Borderlands was too expensive so I made my own!

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Hey everyone :waving_hand:

This project started as a joke. I wanted to play Borderlands 4, but the Collector Edition was way too expensive.

So I did the only reasonable thing: I made my own game!

That joke became Botherlands, a small top-down shooter I originally built in Godot for a devlog series called Epic Waste of Time.

It was fast, messy, and absolutely not meant to turn into anything serious.

Except… people played it.

And somehow enjoyed it.

So I kept going, then deleted everything and rebuilt it from scratch, this time properly designed for mobile, with cleaner code and a clearer scope.

:drum: :drum: :drum:

The result is Botherlands 1.0, now out:

:partying_face: :partying_face: :partying_face:

I recently made a short devlog about turning the prototype into a real mobile game.

If you’re curious about the original chaotic prototype, the Epic Waste of Time series shows how it all started.

Thanks to Godot and its community for making this possible. Happy to answer questions or talk tech :wink:

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Looks like a solid game! I didn’t realize the mobile market was actually looking for high-quality stuff like this - always thought it was mainly those weird 3d running games.

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Haha, I know, right? I was surprised too! :rofl: really glad you like it :heart:

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This game looks sick! $130 well saved!

Do you happen to have a discord by any chance? You seem like a cool dev.

@Frozen_Fried and @istubbdmytoe will know what I mean.

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Thanks a LOT for the kind words! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: I don’t have a public Discord server yet, but I’m seriously thinking about it, maybe in the (near) future we’ll have a place to hang out! ^^

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Well, I can friend you or vice versa. I can DM you my username (Not like it’s private, or anything)

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That’s awesome, thanks! I’m not on Discord properly yet, but I’m about to set up a server in the next few days. When it’s up, you’ll definitely be one of the first to join! :grinning_face:

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DM incoming!

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Thanks :partying_face:

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Your very welcome. :tractor:

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I watched your trailer and then your (original?) 5 minute devlog about making the game. It was hilarious. Very well done.

I played your itch version and it was a lot of fun. I prefer a carbine/revolver combo.

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Haha, a man of taste indeed: carbine + revolver is a solid combo :rofl:
Thanks a lot for watching the devlog and for the kind words, I’m really glad you enjoyed both the video and the itch version. It means a lot! :heart:

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De rien. It’s always nice to support other devs.

As someone who doesn’t game on mobile for a number of reasons, I’d love to see the full version on the computer with controller support someday. :smiley:

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Haha, damn… accent detected, cover officially blown :france:

And thanks! A proper PC version with controller support is definitely something I’d love to explore someday.

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MDR

I’m still playing your damn game. It’s my new game for meetings I think. But it’s much easier with sound on.

If it helps, I have an open source Controller Plugin that handles a lot of stuff for you. I use it in all my games, like the one I just finished: Katamari Mech Spacey. It also has DevLogs, but I write them instead of record them. Working on a post mortem now.

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MDR :rofl:

Playing my damn game during meetings might honestly be the best compliment I could get.

I checked your controller plugin, it looks really solid. This line from the README is pure gold:

“The primary purpose of this plugin is to track inputs, store icons for all actions, make it easy to pull up the correct icon for any action, and to allow players to customize and save keybindings.”

Also, your game is awesome. I reloaded the page like 3 - 4 times just to watch the intro again and again (some AAA games don’t even do that right). I love it!

Followed you on itch and dropped a 5 :star: , well deserved.

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:smiley:

I literally stopped to reply to you. I need to eat lunch.

Ha! Thanks. Glad you liked it. I was in the process of upgrading all my plugins to 4.6, but I can’t seem to get any web exports on old games to work, so until I can I’m staying at 4.5.1.

Thank you!

If you liked that intro, you should check out Skele-Tom. I’m very proud of that one. It’s 2D and 3D combined. And then you should check out Eternal Echoes because I have a whole intro cutscene to the game.

Also, if you want to build your own, check out my User Interface Plugin which has a dozen examples for splash screens, along with a Splash Screen class. And if you want to see how I use them, check out my Game Template Plugin which has examples for 2D and 3D games. It has a whole game state machine that handles splash screens, loading screen, level loading, saving/loading games and settings, audio, display and controller settings, etc.

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About how long did this take you to make? I’ve been working on a top down mobile game for a couple months now. I liked your short devlog, so I’m gonna binge watch your YouTube when I get home tonight for learning purposes.

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Ayy this looks awesome! I’ll give this a download later and give it a go.

Congrats on releasing it!

Edit:

Your devlog is also genuinely interesting/entertaining :grin:

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@dragonforge-dev

Ohhh nice, thanks for all the links, that’s a goldmine :grin:

I’ll definitely dig into Skele-Tom and Eternal Echoes, you sold them very well! And your UI / Game Template plugins sound extremely useful, that’s exactly the kind of stuff I love to study instead of reinventing poorly :+1:

@SmokierLemur51

Thanks a lot, glad you liked the devlog!

All in all, it took me around 3 months, including the first prototype (with some very long nights in there not gonna lie :sweat_smile: )

And thanks for the binge-watch in advance, that honestly means a lot. Good luck with your top-down mobile game too, you’re definitely on the right track if you’re already a few months in :flexed_biceps: (feel free to drop some screens or links here if you want )

@lZebl

Thanks a lot! :grinning_face: Really appreciate it. Hope you have fun with the game, and I’m super glad you enjoyed the devlog too! :fire: :fire: :fire:

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