Entry Four Hundred And Three

The heal gun should be done tomorrow, I hadn't had the time today, instead I've made a few more rooms. State-8 is all about things being weird, like the character falling forever, the camera being upside down, things like that, so I'll make a few silly things here and there. I'm wondering if I should block the player from progressing without the heal gun - like by putting an unskippable boss on the way - or if I should let them trudge along? It would be technically possible to get some kind of other thing that lets them damage enemies, so I'm not too sure.

Currently working on: Advancing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 713 hours

Entry Four Hundred And One

Three new rooms were created today, 0.3% of the whole game, even! There's nothing super interesting about this, but I'm progressing towards State-8 and in terms of core game completion, that counts for something!

Currently working on: Advancing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 704 hours

Entry Three Hundred And Ninety Nine

Still testing the game and fixing a few bugs here and there! There was a specific sequence that I didn't enjoy too much because there was some light backtracking to do, and a few bosses will need to be tweaked, but I still think that 100RTBD is a great metroidvania experience in its own right. There's also about 5 hours of content available right now, which is a 140:1 ratio of time spent working on the game:length of the game. I hope to be done with this playtesting session before next week.

Time spent on the project so far: 701 hours

Entry Three Hundred And Ninety Eight

Still testing the game! It's pretty fun to replay it after such a long pause not touching it. The sense of exploration and discovery is real, there's some challenge here and there and it still works well. Hope I manage to get where I was tomorrow or the day after!

Currently working on: Testing the game

Time spent on the project so far: 699 hours

Entry Three Hundred And Ninety Seven

Back on the project! I removed all the dumb image effects I had added previously, 100RTBD doesn't need that kind of stuff, it's all in the gameplay and systems - I still wish I could get all the sprites and music done by someone who knows what they're doing, but oh well.

What I'm doing right now: Replaying the whole thing! Sadly, when I moved computers I didn't backup the save file, it's not a big deal since I need to fix small bugs and look at where the game is in its entirety, but it might take a while.

Time spent on the project so far: 697 hours

TarotJam Entry 41

The last stretch! I'm testing the whole game, beating each level one after the other and making sure that there are no huge bugs blocking the player from moving forward. I still need to create ending 2 and 3, but that shouldn't take that much time, it's playing the game that's time consuming! It's a fun game, it has flaws, but it's still fun.

Time spent on the project so far: 124 hours

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TarotJam Entry 40

Finally done with enemy generation! That was such a bad idea, creating all of these 360 enemies individually. I really should've just procedurally created them, but oh well, now it's done. The next step is to finish the game, beat the last boss and submit it to the game jam! If I manage to do that quickly, I'll add music and SFX, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that...

Time spent on the project so far: 122 hours

TarotJam Entry 39

I'm more than halfway done with enemy generation, so that's cool! I really think I'll be able to finish this up before the end of the month!

Time spent on the project so far: 118 hours

TarotJam Entry 38

This is it, the last stretch, all the twenty two cards are done and I'm building the end-game now, creating enough enemies to fill all those maps, and then I have to test them and create the final boss as well. I think I might skip on the audio - if I do have to cut something. I'm going to work on this during my lunch hours this week as well, gotta finish it before the end of the week!

Time spent on the project so far: 115 hours

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TarotJam Entry 37

Almost done with the Chariot card, the Desert map is special in which enemies aren't visible all the time, I think I'm going to tweak it so you can see them at least sometimes, because right now they're invisible. After that I'll make Wheel of Fortune, then The Sun, then everything else to wrap this up!

Time spent on the project so far: 108 hours

TarotJam Entry 36

With another card down and a bunch of enemies completed, I only have two cards left to do. I also have to play all maps from 1 to 10 and create the normal/real ending as well. Adding audio, a bit of tweaking/balance... Yeah, I really need to push it this weekend.

This game has a few flaws, I know; Some classes are rougher than others, their abilities might seem neat on paper, but realistically, they're not very useful, some enemies are just too tough - that's kinda possible to balance - and some things just ruin runs. Then again, that's how roguelikes go, don't they?

Time spent on the project so far: 106 hours

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TarotJam Entry 35

The game is maybe 75% done by now! I only have three cards left to do, but a bunch of enemies and playtesting to be done. I actually spent quite a while trying to unlock new cards as players would do, but I managed to do it, so that's all good. I also need to add music/sfx and a proper end-game. But right now I'm finishing the Empress card!

Ten days left! On May 1st I'll wrap it up and submit it, no matter at what state it is!

Time spent on the project so far: 104 hours

TarotJam Entry 34

The Devil is done, but I need to work on unlocking more new cards by playing through the game. It's fun enough, which is nice, but the later levels get pretty difficult. You need to have a good run if you are to beat them! I have ten days left to finish this game, so I'll have to step it up a notch this weekend and next week!

Time spent on the project so far: 102 hours

TarotJam Entry 33

One hundred hours! That's quite the time spent on this 'small' 'gamejam' project! There are only four cards left to make - and a ton of enemies - but I still think I'll be able to have some kind of finished product by the end of this month. Balancing the whole thing is kind of hard, but I'll have a minimum done on that front as well!

Time spent on the project so far: 100 hours

TarotJam Entry 32

I'm done with the High Priestess and I'm now working on the Hierophant, like the rest of the development time so far, most is spent on creating enemies for the current map and for the other maps that I need to visit in order to unlock the next cards. Only a few are remaining, so the end is in sight, but this project has taken a lot of hours so far!

Time spent on the project so far: 95 hours

TarotJam Entry 31

The high priestess is unlocked! Only six cards left, then a bunch of monsters to create and test! Creating enemies is taking way too much time - you'll remember I cut short my ambitions on Magic Darts because of that - but I think I'll manage to make a complete game this time! I should complete the high priestess today as well.

Also, for non-game related reasons, I've moved Time Stop from The Star to The World. JoJo fans will get it.

Time spent on the project so far: 95 hours

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TarotJam Entry 30

My last big mechanic is done, now I'm almost all about content creation. I still have to create the remaining few cards and code their unique and interesting effects - as well as figure out cool stuff for the remaining bunch of enemies - but things are going very smoothly and I'm sure I'll be able to finish before the end of April!

Time spent on the project so far: 93 hours

TarotJam Entry 29

Judgement is done as well, but I haven't put any time on that final stat-boosting mechanic I was referring. I feel that the game is balanced properly if you're using all of the tools at your disposal and it has not been too frustrating to unlock new stuff yet. I've decided to change it so you always get new cards if they're available (instead of having random odds of getting them) so that's that. The only problem I've found while playtesting it today is that normal enemies are not really attractive to kill, they give class experience but the damage they deal can really stack up after a while.

Time spent on the project so far: 90 hours

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