29/Aug/2023

A mostly visuals focused update because I wanted to focus on making the game a bit less annoying to look at.

If I took a while (And end up taking a while with future updates), expect to be because of IRL stuff like events or work.

* Added rotation related export vars for the props to make them more versatile.

* Added an effect for endlevel scenes.

* Companion goes to idle states when the Player dies to avoid potential issues.

* Tried making the portal area in first level easier.

TILEMAPS

I had to add this, so I could make levels diverse, even if some tiles don’t look that good.

I even created sets for actual solid tiles and non-solid ones, including a “visual language” where pure black is used on stuff meant to be solid or interactable.

Not all of them are used, so they get to be used for later levels.

(And if you want to see the rest, it’s on Github).

PROPS

Made a lot of them, even if most look off.

They have a variety of sources from stuff I looked up, to some art like some paintings by Michiel Schrijver to even real objects from my life or dreams I had.

Again, the rest is on Github.  

SKIES

Something I had to be creative with because the recolored skies were boring and I even figured out you can have sprites as children of ParallexLayers (Since the props are technically sprites).

Though there was also the challenge of making sure some stuff is seen and not covered by the camera/level assets.

CHARACTER SPRITES

This had to change and I eventually embraced ¾ even if just for some poses.

I had to make the characters less detailed and thought of using Castlevania as some reference.

CUTSCENE ART

Now this had to change and had to be more interesting because this shows off the characters.

Even if the levels and gameplay look weird, the cutscenes had to look good.

But even if the cutscenes still look bad, I still wanted to make the presentation more interesting (And I guess i could fix art later)

My reference to how the panels move is inspired by Gravity Rush, due to its comic book style cutscenes.

* WHAT ELSE

I’ve been thinking of what characters and settings to use and could even have to check some tutorials just to see how some new additions can work.

In case something happens to me, here’s some planned stuff, which could also change.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ua-ShLy6Z346w-tCx2dfHLl5o2VNHW3KdFtUMO6fTlw 

This is mostly based on me guessing what I could make considering my current skills and what I managed to succeed on.

And this game in general is already too ambitious for my first game but I also like to think it could be finished or "good enough" in at least somewhere in 2024.

Another feature I thought of adding was optional cutscenes that exist to showcase more stuff related to the characters: Like an menu with cutscenes called “memories” that show like someone’s background or more details.

Because I thought of a “library” with texts but I could make it so instead, the texts are secret objects you can discover when exploring levels.

If I can’t do a proper slideshow style gallery, maybe I could do “museum levels” where you touch something and a piece of art shows up in a CanvasLayer.

Anyway, if you think my game looks okay-ish enough to be presentable, feel free to spread the news about it because I’m the kind of guy that refuses to touch Twitter.