Except every tiny adjustment caused something completely unrelated to break.

That theme continues.

The Official Beginning of the Test Scene Era™

Instead of building “the real game,” I entered what I now call:

The Test Scene Era.

Nothing permanent.

Everything experimental.

Rebuild it three times “for learning purposes.”

This wasn’t content creation.

This was pipeline discovery.

Major Realization

You don’t just build a game.

You build:

• The resolution system
• The scaling rules
• The import pipeline
• The UI anchor structure
• The animation layering logic

If the foundation is wrong, everything collapses later.

(Important foreshadowing.)

End of Day Status

• Test scene exists
• Character moves
• Assets imported
• Confidence: medium
• Underestimation of UI complexity: extreme

This was the calm before the engine war.

I just didn’t know it yet.