Day 21 - Some Ideas for a Non-Game

Alright, this update is just me adding some screenshots and GIFs to the page, but I wanted to talk a bit about what progress I was able to make during the game jam.

:: Visuals ::

This was the big thing. As this game jam was just build-up towards actually launching a personal project of mine, I had a bit of an issue with, well, there being *anything* in the game. All the assets I built should at least be good place-holders until I can figure out what needs to be done on the project.

I did need the basic assets for that project, though:  design scheme, items, map pieces, your characters, NPCs, and enemies. I forgot to add a health bar for individual characters, but given what ideas I've gotten during the jam, I'm sure I'll have something to work with. And more UI elements. Those would help.

Issue with the presentation, though: HTML5 doesn't scale right on phones. I don't know why: it's 512x512, so it shouldn't even expand beyond the edges. I'll have to look into that.

:: Gameplay ::

This one's one I've gotta keep an eye on, because on the one hand, I got most of it functioning with only a few bugs. That's good. The bad news: there's no direction. There's literally no hand-holding, as the control scheme is discussed in the game description, rather than in-game itself. I kind of prefer games that drop players in as fast as possible, but it would probably help if there were more tutorials not hidden behind game mechanics people might not know of just being dropped in, especially since some characters might not even have items to begin with.

Pros: it works.

Cons: nobody would know *how* it works.

I didn't add an extra puzzle element: there were supposed to be switch blocks in the mountain, which would allow another dungeon ending on top of the mountain, but oh well. ^^; The hammer/teddy bear would be needed to progress in that dungeon, but maybe I can incorporate that into the next project?

Also, as a reminder: add a hold-press for changing characters with the mouse/touch screen. That'd help a bunch, especially visually.

But in any case: for a game I wasn't even thinking of designing much at all, it came out... something? ^^;

:: Sound ::

There isn't. And that's an issue.

I should have added little sound effects from my library that would give impact to things like: damage, attacking, dying, using alterior items. I'll have to remember that at some point, but that was low on my to-do list, as the game functioning and drawn correctly was higher on my to-do list.

However, I got 4 tracks done. Overworld, happy & solemn Village, and Battle theme. Should be good enough for making the game work, and I even added a song transition engine. Pretty nice for later use. 

:: Game Maker: Studio 1 ::

Here's a note I'll have to make: the small studio I'm with will be switching to GM:S2 soon. Issue being that all my personal licenses are on GM:S1. I'll have to make this app in GM:S1 while learning GM:S2. At some point. So, hopefully nothing explodes in the future.

:: Final Words ::

It's still fun to work on games, so I'm happy about that.

Here's to another year of #LOWREZJAM! Cheers! ^-^