Entry One Hundred And Sixty Six

I'm now above 300 hours of work on 100RTBD. This isn't much, if you take into account that I've started working on this about 6 months ago, and it's doubly not much if you gather that if it were a full job at 40 hours per week it would've took me less than two months of work to get where I am right now. I really wish I could devote myself full time to my passion of game making, but creating such project won't put food on my table, as they say, so I'll keep going at it one or two hours per day. Which isn't shabby, but still means that my next project is far away.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 306 hours

Entry One Hundred And Sixty Five

I changed the way enemies take damage today since the addition of the Red Capsule - a gun part that adds 20% of your damage as fire damage for now (I'm thinking it should convert it instead of adding to it) - now enemies that are immune to everything but fire (there are a few) have to be damaged by normal bullets with added fire damage. It wasn't too complicated, but now it works well. I've done a few rooms and now I'm at a challenge room where the player has to dodge bullets for X seconds.

I've noticed on my design map that the double-jump is coming soon, can't wait to code that!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 304 hours

Entry One Hundred And Sixty

I'm still having a little issue with the way you jump in from rooms below where you're going. If you're holding a key while you're jumping, the character will continue its movement in that direction, if you're not it'll shoot you on the left or right side depending on where the hole is. In some situations, the character might fall back into the hole right as he jumps - especially if you're holding the 'wrong' direction. On the other hand, I don't want the character to 'pop' on a solid floor every time you enter rooms from below. I have to find a solution that works and won't frustrate players.

Currently working on: Room entering 

Time spent on the project so far: 295 hours

Entry One Hundred And Fifty Eight

There are a few items that allow enemies to drop items when you defeat them; otherwise the chance is 0%. That means that if you never find any such piece of gear, enemies will never drop items. I do think that most of them will be handed over to the player as he completes easy challenges and maybe in boxes placed on the critical path, but it's probably possible to beat the whole game without having any item drop.

I kind of want to make some gun parts / pieces of gear / even guns be drops from enemies, using the enemy cards, the player would see if he got a drop from a specific enemy. Even bosses will drop items! (Don't worry there's a way to re-fight all bosses!) I really love the drop-hunting aspect of games like the GBA/DS castlevanias and I wish I'll be able to convey that a bit in 100RTBD

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 291 hours

Entry One Hundred And Fifty Six

Considering all the code I've written so far, there are plenty of spots where I could optimize it and make it easier/clearer for me to work on. The map module, for instance, is going to be a thousand lines just to define what the map is like if I continue the way it is right now. Instead of having one line per room, maybe I could just define the whole 10x10x10 vector of room types, room blocks and other things like that in one fell swoop. I think that's what I'll work on this weekend, it would also mean the beginning of my 'create all the content and then just build the game' idea...

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 286 hours

Entry One Hundred And Fifty Five

Not much to talk about today! I'm almost done with that bit of the State-2 spaceship the player will visit at that point in the game. Then I have to create the State-3 version and after that, out of the spaceship you go! There is a door in the spaceship with the number 20 on it that turns into transparent blocks if you go to State-2 or below, it means that you'll be able to go through once you get the appropriate ability and that above State-2 you'll be able to just waltz in. There are a few doors like that in the game. Of course, when you get the B&R Engine later on, you'll be able to visit almost everything.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 284 hours

Entry One Hundred And Fifty Three

After re-reading yesterday's entry, I've been wondering. Are optional challenge rooms the best vector to give new guns to the player? It means that if you don't go through any of them, you'll only have the starting basic gun to tackle the world with. Some guns have better reach, some have elemental properties and some are just plain weird. I was going to say that it's possible to beat the whole game with the basic pistol, but that's not true since enemies in State-8 (Inver) are immune to damage and can only be killed by being healed, and that gun will be given to the player alongside the critical path. 

I feel that it's okay if I give away cool gear in such places, since challenges are bonus rooms with bonus content that player can live without - although new guns and gun parts are a pretty good reason to attempt them! There is also an achievement tied to the number of completed challenges, so that's that.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 280 hours

Entry One Hundred And Forty Nine

Making a new room, I encountered the well known issue of having to place some items in a chest. As of right now, the items aren't all programmed - only the ones I've added to the game are. It's giving me issues where I have to decide what item is going to go in a chest and that's informed by how complicated items are to be added in the game. Which item to add? Should I take one that's easy to code - like an usable item that restores some health - or something more complex?

This has lead me to thinking about the advantages of coding everything right now - new enemies, new guns, new items, new skills - so it'll all be done and I could just carry one with the story, placing items/enemies and things like that. It would make that process way faster, but on the other hand I would spend a few days/weeks just making items and enemies and stuff. I'll think about it! 

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 273 hours

Entry One Hundred And Forty Seven

Many bugs were fixed this weekend, things related to equipping multi-block gun parts over spots that are disabled and the way cards work. Now the menu has a better framerate than 10fps and the whole story for the cards is written. I've also changed the experience requirement for enemies and adjusted the knowledge they give when defeated so stronger enemies give more and take less kills to fully unlock. I'll keep on making new rooms and content tomorrow!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 270 hours