#Devtober Day 10

I wanted to fix respawning (which is canon btw).

It should:
- Be fast
- Look nice
- Convey a sense of instability but also order.

So here's the result. Using a dissolve shader.

You can even affect the trajectory using the joystick. It's kinda addicting. :D

#MayGame #gamedev

#Devtober Day 9

I've mapped out the tentative list of abilities/upgrades/ammo types/etc for my game. There's about 20.

The plan now is to study, prototype, and refine them. They should have good synergy. They should be fun. They should, ideally, change up the gameplay.

#MayGame #gamedev

#Devtober Day 8

I added a column to my translation table to indicate which character says each line.

It makes sense to store these together. But it should also be helpful to translators so they know which character is saying which lines they're localizing.

#MayGame #gamedev

I spent the last 2 months overhauling my game's infrastructure. Core systems, etc. Eliminating all the tedious boilerplate stuff.

And now... I'm largely done with that.

It's time to add the content. Enemies, abilities, puzzles, dungeons, etc.

I'm excited but also nervous...

#gamedev #MayGame

#Devtober Day 7

Like the collectable flowers, the tree stumps are all randomized too.

May is very opinionated when it comes to tree stumps, lol. But they're also fairly reasonable opinions.

#gamedev #indiedev #MayGame

The protagonist of my game uses a tree stump as a bed. This was revealed earlier.

If you find another tree stump...

She'll comment on whether it would make a good bed or not.

They're all different! Try to find them all! Will any of them measure up?

#MayGame #indiegame #cozygame

#Devtober Day 6

This may not look like much, but...
- Bobbing hand cursor
- Selecting different tabs using cursor AND dedicated buttons
- Selected tabs are highlighted
- 18x12-sized overworld map showing visited areas.
- Current location is marked.

Tomorrow I'll show another sidequest.

#MayGame

#Devtober Day 5

Added menu transitions. Similar to map transitions but *different*. 🙃

This time, the menu transitions are more flexible than before. Any transition can work for any menu (or minigame).

May's map-opening animation is back too. And it looks nice in tall grass. ^^

#MayGame #gamedev

#Devtober Day 4

Only one menu can be processed per frame now. This should make it impossible for any single button press to be counted twice when moving to a new menu.

A menu switch can be queued any time, but is not performed until the very end of the frame. #MayGame #gamedev

Hello everyone! It's been two months, so it's time for another Developer Diary!

I talk about work on the game's world, several subsystems that have been overhauled, and what's next!

store.steampowered.com/news/app/373...

#MayGame #gamedev #WishlistWednesday

The past week was spent researching 32 flowers, animating 32 flowers, putting together 32 flowers puns, collecting 32 flower facts, and of course making the code to run it all.

I'm lily glad to be done with this sidequest. 🙃

#MayGame #gamedev #indiegame #cozygame

Currently waist-deep in flower-related pixel art and code. But for now...

Last week I overhauled my game's environmental puzzle code.

Here's a sample puzzle definition. Old version on the top, new version below. It's much more compact and streamlined now. #MayGame #gamedev

Objects' persistent state is simpler and more automated now!

Blob enemies now track their stunned-state and held items even if you leave the room.

Puzzles track their state too. And they can avoid softlocks, if we, say, walk through walls so that the barriers block our way in.

#MayGame #gamedev

One more use for subsprites.

Hats!

I want to add lots of hats as optional collectibles/rewards.

They fit with the cozy/cute atmosphere of the game, aren't too hard to add, and would give plays some cosmetic customization. And hiding them for players to find will be fun! 😁

#MayGame #gamedev

Spent yesterday hashing out a lot of my game's optional content...

Collectibles/the game's economy
Cosmetics (hats?)
Making varied sidequests. Some skill-based, some exploring, interesting things on the map, some about world lore...

Hoping to iron it out in-depth this weekend.

#MayGame #gamedev

This week I merged a bunch of systems in my game into one.

Shadows, held items, sparkle fx, "Zzz" text, pickup animations, and more, can now be added or removed from any object with one line of code.

This makes things very flexible and convenient. 😊

#MayGame #indiegame #gamedev #WishlistWednesday

Gamedev goal for today:

Consistent way to handle things on characters' heads. 🙃

Reasons include:
- Tiny companion character
- Heavy held item
- Collectibles on enemies' heads
- Cosmetics/hair
- Two-part sprites (e.g., large heavy backpack)

#MayGame #gamedev #gamedesign

Animation libraries in my game can now be shared and combined at runtime.

May can look like a blob here because the blob's animations were added to her own.

This means theoretically any object could play any other object's animations.

#MayGame #gamedev #gamedesign #Godot

I overhauled my game's buggy text parser today.

One massive issue is that it tried to calculate things like:

"when to start a new line without breaking up words"

AS IT WAS revealing the text. Which was too complicated.

Now it does all the calculations beforehand. #gamedev #gamedesign #MayGame

Lots of pixelated games provide the option of an HD (non-pixel) font. Many players prefer it.

I wanted to see how technically feasible it would be, since everything else is forcibly rendered with strict pixel-precision.

Fortunately, it wasn't too bad. ^^

#gamedev #MayGame #Godot #gamedesign