# My world is starting to feel like a game

Pilgrimage devlog 3 · September 7, 2026

[Pilgrimage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU)

By the third devlog I'd hit my limits on both Fable and Codex, so I showed where [Pilgrimage](https://www.tomjohn.design/content/pilgrimage) had got to [(0:00)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=0s). And it was starting to feel like a game.

Buildings have interiors now, at the same scale as the characters, so when someone goes inside you can see them, and you can rotate the camera with E and Q to look past the walls [(0:22)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=22s). I added a tavern, a shepherd's hut, houses and more, all with the same roof pitch so they look like they belong in a row [(1:07)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=67s). Early on nobody lives in your colony, so the monks do the building [(1:30)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=90s).

![A building's interior, cut away to show the people inside, captioned as I say: “was building changes. Building interiors um are now a thing. So, you can select and then you'll be able to see the interior and everything is to”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-becoming-a-game/interiors-JGsPXmQf2ayjQ6vFpqUUda24QD7fn8.mp4 "Clip")

When people weren't coming down the path fast enough, I sent the monks out. One preaches on the road until he gets tired, and another carries the relic in a procession, and people bow and say a little prayer as it goes by [(2:36)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=156s).

![A monk carrying the relic along the road, with travellers bowing, captioned as I say: “the relic around. Um, and then watch what happens as he goes by. People will like bow and they'll do a little prayer, which is kind of cool. And,”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-becoming-a-game/procession-0ti07D9Gu8yIofTnyCx5hR6dTB4kvy.mp4 "Clip")

## Paths people make

One thing I don't like about Age of Empires is that there aren't really roads, and in RollerCoaster Tycoon you have to build so many of them [(2:59)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=179s). People can walk where they want to walk, so I made paths appear where people walk, getting more worn as they're used [(3:19)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=199s). Someone takes a shortcut through the woods, others follow once it's established, and the main path changes over time [(3:42)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=222s). Other people can see a new shortcut before you can, paths fade when nobody uses them, and you can put something like a cross in the middle of one and people walk around it [(7:04)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=424s).

![Paths wearing into the grass between buildings, captioned as I say: “People can walk where they want to walk. So, what I did was I developed, um, an algorithm for people to generate the paths as they go over”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-becoming-a-game/paths-qiJMkIpfBH8fL01gf8tD0rSEwbgMEY.mp4 "Clip")

There are animals too: deer, sheep, goats, boars, a fox that lopes, hawks, and sparrows that have a 35% chance of flying out of a tree when someone chops it down [(4:25)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=265s). Minstrels play by the road for gold, and knights take off their caps to pray in the chapel [(9:23)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=563s).

![Animals in the asset playground, captioned as I say: “got sparrows. These come out of trees when you start knocking them down with axes, so like a few sparrows might come out. There's a like a 35% chance that sparrows will come out of the tree, which”](https://nlzkl2bo0qmd3uti.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/talks/clips/pilgrimage-becoming-a-game/sparrows-8VVA8ieJShdBgzluI8O7kLcxmMIZPY.mp4 "Clip")

I'm basing a lot of it on the period, roughly 800 to 1100 AD, when relics got popular [(10:54)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=654s). The relic should be under the altar, not on top of it, people should queue to see it one at a time, and the kneelers I'd added aren't right for the era, so they're probably going. The whole idea is how these churches became the center of their towns, with the community and commerce that grew around them [(11:40)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAk6ETdhKkU&t=700s). Performance was the next big problem, and that's [the next devlog](https://www.tomjohn.design/content/pilgrimage-performance).