a game created by eddie corona, april of 2025
WELCOME TO INLAND KINGDOM, a video game…
A portal brought you to this place with towns such as Giant Bear, Berdoo, Coal Town, Bloomville, and Fontucky…
Archduke Phaquew tells you all about the region…
Your adventure begins with a party consisting of Gage, Zarada, Cindy, and Donovan…
Heothaudrey lives in Coal Town and provides the party with a significant clue…
Jeff stays at the Oleander house and he thinks you’re a rock band when you show up…
Will has clues about where to find whiskey…
John greets you with a toast…
Eddie offers you a place to stay…
Renato can get you a good deal on a chariot…
Jose sells the wheels…
Bob is a moody pizza parlor owner who plays a significant role when the mage begins his inquisition…
When you’ve seen enough of Inland Kingdom, you finally go to see the mage! He lives in the Giant Bear Castle, and he can grant your wish to return home…
… but if you’re bullshitting him about your adventures, he’ll send you to the dungeon!!
Your game will end in sadness 🙁
But if you answer the mage’s questions correctly, you return home!! 🙂
This game began simply enough. I bought the RPG Maker software, watched some videos, then got ready for the tutorial. I needed a working title, so I picked Plodding Along. Ideas for a game started working in my head, and I changed the project to Inland Kingdom.
April 16, 2025
It took a total of 15 hours over two days. I took time to rest, but I liked the result. It’s a full-on game, simple as it might be. Six days ago, I had no idea where to start. I had BASIC programming skills from when I owned a VZ200 and Commodore 64 decades ago, but I didn’t know about game engines. RPG Maker seemed ideal, so I went for it. I still have a long ways to go. I might experiment with other game engines, or I might do something more detailed with this one.
I’m learning a lot as I go along. I thought I could publish this game straight to Steam without a problem. I was going to share it today, but then…
You have to register for Steamworks to publish. I will do this. It costs $100 to register, and you’re given one slot. That means you can upload one game with your $100 membership. After that, it’s $100 per slot (or $100 per game, in other words). I tell it the best way I understand it. Inland Kingdom would’ve been great to upload and share today, but…
Like I said, $100 is a $100. If I’m paying that much, I want to make sure the game is a little more polished. I don’t know, though. If I’m ever going to pay $100 to upload a simple game, this would be it. It was good for me for nostalgia, and part of me really doesn’t care how simple it is. You roam around Inland Kingdom, talk to a few people, then the mage makes sure you’re not bullshitting him about your stay. The message I’m writing here isn’t about the game, though. It’s about the process.
I recently heard there was a boatload of money spent on a new Star Wars game. It was a disaster. Millions and millions were spent, designers were fired, and no one was happy.
None of us are trying to take on a project that big, though. Not at the beginning. You start small, and you work your way up. Inland Kingdom is “me starting small”. It’s a fun hobby. I’m sure I’ll work on something a little more entertaining and profound down the line. At the least, I hope so.
Video game design is one of many forms of entertainment and art. We also have movie making, music, graphic design, and literature. We get into these things as a form of creative expression. Stephen King once said he would write even if he wasn’t getting paid. I’ve seen musicians who’ve performed in small venues. Not only were they not getting paid, there was a cost to run their operations. This includes buying instruments, merch, and publicity.
A few of you might’ve heard about the Video Game Crash of 1983. Atari was the major console of the early eighties, and people used to love to play the 2600 for hours on end. Eventually, there was pressure to meet deadlines, and to top whatever had already been done. I remember I could not wait for Pac Man to be released! I loved to play it at the arcade, and now it was going to be available at home!
Pac Man was a bomb. It was a shell of what people hoped for, and expected. Then came the disaster of ET. On the surface, these seemed like excellent concepts to pursue, but the delivery was way off. It was the Ishtar of the gaming world. Anyhow, I feel great right now. This is my hobby. I can’t believe I’m doing it! I always wanted to return to video game design, and if I could go into a time machine and tell a younger version of myself about RPG Maker, and the others, I would! I will try to stay focused, though. I’ll try to make sure I put something out that is worth my time… and your time. This is a great hobby, and I never want to find myself in a position like the Star Wars game, Pac Man, or ET. ET flopped so bad, many of the games wound up in a freakin’ landfill! I thought this was an urban legend, but there are videos about it! It’s easy to lose focus. It’s probably easy to get distracted by the prospect of money. I will try to stay grounded. I will try to stay original. I will try to be myself throughout the process.
Sky’s the limit. I hope this will be fun…
— Homer Cocktail
(Eddie)
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