Entry Nineteen

I've been spending the last three hours on this project working on editing and moving sprites around to get the kind of things I'll need for my game. I'm quite grateful for the free sprite packs you can get online, but the fact that they're not exactly fitting with my game only forces me to use my imagination and make approximate representations of the things I need. No computers in the sprite packs? I'll use a window and some metal block and stick them together, no biggie! 

I think that I'm almost done with the 'obvious' spritework I can do right now, I'll have to start programming soon, it doesn't mean I'll be done with the sprites, but it's going to be something to look at while the game is being made and evolving.

Currently working on: Editing sprites

Time spent on the project so far: 44 hours

Entry Eighteen

I've decided to push the programming part a bit further and work on modifying my sprites and grouping my assets in folders to further use. Maybe it's a bit overkill at this step of the project, but I want all my resources to be ready to go when I decide to start coding. Which should be in a couple of days, but still, gotta make these sprites black and white and stuff!

Currently working on: Working on organizing assets

Time spent on the project so far: 41 hours

Entry Seventeen

I took a good look at all I had written in my design doc, and I think that there's enough stuff here to make a cool videogame. Sprites, music and other FX are probably not going to be what I had in mind when I started this project, but I'll still do what I can with the assets I have. In any case, changing sprites during production is possible and not too difficult.

Instead of starting to program right away, I've been working on splitting the huge sprite pool that I have in multiple folders to divide them well between enemies, items, hud elements, maps, etc. etc. It's going to take a while to do that too. I have to tweak most sprites in order to at least bend them a little to my vision.

Currently working on: Working on organizing assets

Time spent on the project so far: 39 hours

Entry Sixteen

Today I worked on completely adding all the remaining items, skills, boss fights, achievements and much more. I try to make things that are going to be do-able in Unity, but it's a bit difficult to know beforehand how it'll go. Achievements are always cool so I'm trying to think of a bunch of different ones the player will be able to get. Items are also interesting to design because some are upgrades of others while there is also a spot for unique game-changing pieces of gear.

The next step is probably going to be reviewing all of my design docs and then start programming! Yay!

Currently working on: Creating items, gear, enemies, bosses and achievements

Time spent on the project so far: 38 hours

Entry Fifteen

As I looked at the assets I could manage to pick in these art packs, I have to come to the conclusion that I won't be able to do everything i had in mind on day one. If I want to use art that looks good and coherent together, I won't be able to do things such as showing your equipped gear on your character, nor will every gun look different. They are not really things that would break how the game plays and feel, of course. I'm thinking about taking Hero Core music, it's always been some of my favorite tunes.

Here's a sprite I think I'll use as our main character, Admiral A! He kinda looks like a Starmen, doesn't he? All the characters are robots/aliens in this game.

Currently working on: Creating items and gear

Time spent on the project so far: 35 hours

Entry Fourteen

I was looking at sprite packs today, mostly because I know my drawing talents are very bad and if I want this game to at least look and 'feel' good, it needs to have good sprite art in some capacity. Basic shapes and characters made out of four blocks stacked on top of each other wouldn't work at all. It's not like I have a thousand choices, the biggest problem with choosing the good sprite resources is that they need to 'fit' together. I need something big enough so mostly everything I could want for my game would be in there, because if there's stuff missing, I would have to make them myself and try the best I could to mimic the style of that other stuff.

I've arrived at two ideas, either this sprite bundle thing, which costs something and would probably be lacking in some areas - although it probably has a lot of what I need - that I would have to work at myself - and this idea horrifies me - or go with this other pack of sprites that would be easier to mix and match and make more myself - their style is way simpler and cleaner. 

In any case, I'll probably go with the second choice. Today I've worked on fleshing out my enemies and the items in the game and it's going quite well, that being said I'm not ready to add numerical values to anything yet.

Currently working on: Searching for art, creating items, enemies and skills

Time spent on the project so far: 33 hours

Entry Thirteen

Being done with the map is a bit overwhelming, I have to say. So many items, enemies, stats, skills and other things to think about... What should I start with? I've expanded a bit my core ideas for many of these things, but there still is a bunch of work to be done. Also, I'm trying to start doing character sprites but of course, I'm not that good at it.

Currently working on: Expanding the core concepts

Time spent on the project so far: 31 hours

Entry Twelve

And I'm done with the whole map design for my game! All 1000 squares now have a description and what's in them more or less in them, item and enemy wise. I also have the story pretty much laid down for the player to discover as he explores the game outside of the beaten path. Now I'll have to make a list of all these items and skills and gear parts and enemies and work on cleaning up my map designs and stuff. Probably tomorrow I'll get on that!

Currently working on: Designing the map

Time spent on the project so far: 30 hours

Entry Eleven

Still working on that map, it's going pretty fast now that all I need to do is to fill the remaining blanks while having a good idea of sense, style and story for everything around in a way that makes the game come together coherently. I'm at 802 rooms out 1000 so I have more than 80% done. It shouldn't take more than a few days to complete this. I'm pretty excited to move on!

Currently working on: Designing the map

Time spent on the project so far: 28 hours

Entry Ten

I'm done with one out of 10 maps, the other maps should go pretty quickly after that. When I'm done with this, I'll start working on the various items and pieces of gear scattered around the world of my game, then we'll see, but I probably will design enemies and bosses. Then someday, maybe I'll start coding...

Currently working on: Designing the map

Time spent on the project so far: 27 hours

Entry Nine

I'm done with the main critical path of the game now, all that is left is some end-game fluff, optional boss battles, endings, things like that. I think that the basic way the player will take through the game is solid and allows for a bit of exploration as the player feels is adequate. However, I have to make sure that movement is fluid and that the exploration skills given are powerful enough to be truly useful.

Of course, what I call "end-game fluff" is a big part of the game, about 40% of the game's content is locked before you get there. In terms of rooms to visit, at least. Enemies are a bit more widespread than that and I still am unsure about the final count for items, gun parts and gear for the player. I'll get there when I'm done with the map.

Currently working on: Designing the map

Time spent on the project so far: 25 hours

Entry Seven

Today I spent most of my time continuing the map and spent most of my time thinking really hard about the way paths get opened up later in the game. I thought it would be complicated, and I was kinda right. The obvious paths are easy, but if you get at some place with a certain ability, it's not clear where you can or can't go. I think I've got a good grasp on it by now.

Currently working on: Designing the map

Time spent on the project so far: 20 hours

Entry Six

Because I've been moving, I didn't have much time to work on my design document, but I finally found some today and I've been chipping away at the massive work that I still have to do before I can even start programming. I have to say that I'm really looking forward to the programming bit, but design is also fun because in a way it's programming the game without writing code. At least it's thinking about how the game will go in your mind.

Currently working on: Designing the map

Time spent on the project so far: 18 hours

Entry Five

One of the things I didn't plan when I started my map is how the locked doors and enemies are spread across the game At first I thought I could get unique doors for each room that would get unlocked linearly as you progressed through the game but then I noticed that I wouldn't have enough rooms and enough doors for the later stages and I kind of ran out halfway through. It's not a big deal, I can just change the way doors work after a little while in order to accommodate the endgame. 

I also noticed that in my first stages I just spread the enemies very thinly, new kind of enemies would appear after many rooms while in the later stages, enemies change like crazy. As long as I add all kinds of enemies so everything is thoroughly represented, it's fine. I think?

Currently working on: Designing the map

Time spent on the project so far: 17 hours