Devlog #8: The Planning Again

10/2/22 Jill C.

Both my partner and I have realized that the scope of this project is much larger than I think either of us has expected. It seems like going into this project we are absolutely in over our heads, but we've set a new plan for ourselves going forward which I think will help us a lot in being able to get some sort of finished project out. I does give me relief that we have another year that we can continue to work on this project going forward, and it's just about putting something out that people can play. Plus I should give us credit that it's the first-ever game that both of us have tried to make. Plus I plan to work on more of it over the summer which is a nice safety net.

Devlog #9: What does success look like for our project?

4/3/22 Jill C.

Honestly I think that success for this project is just something playable that we feel is able to be shared with our peers. I think that over the course of this project the scope of the game has gotten smaller and smaller, but also I feel like just getting something finished in itself is an accomplishment considering my partner and I are basically newbies to what we're doing. But I refuse to let the scope of the project hinder my ability to produce something that I'm proud of, and moving forward I want to at least present maybe a demo's worth of content?

Devlog #7: The Frustration

1/27/22 Jill C.

- Health Added

Comments

I've got big news for this update! I've got a working health bar for the player! I was fiddling with it last week, but I realized that I was making it way more complicated than it needed to be. But, it works now! Yay :)

Devlog #6: The Relaxation

1/18/22 Jill C.

- Working on health bar system

- Reevaluated schedule

Comments

Angel and I met with our signature manager, and we discussed that we should reevaluate our approach to the project. Instead of focusing on the pretty, and small details we should get the core of the game worked out, and make sure that it's a fun experience. I'm going to finish the health bar, and hopefully work on designing a boss! Honestly feeling a lot less stressed out. :)

Devlog #5: The I Have No Idea

12/31/21 Jill C.

- Learned about coding AI

Comments

I will be incredibly honest in saying that I have no recollection of what I've actually put into the game within the latter half of December. Do I blame myself though? Not at all, because I was incredibly busy with projects, and surviving school traditions. These last few weeks for signature for me have really been about demystifying how AI works, and that if I take things slow, and fight the urge to interconnect everything right from get go maybe I will have an easier time.

Devlog #4: The Simplification

12/9/21 Jill C.

- Textbox System added

Comments

So I found this incredible add-on to the Godot Engine called Dialogic that makes the dialogue function for you. It is just *chefs kiss* so much easier to work with. These last few weeks have made me realize that half the process of this project is searching for answers before I can implement anything. Honestly, I am 100% okay with that! After all, I am a beginner.

Devlog #3: The Redemptiom

28/11/21 Jill C.

- Literally recoded the entire game

- Added side doors that block the way unless opened

- Added a place to go for the doors

- Tried setting the player location to the door

Comments

In the moment I thought that I wasn't doing much in terms of coding for the game, because I quite literally forgot that I recoded the entire game in the first week. This was a good learning experience!

Annotated Bibliography

Fiedo, Rafa. (2020, June 11). How to switch scene using door (portal) in Godot 3? Tutorial [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxymjihpUi4

Created by Rafa Fiedo: an independent game developer from Poland who makes content on YouTube helping explain how to code in the game engine Godot. It was incredibly useful to me, because I am working on coding the doors for the overworld maps, and we need to have doors that move the player from floor to floor. He does a good job at quickly getting to the coding process instead of doting on what the final product looks like. I really appreciated his honesty with including notes that corrected his mistakes with his code. I think that it would have been more useful if he explained how the code worked, so that when I made mistakes it would have easier to correct them. However it is pretty accurate, and the tutorial works pretty well. I'm still having issues with properly displaying the visuals of the next scene, but it was a really helpful start!

p7f. (2020, July 17). Character appear behind the background instead of over it? [Msg 77071]. Message posted to https://godotengine.org/qa/77071/character-appear-behind-the-background-scene-instead-over

The initial thread talks about a user name Rashid having issues with their player sprite appeared behind background sprites instead of in front of them in Godot. User p7f responds that it's easiest to reorganize the player node and background sprites nodes so that the player node is under the background node in the editor which makes the player sprite appear above the background sprites. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why this works, and they don't explain why it works. However with game development a lot of the times you don't need to know why it works! Just that it does.

Millard, Adam. (2018, Februrary 1). The Anatomy of a Bossfight [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BL0O7CL0N4

Another independent game developer Adam Millard created a short video essay talking about the different mechanics in video games that make bossfights, and how different mechanics can affect the overal theme of the game. Millard talks about how bossfights are like puzzles, and you need to make them fun for the player to solve. This video essay is mostly for inspiration, because a few months ago I'd watched this video, and absolutely fell in love with the idea of boss design. I fell down a hole of game design discussions, and videos. Honestly this video was the push I needed to get into game development, and start this project!

Devlog #2: The Frustration

31/10/21 Jill C.

- Tilemap Added

- Door Added (Doesn't go anywhere)

- Interaction Icon Added

Comments

I am getting incredibly frustrated with the process of coding. I was so close to being abe to get the doors to work when I tried converting from 16bit to 32bit pixel-art style.

I created a new Tilemap, and now the player falls through the floor! I realize that we really need to reevaluate how quickly this process

is going, and what our final product will include.

Devlog #1: The Start

14/10/21 Jill C.

- Left & Right Movement and Jump added

- Floor and NPC Collision Boxes Added

- Added a Camera that follows the Player

Working on

- "Fog of War" affect that follows the player

- Collisions for map

- Interaction function

PROJECT TIMELINE: Jill

October

Key game mechanics outlined and coded in functionally.

Februrary

Core encounters finished

November

First three core encounters finished

March

Optional encounters finished

December

Encounter options finished

April

Tweaking balance, bugs, polishing the game!

January

Continuing working on and finishing at least 3 core encounters