Devlog #1 – Welcome to Ring Rave

Hello, and welcome to the first devlog for Ring Rave!

As a one-man studio, Piggy Bank, I’ve been quietly working on Ring Rave for some time, and I think it’s finally at a stage where it’s worth sharing more widely. This first Devlog acts an introduction to the game and hopefully makes you interested in trying it out and providing your input to shape it for future updates.

Ohh…. did I mention - it’s entirely free!

The Idea

The project started with a simple question: What kind of game would I genuinely enjoy making and playing?

Rather than chasing trends, I wanted to build something that feels rewarding to develop, experiment with, learn from, and iterate on. From the beginning, the focus has been on creating mechanics that are fun, while leaving room to expand the game as development continues.

So what’s the status?

The game has already come a long way from its first prototype. While there’s still a lot to build, and no shortage of ideas, many of the core systems are now in place. This gives me a solid foundation to work from, and hopefully to implement YOUR IDEAS.

Some of the features currently implemented include:

• Core gameplay mechanics (ring and orb collision behaviour)
• Basic user interface (including countless iterations of the upgrade menu)
• Early game systems (difficulty calibration was, ironically, one of the most difficult things)
• Initial art and visual effects (the entire game uses a neon art style reminiscent of Tron)
• Countless quality-of-life improvements, many of which were informed by my awesome alpha- and beta-testers!

There’s still plenty that isn’t finished, but Ring Rave now starts coming together and feels like an actual game rather than a collection of experiments.

Lessons Learned So Far

One thing I’ve learned already is that game development is full of trade-offs and decisions. Features that seem simple often become surprisingly complicated, while problems that look difficult sometimes have elegant solutions. For instance, while the game started with only eight different power-ups, it now features more than 25, in addition to the branching skill tree with more than 60 nodes. This required me to rethink the entire interface to ensure the game remains scalable for future updates.

I’ve also found that it’s better to build something playable as early as possible. Having a working version of the game—even if it’s rough—makes it much easier to identify what’s fun, what isn’t, and what should be changed.

Lastly, I learned that I couldn’t have build this without my community of testers. Their honest, and sometimes brutal, feedback has helped to shape the game in the right direction.

What’s Next?

The next stage of development will focus on expanding the game’s content and polishing the experience. My priorities include:

• Adding new gameplay features
• Improving visuals and animations
• Balancing existing mechanics, in particular late-game difficulty scaling
• Fixing bugs and performance issues
• Gathering feedback from players

As the project grows, I will share more on game design decisions behind specific mechanics, successes, as well as the challenges I encounter along the way.

More than anything - I am already looking forward to your brutal and honest feedback and future suggestions. Have an idea for a new mode? New power-ups? New skills? Anything else? Don’t hesitate - drop me a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

Why I’m Writing These Devlogs

One of the goals of this series is to show you my perspective, insights, and learnings of this development process. This includes not just the successes, but also the mistakes and the lessons learned. I hope these posts are interesting for anyone curious about game development, whether you’re a fellow developer or simply interested in seeing how a game evolves over time. Last but not least, I hope that seeing the “other side” might make the Ring Rave community and its players appreciate the effort that goes into the development of creating an original game from scratch.

Thanks for reading the first devlog. I look forward to sharing more progress in the next update.

Cheers!

Eike from Piggy Bank