TarotJam Entry 17

Now with 7 cards done out of 22 and about half the mechanics, I can say that the end is in sight for Tarot Trials, I've implemented some systems to help me test specific cards (as beforehand all I did was try again until I got the combination I wanted to test) and things are still going quite smoothly. Even with the depth of the mechanics I'm implementing on top of simple core systems, I think that a game will come out of this jam, no matter what. I think I'll try and think of a way to make the enemies scale automatically so I don't have to come up with 500 different enemy types. That's what slowed me down for Magic Darts and I kind of don't want to make the same error again. This should save me some time if I can figure out a solution quickly!

Time spent on the project so far: 53 hours

TarotJam Entry 16

Not much done today, I worked in the mechanics of The Hermit and I started thinking about monster buffs. I'm starting to think that I've bitten more than I could chew with this game? Yeah, maybe.

Time spent on the project so far: 51 hours

TarotJam Entry 15

Spells and enemy buffs are in and I'm up to six cards almost done. You can now decide to cast spells during your runs and they take cards from your chest, so it's a risk/reward balance act between having more cards for other purposes or using powerful abilities. Enemy buffs are drawn once at the beginning of each run and they act as a dual purpose; Adding some more random challenge to the game and making sure that you don't game the system too much by starting runs, casting all of your spells then quitting. 

There are still a few systems for me to create, such as equipment, end of run modifiers and level-up bonus cards, and content, like the other 15 cards and a big bunch of monsters, but I think that I'll be done before the end of the actual TarotJam, at least ;)

I'll cut corners on the whole balance aspect of the game, but not too much. As long as I can beat the game, everything will be fine. It's probably going to be too easy instead of being too hard, but to really make a well-balanced game would go beyond the scope of such a project. I'm having fun working on this, tho :D

Time spent on the project so far: 50 hours

TarotJam Entry 14

After you pick up your 4th tarot card, you learn how to cast spells, they are one-use abilities that consume your tarot cards inside your chest and do various things depending on which spell you pick. The actual spells aren't done yet, but the ability to cast them is there. I've also added the Magician class and map and I'm working on adding their enemies right now. This weekend I'll try to move forward with as many systems as possible in order to be closer to finishing the game.

Time spent on the project so far: 42 hours

TarotJam Entry 13

A new class + map combination was added, as well as a few more enemies to go with that new map. I've worked mostly on the order you unlock the tarot cards this morning, so not a lot of coding was done, but things should really pick up from here!

Time spent on the project so far: 40 hours

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TarotJam Entry 12

A few bugfixes, some testing and balance changes to the core systems, if yesterday was all about UI, today was more about mechanics. Still going on towards the completion of the project! I've been wondering if enemies should scale depending of where they are rather than having new enemies on each dungeon level, but I think having different enemies is better, although more time-consuming, we'll see how it goes!

Time spent on the project so far: 37 hours

TarotJam Entry 11

I know that this is a real joke, but I've spent the last hours working on menus for Tarot Trials, this is so far removed from how you would 'need' to proceed during a real Game Jam, but oh well, these internet two months affair give me some time to expand on certain niceties like menus and interfaces. 

All being told, when I'm done with this one, I should really be done with non-gameplay stuff. All that will be left will be to add the other cards, mechanics, progression, and I'll be done! A real piece of cake!

I also need to get back to 100RTBD someday..

Time spent on the project so far: 35 hours

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TarotJam Entry 10

A lot was done this weekend! I iterated over whether you found tarot cards or shards from them - meaning you needed more than one to get the full card - worked on the level up system, added the bestiary and a few more mechanics here and there. I'm currently adding the screen where you can see all the cards you've found and what they do.

Time spent on the project so far: 33 hours

TarotJam Entry 9

Now battles are slowly being built! It's going to take a while before the battle system is fully functional - mainly because all the tarot cards, mechanics and other systems aren't in yet - but I think that by the end of today you'll have the base for what battles will be. You now also can move everywhere you've moved before by clicking there, because why not? Direct movement to new tiles is still non-diagonal only, though.

Time spent on the project so far: 27 hours

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TarotJam Entry 7

I fix the wall generation for my rooms, but there still is something wonky going on with the corridor generator. Now you can move properly as well, but I still have to fix that part before I can move to anything else. I realize that in a normal GameJam this more or less would be solved by just looking at a dungeon generation algorithm on the web, but I want to make it myself, so yeah, that might take a bit more time. I'm pretty excited about the game and I can't wait to keep working on it!

Time spent on the project so far: 20 hours

TarotJam Entry 6

I think the corridor generation is quite well implemented! Now I'm working on having the character move around the map, which is almost completed as well. Next up would be fighting monsters and progressing through the game. Tonight I'll fix the movement and start working on these other things!

Time spent on the project so far: 18 hours

TarotJam Entry 5

I've worked on the game a bit this weekend and this morning! The intro for the story is coming along nicely, so are the map generation algorithms and other core components. I still need to create passageways between rooms - and populate them with monsters and other things - but so far so good!

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Time spent on the project so far: 15 hours

TarotJam Entry 4

More work was done on the flow of how the game starts today! Small mechanics that will be re-used through the game and some more UI work, mostly on the tarot cards themselves. Still lots to do, but I think it's progressing quite well!

Time spent on the project so far: 10 hours

TarotJam Entry 3

Bear with me, and think that it's much warmed outside and that our calendars say April right now...

I've worked on the UI, thinking about how the game will develop, I've also started to create the tarot card template as it will be used it many places. The next step will be the first tutorials - getting new cards, drawing them, your first run through a dungeon, etc. - with all that this entails. I should be done with the tarot card by tomorrow, I think!

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Time spent on the project so far: 7.5 hours

TarotJam Entry 2

Bear with me, and let's pretend we're still in April...

I've changed the font because I already had used the pixelated one on Legend of Loadaia and it didn't fit well with the whole magic tarot thing, I've also finished the intro 'cutscene' and started working on the core game UI, it should be done tonight or tomorrow morning, then I'll work on the actual mechanics! Fun stuff!

Time spent on the project so far: 5.5 hours

Entry Three Hundred And Ninety Six

Here's a new 100RTBD version! I'm 69% done with the total core game experience and about 45% done with the project overall, I've also added support for Unity's Input Manager, so you could theoretically play this game on an xbox controller? I might test that sometime soon! Here's an exclusive screenshot of what you could be playing RIGHT NOW!

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Joking aside, this version goes to 7-1-3, where you play a slot machine game against FirstClass F to win the 69th infopack and the Casino Card gun part. If you try to exit that room to the right, your game will kind of crash.

Time spent on the project so far: 695 hours

Currently working on: Implementing a more usable control scheme

Entry Three Hundred And Ninety Five

Another day, another room, another bunch of weird unity problems. Apparently yesterday the game didn't save when I stopped working on it, so today I had to redo a few things that I had already done, then I moved on to the 68th infopack! I'm having fun with the Light world so far, but today I had computer troubles, so one room was all I could make, oh well! Maybe I'll push a bit this weekend so that I have another good chunk playable before I stop development for a while!

Time spent on the project so far: 690 hours

Currently working on: Moving on with the story

Entry Three Hundred And Ninety Four

Today I've made one new room, a new challenge and a few new items and I've tweaked the light gun a bit, now it fires in more interesting ways than it used to. I also had five unity crashes while trying to play my game! And once the Unity Crash Reporter thing crashed! I don't know what's up with that, but I'll re-iterate that I never had any of these issues on Unity 4 ;(

Expect a new playable release before March 1st, since then I'll be participating in #TarotJam!

Time spent on the project so far: 689 hours

Currently working on: Moving on with the story