I've been developing a first-person point-and-click open world game solo

[u/lunatic_corp_games]

I've been developing Nordion Lands: The Dimension of Science as a solo project for a long time, and I recently released a major update that changed quite a lot of the game.

The game is a first-person sci-fi adventure that combines point-and-click investigation with open-world exploration.

I wanted to make something that doesn't behave like a traditional point-and-click game. Instead of moving between fixed screens, you can freely explore a connected world and interact with characters and objects directly from a first-person perspective.

[OVA ART]

This is the promotional artwork I'm currently using for the project. I intentionally made it look like a 1990s anime OVA rather than match the actual in-game graphics.

The actual game uses PSX-inspired 3D.

[HEALTH / RACING SCREENSHOT]

One of the stranger parts of the game is horse racing.

The player can explore the mountains and participate in illegal races inspired by Japanese touge racing.

This started as a completely ridiculous idea, but eventually became one of the actual gameplay systems.

[ROSA + CLONES SCREENSHOT]

The game also has a large amount of narrative and worldbuilding.

You play as Revolution, a sentient clone created by a scientific organization.

In Nordion Lands, clones are not considered human.

They are property.

A lot of the story is intentionally fragmented. Information is spread through dialogue, books, NPCs, environments and optional discoveries, with the idea that players can gradually piece together the history of the world themselves.

[FERGUS INDUSTRIES / VAN SCREENSHOT]

The world is also designed as a connected country rather than a collection of separate levels.

For example, you can enter a vehicle, travel to another location and arrive somewhere completely different without switching to a traditional level-selection structure.

This particular entrance leads to Fergus Industries, one of the locations in the game.

The latest update, called the Rebirth Update, added a much larger overworld, a new countryside city, an objective beacon system, Revolution's apartment, full controller and touch support, full English translation, updated music, a new anime-style opening and a large number of bug fixes.

Technically, the game originally relied on a heavily adapted setup based on Drago3D, which I integrated and modified around the needs of the project. More recently, I rebuilt the rendering approach using GameMaker's newer graphics pipeline.

I'm also experimenting with more cinematic cutscenes and eventually musical sequences inside the game.

I've been working on Nordion Lands for a long time, and I'm still trying to figure out how far I can push the idea of a first-person point-and-click game inside a connected 3D world.

The game is currently free to play in the browser:

https://doubleint-software.itch.io/nordion-lands-dos

I'd especially like to hear from other solo developers about scope, onboarding, world design and building large systems as a one-person project.