Fyre & Rayne: A Look Back At The Game I Almost Made

Back in 2011-2012, I actually went to college for game design. I never graduated, but for all these years I've had it in the back of my mind that I've wanted to be a game designer. I was in college for only a few months, but I dropped out because my professors told me that game designers didn't get to implement their own ideas into the games that they make. At the time, indie games weren't very popular like they are today. It was after I was told this that I ultimately decided to drop out. Looking back now, I should have stayed in college for it. Not only because some indie games are really well known nowadays, but also because the class that I would have graduated with actually made games that popular Youtuber PewDiePie ended up playing on one of his videos.

Shortly after I dropped out, I came up with an idea for a game that I called Fyre & Rayne, a fantasy JRPG inspired game set in medieval times. I'd made several images for a "promo poster" of sorts and the one that you see here is the last one that I'd made. I actually went to my old itch.io page to find this particular one which is the only remaining image that I'd created for it from back then. All the others I had posted to an old Facebook account which for some reason got disabled and thus I lost all the images of gameplay and stuff from the prototype that I'd worked on from back then.

I never got super far into development, but I roughly knew what the main two characters would look like, what their personalities would be like, the main premise of the story, the ending, a few of the main songs for the game, and some of the elements for the gameplay. I won't get too much into the story here as this may be a game that I actually make at some point in the future. The games prototype was being made in the popular game engine RPGMaker at the time, but I decided to ditch the engine because so many games are made with it that I didn't want mine to get lost in the sea of other games that looked just like it visually as well as feeling the exact same. Trust me, there's a lot of shitty RPGMaker games out there.

Let me give you the premise of the story, at least what I'm comfortable with sharing without giving away too much.

The story follows our two main protaganists Fyre and Rayne. Like their names, their personalities are totally opposite. Frye is an outgoing guy, always looking to explore and always fearless when it comes to facing challenges. Rayne on the other hand is timid, quiet, and shy. She hardly ever speaks her mind and mostly keeps to herself.

Fyre is the prince and head knight of a kingdom in the south (which for the life of me I couldn't remember the name of now). Rayne is the princess of the kingdom to the north, Greyden. The kingdom in the south is very noble and honest, the good guys if you will. Greyden on the other hand is ruled by Rayne's evil father who is of course also the king. One day, he sends his men out to conquer and pillage nearby smaller villages out of greed. Rayne, who only wants peace and happiness for everyone, has finally had enough of her father and decides to speak out against what he's doing and ends up getting locked away in the castle's dungeon for speaking out against him. When Fyre and his kingdom hears about this, they set out to try to stop the evil king of Greyden.

During the night though, Rayne escapes the dungeon through a hidden passageway and rushes out in the midst of night unsure of what her fate may hold for her. At some point after her escape she runs into Fyre and tells him of everything that she knows. Together, they decide to team up to try to stop her evil father once and for all. Over the course of the game, Rayne falls in love with Fyre because he's everything that she wishes she could be. They say opposites attract after all.

From what I had created of it, Fyre was actually a pretty bland character. The real star of the game if you will was going to be Rayne. I modeled Rayne's personality after those of many of my real life female friends who have similar personalities. While the gameplay was never really planned out much, the story was going to be an emotional one for the most part. The music that I'd picked out reflected that. When I shared some of the game's soundtrack with my friends they described the piano instrumentals and other various songs as "emotionally depressing" which is what I was kind of going for.

It's been a long time now that this game has been in the back of my mind, nine years in fact.

Will I ever actually make it? Hopefully one day. I don't want to rush anything though. A game that's this close to my heart and that means so much to me doesn't deserve to be rushed. If I ever make it, I want it to be an experience that sticks with players even months after they've beaten it. Ideally, I'd love for it to be in 3D, but that would take a lot more work on my part. It's a nice thought though.

So that's it, a look back on a game that I had started working on, but one that never got made sadly. With that, I'll leave you with one quote from it that sticks out the most to me.

"I can't always promise you that I can stop the rain, but I can promise you that I'll be here for you when the storms become too much for you to handle." -Fyre (to Rayne)