Thread by @gav_clayton

When #DaggerfallUnity reaches feature parity with classic #Daggerfall later this year, it will be a huge personal milestone. Not everyone knows this, but I've been building Daggerfall tools and pulling apart the game's assets since around 2001. Crazy right? /1

Some of you might remember me from the old (and I mean OLD) Bethesda forums as Interkarma, and some of you may not have even been born back then. If you're interested in the journey leading to Daggerfall Unity, here's a short version of how things went from then to now. /2

I was fascinated by #gamedev in my teens and tried to learn everything I could by picking apart their data formats (this is pre-www and gamedev information was harder to find back then). I was still hacking file formats when Daggerfall came out in 1996. /3

After 4 years, Daggerfall still seemed like a game full of secrets. I wanted to find every obscure little thing I could, so started breaking apart the file formats with a hex editor. Fortunately a lot had already been done by Dave Humphrey of UESP, Donald Tipton, and others. /4

By late 2001, I had a functioning program called "Daggerfall Media" to explore the textures, 3D models, and city blocks in Daggerfall's game data. This later became "Daggerfall Explorer" in 2002. /5

Later in 2002, I created a tool called "Daggerfall Jukebox". It could play all of DF's sound effects and music direct from CD. Pretty basic, but it could extract and convert HMI to MIDI, which was cool. /6

In 2003, I built a tool to explore city maps called "Daggerfall Cartographer". It was really clunky but nothing like it existed at the time for DF. It couldn't explore dungeons though. /7

In 2004, I created a tool called "Daggerfall Imaging". It was rather ugly and hard to use. I was experimenting with a web-based UI and for some reason thought it would be good idea to use here. /8

From 2005-2006, I was getting a *bit* overconfident and thought I'd try remaking Daggerfall by myself for the first time, namely the "Daggerfall Project". I didn't get very far, but what I learned in the process became important later. Sadly no screens remain from this period. /9

From 2006-2008 life was falling apart for a couple of reasons. Mainly because I'd started a small business and basics like buying food and paying rent became really hard for a while. So I let the DF stuff go for a few years. :( /10

By 2009 life was back on track and I started porting all my DF code to C# for fun. I was learning XNA and a couple different engines. This is how "Daggerfall Imaging 2" came about by 2010. It was my apology for my horrible earlier attempt at this tool. /11

My new C# code library was called "Daggerfall Connect". With everything I'd learned on my failed "Daggerfall Project", I was able to crank out a new block explorer fairly quickly. /12

From there, I started work on a tool called "Daggerfall Scout". This was supposed to be a followup to "Daggerfall Cartographer". It was intended to be a full world explorer with the overland I built in the "Daggefall Project". Finally, dungeons! /13

By 2011 "Daggerfall Scout" became "Daggerfall Modelling". It was a great way to explore locations, dungeons, and individual models. It could even export to COLLADA format. I was really proud of this one. /14

By 2011-2012, I'd done basically everything I could with the tools, short of trying another Daggerfall remake. But DaggerXL was still doing great so that didn't seem necessary. I took stock of my life and moved on from Daggerfall for a few years. /15

In 2014, I was learning #Unity3D and needed a project to cut my teeth on. My wife suggested I play with some of my Daggerfall stuff to help the process. And because "Daggerfall Connect" was also written in C#, I was able to get some basics working in only a few hours. /16

This was a turning point. I had so much code available from previous years that I was able to setup a full streaming world and basic gameplay in only a few months. This is how "Daggerfall Tools for Unity" (DFTFU) began. But I still didn't want to face a remake at this time. /17

By late 2015, I had more-or-less given up waiting for DaggerXL. I had the framework for a full remake and believed that I finally had the experience to succeed. I decided that a pragmatic community-driven approach was the best way and drafted the DFUnity Mission Statement. /18

By the time I started Daggerfall Unity, I had learned to be as pragmatic as possible. My previous failures informed me not to reinvent the wheel and not to get distracted. Just get it done. By now I understood why "perfect is the enemy of good". /19

Abridged summary of the next few years progress:
2015: Game Foundations
2016: Items & Loot
2017: Quests
2018: Magic & Effects
2019: Almost at broad feature parity with classic Daggerfall
/20

I also want to thank everyone for your emotional support and encouragement the last few years. I could not have made it this far without you. Whatever happens next, I feel like we've all made something really awesome together. /21

I'm still deciding what I do next, you'll likely see some steps in that direction after DFUnity exits pre-alpha later this year. By that stage, I'll no longer need to manage project full-time, and can seriously think about my own game after all these years remaking this one. /22

But I won't be going anywhere with DFUnity anytime soon. Whatever I end up doing next. I'll still maintain the project and keep it moving forwards. It would also be great to finally make some mods, something I haven't really had time to try yet. Thanks for reading! :) /23