GMC Jam Games The GMC Jam 39 Games Topic - ENTER HERE!

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GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder




Games Topic

THEME
Pathetic Creature

OPENS
Thursday 26th November, 2020 12:00 UTC

DEADLINE
Monday 30th November, 2020 12:00 UTC




  • Any GMC member can take part in the GMC Jam. You must use GameMaker to create your game.​
  • Games must be made between 12:00 UTC on November 26th and 12:00 UTC on November 30th, and posted here in the games topic.​
  • You may use resources such as graphics, sounds and scripts that were made prior to the jam, as long as the bulk of your work takes place during Jam weekend.​
  • You may create one post per entry in the games topic. You may create this post before your game is finished and continue editing that post to update your progress, in fact you are encouraged to write a devlog!​
  • All entries must have a download link in the Games Topic before it closes at 12:00 UTC on November 30th.​
  • All entries must work on Windows as a standalone executable / compressed zip folder. No installers please. Your entry can also work in HTML5 and on other platforms, but most reviewers will only play the Windows entry.​
  • All entries are encouraged to follow the Jam theme. It isn't mandatory to do so, but you'll often get more favourable reviews from your peers!​
  • You may participate alone or in a team of up to 3 members. See the "teams" section below if you're looking for teammates. Only one team member creates a post for the game in the topic - do not create multiple posts for the same game.​

Recommended post format:

Game Title
Developer Name / Team Name
DOWNLOAD LINK (when finished)

- maybe a screenshot here -

- your devlog here -

You can keep editing your post to write a devlog about your game.
You can also post in the discussion topic as you develop your game.
Do not post more than one post per game in the games topic.






As at the start of the jam the following people were looking for teams but be aware, they may already have teammates at this point:
  • @LucasTheNewbie - I'm looking for a Game Jam Team. I'm a sound designer and music composer. Also I can help with concept ideas.​
  • ...No more members looking for teams​
 
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ghandpivot

Member

Danger noodle by Ghandpivot
Download here




I've never used inverse kinematics for dynamic animation before but I figured I'd give it a go.

Devlog:
devlog1.png
So this is a snake game where the snake follows the player instead of moving around. I'm thinking about adding a leash or something to it. That means that while the snake can't hit its own tail, you too are not allowed to be caught by the snake or run into its tail. This adds another dimension to it. I also liked the idea of progression in snake, so I'm trying to add some automatication to the collection of food.

I wanted to add assembly lines like in Factorio. It turned out to be a little difficult but I managed to be able to label each segment of a line in a way that I can refer to them all together, which opens some doors.


Then I wanted to add claw hook machines. Right now they're kinda stationary but I'd like for them to be moveable or perhaps even mounted on the snake.



By the end of day 1, you can now carry and throw the collectors. You can also jump over the snake's tail, and the snake itself animates more properly. Won't be working on this all that much until saturday/sunday, left to do is some sort of highscores (online preferably), work out some sort of gameplay and a failstate.


The Offline highscores are in and the polish is better. Everything about the Online highscores is working except for the server from which they are called. I've emailed the owner of gmscoreboard but I doubt he'd answer within the jam time. I've tried setting up my own server but it takes time, which I have very little.
The premise of the game was cool - growing the snake gives you score but makes it much harder to survive. But it's not really any fun 😅
I think it needs to have more impact with screen shakes and wiggles, even more speed, more dangers and online scores. I have conveyor belts half-implemented (they can be spawned but I haven't quite gotten to making them move food or grabbers being able to fill them up. They would allow you to gather food quicker while running the risk of crashing the snake into them. I think most mechanics should have more than one purpose or function, a principle this game has followed well. E.g. the big arm gathers food, but if the snake runs into the base of it it's game over.
 
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Bart

WiseBart
logo.png

by Bart & Snidr

<< Download Nova Mare >>


Researchers found the long lost underwater facility of Nova Mare at the bottom of the ocean.
Legend speaks of a creature that has its home there. Though the legend also speaks of a rather pathetic creature since it whines a lot.

Your task is to descend to the bottom of the ocean, find your way through Nova Mare while fighting jellyfish and find the creature.

26-11-2020

13:30 UTC+1 - All right! Time for another GMC Jam.
The theme turns out to be "Pathetic Creature", which I think is great since it allows for a nice little story to be added.

This time I'll literally be doing everything myself, including 3D models (Blender), textures (GIMP and Inkscape) and music (LMMS).
Maybe sound effects as well, though that is the one thing I'm not sure about.
And obviously GameMaker will be used to create the actual game 😄

17:30 UTC+1 - I managed to model a more or less convincing environment in Blender where the game will take place:


The Nova Mare facility located on the bottom of the sea

Unfortunately it won't come out nearly as good as this render but I'm still happy with the result.
Everything will take place on the inside so that means you'll never get to see the game world from this perspective anyway.
To not make things too complicated I'll simply join all geometry with the same material (i.e. texture) together in a single model/batch and export that.
I'll still need to scale the entire world up by a large factor since, currently, all domes have a 2m diameter and the big one has one of 4m.

Next up is the import of the model in GameMaker, complete with a basic shader that does textures. I'll also add translucency for the windows.

00:15 UTC+1 - The basic import of the first parts of the world model is done:



There's no lighting or anything yet but the models are already textured (though some UVs are a bit off at the moment) and transparent faces are working. So that's definitely a good thing.
The scale factor will be 1m:32px. This will be important for the link with the Box2D collisions.

That will be all for today. I'm pretty happy with the result, considering this is only the first day of the jam.
If all goes according to, uhm, "plan", I'll continue work on the visual things tomorrow, get the player and player camera in and perhaps add a jellyfish model already.

27-11-2020

12:30 - A good morning! A very late morning, too.

I am continuing work on the game world. Currently, there's basic diffuse lighting and more model parts (material/texture).
Here's how it looks at the moment:


The idea of having jellyfish as enemies doesn't really work. There will be jellyfish, but they'll obviously be on the outside, in the seawater.
Also, my idea of a shooter is a bit hard to achieve in this game world because of the domes.
It won't be too hard to fire a bullet somewhere but where does it collide with a dome then? Where does it collide with anything?
So... Probably no shooting after all...

I'm thinking of something different. A more puzzle-based approach.
We'll see.

17:00 UTC+1 - The collision mask is in. Or, at least, more or less...

I should've taken the mirror about the y axis into account.
Put simply, I'll have to export every model again with y coordinates flipped. And normals too, of course.
And also change the projection.

23:00 UTC+1 - I couldn't resist the urge and spent too much time working on a "cinematic" intro cutscene:



Meanwhile I also got the Box2D collision masks in.

Also, my one-man team will soon get help with this entry!
I'm greatly looking forward to it!

01:00 UTC+1 - I finally modelled and imported a jellyfish! Unfortunately he isn't moving yet since it seems like there's something not right with the batched morph animation.


Once I have the shader for these batched morph animations up and running again they'll be drawn in batches of 64 at a time. Lovely!

I guess I'll end today with this. There's a lot more to be added, let alone that I still need to figure out something to do in this neat little underwater world (isn't it always).

28-11-2020

16:00 UTC+1 - A good afternoon! I've been working further on the game world for a couple of hours.

I'm now also getting help with 3D models and graphical effects from Snidr.
I also got a couple of very good ideas from our conversation so far :D

There will be a boss battle with a blobfish that takes place inside the big dome. Under that big dome is a crater that connects to an underground cave where the fish resides.
The idea is to reel the fish in using a pulley, then battle!
First you'll need to go inside the cave using the elevator. Then you go back up and battle the blobfish.

21:30 UTC+1 - A tiny update on the jam game.

I modelled a basic installation in the big dome that will be used to reel in the blobfish.
The blobfish now also has two great models made by Snidr!
To animate this beautiful creature we'll be using SMF.



Hopefully it will be possible to get the fishing an entertaining minigame. That's the next thing on the todo list: add fishing.

23:30 UTC+1 - It's almost time to go blobfish fishing with this mandatory Box2D powered fishing equipment. TIme to add a fish to catch!
Meanwhile Snidr has been making very neat models that will help bring the game world alive.

The schools of jellyfish didn't make it in yet because of a different focus. They're just meant as a nice visual effect anyway.

29-11-2020

21:00 UTC+1 - Not much of a devlog this time, it seems. Here's a small update!

I've been working on several things. Snidr has made several more models and added a depth shader so the underwater environment looks a lot nicer now.
Hopefully, by tomorrow, you'll be able to battle this great creature:



22:45 UTC+1 - Another tiny update. Before battle, you'll reel in the blobfish yourself. Here's how that looks:


About time I continue the coding of that battle. The combination of the projection, Box2D and point_direction has been giving quite some problems.
Which is exactly why the blobfish isn't looking in the right direction yet.
Time to fix that!

30-11-2020

11:00 UTC+1 - Two more hours left to finish this jam game and get it a bit playable! Let's see what we can get in.

12:15 UTC+1 - Only 45 minutes left. There is a "boss battle" and now I only need add a quick ending and a credits roll.
I also added a README.

14:00 UTC+1 - I got some issues with wifi about an hour ago but found another wifi spot. So with that... Nova Mare is up and can be downloaded!

And that's all for this jam.
I'm very happy with the help I got from Snidr, with the visuals and with the animated 3D models!

This entry isn't done yet so there will definitely be a post-jam version of this game!
Well, time to finish this before the games' topic gets closed.
 
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GameDevDan

Former Jam Host
Moderator
GMC Elder
The Frootinis
By GameDevDan & Allison James

DOWNLOAD


DEVLOG

1h 40m Project Time
I have a concept, some crude sprites and a little guy what climbs walls.


3h 45m Project Time
I've made a little storybook to tell the story of my jam game. I'll use this to "book-end" the game at the start and the end so I can focus on cramming content/levels in the middle! Really happy with how this effect looks (just using draw_sprite_pos to flip the pages)


9h 30m Project Time
Almost certain GM is miscounting these hours (does leaving the IDE open with your PC in sleep over lunch count??) - Anyway... quite pleased I have a game flow which could now be called a "finished game" from start to end (although, barely any content in the middle lol). The project currently goes: OPENING CUTSCENE -> LEVEL 1 -> BOSS CUTSCENE -> BOSS -> END CUTSCENE -> THANKS FOR PLAYING. I just to need stuff as many fun levels as I can between level 1 and the boss :D

11h 45m Project Time
The game is complete except for audio, which I will probably add at the last minute on Monday! The game now has 10 levels with a variety of mechanics. I've got plenty of time to add more, obviously, but I really want as many reviewers as possible to get to the boss fight & see the end of the story so they've had a "complete" experience. They can't really do that if the game takes up too much of their time!


15h 20m Project Time
Added the music (Thanks to Allison ( @NAL )) and sound effects. Also added a secret hidden GameDevDan level which I think nobody will find but I wanted to do it anyway :D lol
The game is now completely finished and available here: https://gamedevdan.itch.io/frootinis
 
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SoapSud39

Member
"Six Feet"
by Ezra (@SoapSud39)
featuring the voice of Amos (friend A)
Drive Link
(finished just in time)

It is 1351, peak of the Black Death. Play as Claude, a child hired by Father Jerome to bury the bodies of the deceased from the local towns. But be careful of your actions, because any little thing might get you labeled as a heretic and executed.

notes:
  • put the carrot in the cart to gain a point (didn't have time to keep track of total scores though)
  • give the carrot to a farmer to make him leave
  • don't hit the father with dirt
  • but do hit the crows with dirt
  • if you get stuck somewhere, press R to restart
  • don't throw the bodies too hard
  • you don't need grave markers to complete the level
left/right or A/D or left mouse to move
generally, left mouse to pick up/dig, right to put down/throw
mouse over Father Jerome + press space to talk to him (to complete level)

----
I woke up at 5 for the jam (PST), and I didn't realize that UTC doesn't do daylight savings...
(remind me to upload by 4 on monday, plz)

Insomnia sucks, especially when I planned to wake up when the jam started. I don't know if it's the anxiety of another game jam or because I taste-tested too much of the caffeine-water I brewed last night (to be fair, that was a solid 5 hours before bedtime). Anyway, I wake up at 5 in the morning, and it turns out UTC is 8, and not 7, hours ahead of PST (it was the latter last jam), so one might argue that I should have woken up at 4 instead. But it's all good. Last jam, i.e. my first ever game jam, I managed to start conceptualizing at 9-ish (4 PM UTC) and take time to do other non-jam-related things, and still managed to make way too much (unorganized) content. I still haven't finished that game.

I'm a bit tired, but an okay breakfast and a bit of caffeine-water should do the trick.

So this time around, I started conceptualizing a few days before the jam began, on the premise of the theme being "pathetic creature" (luckily, it is). And I decided to name it "Six Feet". That's right. Another pandemic game.


A little bit about me:
I'm currently attending UZLA (University of Zoom in Los Angeles) and also happen to be located around the area. I'm currently doing an undergrad double-major in English and Philosophy, two of those subjects which have absolutely nothing to do with coding. Fortunately, I don't have much in terms of homework or exams this quarter, and it is now Thanksgiving break ('murica), so I can put all of my little brain into this project.

Hopefully, I'll have the project finished by 10 PM on Sunday (6 AM UTC Monday), because I have class the next morning and I will surely be exhausted from working on the jam.

Yours,
Ezra

Devlogs:
Okay, I'm not really making another pandemic game. At any rate, not a COVID game.
It's set in 1350, peak of the Black Death.

Here are some concept sketches in my notebook:
syke!
I had to remove this one because of the 5 file limit.
It was basically a worse version of what you can see in the other images
(Friday 5PM)

The game will be about a bishop, Father Jerome, who must see to it that the bodies of the deceased are properly buried, and Claude, the layman hired by Jerome to do the actual labor. I might utilize the plague doctor motif at some point.

I'm thinking I might do pixel art for this one. I kind of wanted to do some high-res Photoshop drawings, but I did that last jam and did not have a good time exporting everything. In any case, I'm better at pixel art.

The Plan (for the next four days):
  • Thursday
    • draw (finish by this afternoon, maybe even by noon, since I have almost everything conceptualized in my mind)
    • finish writing script
    • hire a friend for voice acting (if you remember the voice acting from my game last jam, and liked it, you're in for a treat)
    • start coding
  • Friday
    • finish drawing as needed
    • code
    • music (hopefully this won't take too long, since I'm only prospectively using three or four unique tracks)
    • voice lines
  • Saturday
    • finish coding??
    • cutscenes (I'm still on 2.25, so no sequences)
    • sound effects (foley, yay)
    • finish other things???
  • Sunday
    • finish anything else
    • hopefully this leaves me with enough time to polish the game
next devlog when I've done some art and/or animations
Here's a bit of artwork, as promised:
concept pixels.jpg
I think I'm going to animate/use these as my final versions. I don't really want to spend too much time improving designs (I really like how Father Jerome came out anyway).

Not gonna lie: it didn't actually take me an hour and a half to draw this much. I guess the urgency of game jam hasn't set in yet. Which is bad, because I'm planning to finish earlier than 4 AM (12 UTC) of Monday (more like the night before), and I won't be able to do that without proper motivation.

So here's a promise: I will update the post with another devlog by noon (8 PM UTC) saying that I am done with most, if not all, of my artwork and animations, and I must not lie. Now that I'm morally obligated to do so, I will be drawing for a while, no distractions.

sayonara, have a good jam, until I come back in four hours
Alas! that I could not fulfill the promise I made in the previous devlog. Turns out drawing still does in fact take time. But I think I can finish by 4 PM (midnight UTC) if I continue right after lunch.

The one good news is that I have just about finished player animations, which are the most numerous and time-consuming. Well, I don't actually know if player animations are the most time-consuming, since I'm also planning to draw some larger cutscene sprites, and who knows how long those will take? (I must confess that I do not)

Anyway, next devlog in about 4 hours, or whenever I finish artwork, or whenever I have some revelation I feel the need to share with you. In the meantime, please enjoy the player's four-frame walk animation:
claude big.gif
the nice thing about not being able to tell the feet apart and having a single mostly static arm is that I can get away with four frames instead of eight
For those of you following along with my devlog progress, I offer you my profuse apologies, for it has been more than 4 hours, I have not finished the artwork yet, and I have no revelation. However, I do have a devlog.

At this point, I've finished almost all of the in-game elements, leaving a few minor details (including tiles) and cutscene sprites to be done in another 4 hours (I hope). At any rate, I'm still on-schedule. The only thing I would have gotten from finishing artwork about an hour ago would have been more time to start coding (emphasis on 'start'). And maybe a bit more time to work on scripting, but I've been thinking about that a lot, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. In any case, I'm doing a lot better in terms of completion than I was at this point last jam.

I can't show any cutscenes because (clearly) I don't have any yet, but here is a mockup of what the level might look like.
mockup.png
Since I haven't really explained how the game will work, here it is:

Father Jerome watches over you (Claude) as you bury all the bodies, and you must do it before night-fall, or the wolves will come for you.

It kind-of looks like some sort of platformer right now, but I intend for it to be an intense time-management (albeit turn-based) puzzle game. The only win condition is to bury all the bodies of the deceased six feet under (hence the title, "Six Feet") by night-fall. The caveat is that there are a lot of lose conditions, ranging from workplace accident to execution on accounts of heresy. The main constraint is time, because almost every single move will take up a certain amount of time, and you will have to strategize to make the best use of time while avoiding lose conditions.

You might be able to guess how the theme 'pathetic creature' ties in, but it will hopefully become more apparent through the narrative elements.


Next step: finish up game elements, and then allow myself until around 10 PM (6 AM UTC) to work on cutscene art.

I know I keep promising to finish in like four hours, but, as aforementioned, I'm still on-schedule.
Perhaps there will be another devlog once I have actually finished all or almost all of the artwork.
The artwork is complete! ...for the most part. I may have forgotten a couple of small things, but they would be pretty easy to conjure up on Aseprite when I need them (or when I remember what they are, if they are). Also the menu art. But that one will be pretty quick (I'm thinking it's just a wooden cross grave marker and a shovel, plus the title). I still have to export all the sprites, but I'll get to that later. It's a lot easier to export from Aseprite than from Photoshop (bad memories).

I suppose I should recapitulate on what I've been drawing. Before I wrote the last devlog, it was all of the in-game elements: player, other characters, environment, etc., as in the level mockup. The past 4-and-a-half hours was dinner, plus tiles, some character dialogue sprites, and some lose-condition/game over overlay sprites.

I think I made the tiles a little too detailed, at least compared to the rest of the environment. I knew, the moment that I chose three shades for each tile type, that I had messed up. No big. The underground will just look slightly more intricate.

I was trolling when I mentioned that the cutscenes would take a while to draw. But all I'm planning to do for those is put a higher-res version of the character (i.e. Father Jerome) on a solid or gradient background and then do voice lines. So the only things I had to draw were a few of those high-res sprites. That probably took less than an hour.

What I mean by lose-condition overlay is that I'm going to put a transparent black rectangle over the game, overlay a transparent white line-sketch, and put some text explaining why you lost. Nothing big. The focus will, hopefully, be on the text (and/or voice lines).

Things I still need to draw (that I've recalled just now):
  • menu illustration
  • win illustration?? (I don't have one in mind, but I might add one later)
  • cracks (a less important effect I might add to dirt being dug out)
I don't feel like plugging my tablet back in right now, so I'll do them later. I also need to finish scripting so that my friend can do his voice lines. And start coding. If I can begin (emphasis on 'begin') coding by bed-time, I call today a success. Bed-time is probably 4 AM (noon UTC) though, so I'll probably achieve the goal (scripting shouldn't take more than another hour).


The Plan (from section 1.0, but edited):
  • Thursday
    • draw (finish by this afternoon, maybe even by noon, since I have almost everything conceptualized in my mind)
    • finish writing script
    • hire a friend for voice acting (if you remember the voice acting from my game last jam, and liked it, you're in for a treat)
    • start coding
  • Friday
    • finish drawing as needed
    • code
    • music (hopefully this won't take too long, since I'm only prospectively using three or four unique tracks)
    • voice lines
  • Saturday
    • finish coding??
    • cutscenes (I'm still on 2.25, so no sequences)
    • sound effects (foley, yay)
    • finish other things???
    • level design (totally forgot about this part when I wrote this agenda earlier today)
  • Sunday
    • finish anything else
    • hopefully this leaves me with enough time to polish the game
I think this spoiler section will be the last part of devlog 1. I'll probably post another devlog once I've finished scripting + sent it to my friend, and then exported/imported all sprites I currently have. Maybe 1 or 2 AM? (9 or 10 AM UTC)

And then I'll get started on a grid/turn-based movement system for Claude and call it a night around 4 or 5 or whenever the caffeine wears off.

As promised, here is another devlog, which marks the creation of the project for this game.

After taking something called a break, I finished the script (actually, I was pretty much already done), and then exported/imported all the sprites I drew today. I thought I would have much fewer to deal with than last time, and I think I do, but the player (Claude) still has like 45 frames of animation. Well, most of them are just repeated with different items in his arms. RIP texture pages, but the sprites are small, so it's all good.


For the next couple of hours, I guess I'll get a grid/turn-based movement system going. Fortunately, I already have a short script I've tested that I can use for looping animations within long sprite sheets, so those won't be much trouble at all.

I'll probably update with one last devlog for the night around 4 AM (noon UTC) before going to sleep.
I wrote a few lines of code: established some variables, made a ds_grid, etc.

Okay, I didn't actually get any movement system (or any system, for that matter) going. After noting that I had been up for about 22 hours, and some persuasion from a friend, I decided to give my brain a break (probably around an hour ago). I think I still have too much caffeine in my system to get proper sleep at the moment, but I'm going to bed eventually.

I'll see if I can do with about 4 or 5 hours of sleep, but I wouldn't mind sleeping until noon (8 PM UTC), since I'm still technically on-schedule, and will probably stay up late again tomorrow (today?) to get some more progress in. Tomorrow, I'll work on the movement system, and everything else.
Got six hours of sleep, which is more than four. I'm feeling good now and will probably feel better after breakfasting (breaking fast? idk).

I've figured out how I'm going to use the ds_grid. It's not too complicated, or at least much less than I thought it might have been last night/earlier this morning (I was tired). Hopefully, it'll allow for decently easy levels design and maybe even an in-game level editor?? The easy level design part will be pretty important, because I've never actually designed a puzzle game before. The downside to my method, though, is that I'll have to create a new room for every single level. Or I guess I could load from a text file, if I can figure out how to make level design easy that way (you know, without visuals and stuff).

I'll be back in a few hours, once I've decided how I'm going to do level design and then implemented a basic system in code. (and then I'll get into the movement system, etc.)


Maybe I should consume less caffeine... I didn't actually need to stay up so late.
I must confess: strings give me headaches. Here is a look at what I've been working on:
text to grid sample.jpg
above code, plus draw code and some other
It's not too bad. Maybe if you've done something similar before, you know what I'm doing and/or doing wrong, but string-to-grid is new for me. Anyway, it works and I'd say it's decently clean. I'll probably put a bunch of those text blocks in an array somewhere. I only need to use text files if I decide to pull through with level editing and let the player save designs (would be cool, but I might not get there).

The next step, then, is deciding which character to use for each level element and then using the grid to do level generation.


I'm kind of glad I decided to do string blocks instead of room editor level design. This is gonna save so much time.
This took a lot longer than it should have. But I did take a lunch break and wash some dishes that were piling up.
level gen january.jpg
This is probably going to be the last image I'm posting, at least until I have something to use as a header image. I've reached the five image limit and I don't really want to delete any of the other ones (well, I already took off the concept sketches one).
Now I have to actually make a game, because nothing actually does anything yet.

I think I will be back with another devlog once Claude is able to do most or all of his functions, including movement (which I said I would do last night, but totally didn't, haha, but I mean it's going to be really basic movement code), digging up dirt, picking up bodies, etc., etc. Also dinner, etc. Or I'll be back around 10 with another update detailing which promises I've broken.
Turns out I'm still bad at coding. But I'll get there eventually.

I did a bit of movement code, but still very far from the turn-based dream. I'm not super stuck or anything, yet. Somehow or other, I'll be able to code it, but whether I can finish a playable version by tomorrow remains to be seen.

I also did some voice lines. Not very many, because friend A has most of them. I'm excited to get those and start working on them. For some of the audio I recorded, I'm quite glad that my roommates went home for the weekend... 😬


I think I'm going to keep working on code for a little bit. I think I may have reached a small revelation before I distracted myself with recording audio. Now I'll have to figure out what that was. And then maybe I'll start composing some music in an hour or two. It shouldn't be too difficult to create some passable music, because I did it in a pretty short amount of time last jam (unexpectedly). Well, maybe I'll hit a roadblock -- who can say? (not me)

Like last jam, I think it'll be pretty dramatic for parts of it, and then a nice loop to fit the mood of the game. I was fortunate enough last time to conjure up some pretty decent music to fit with the dialogue, but I don't think I will do that this time (might just intentionally avoid it) and instead write a loop suitable for dialogue (in terms of dynamics, etc.), except for maybe the intro and the epilogue.

I'll probably drop a small update when I decide to start writing music. And then another later, probably when I go to sleep or finish composing for the night (whichever comes first).
I got just a bit more movement code done. Grid-based turn-based movement's a little more complicated than I thought, but I'll probably get through it. Claude now moves and jumps properly (and falls properly too). Next will be interacting with the environment and organizing all 50-ish frames of animation, and then other environmental stuff. Also off-turn interactions, like crows and farmers.

I also got the voice lines from my friend, and they are sounding really good. I don't know when exactly I'll be able to get around to using them though... Maybe as soon as tomorrow (today) morning, if I can manage to get some fitting music, and then slap it all together on Audacity.

For now, I will start composing (or attempting to), and then maybe get back to coding in a couple of or three hours, or after I wake up (idk, we'll see). Next devlog will probably be music progress. A lot, I hope.
Good news: I made a lot of music progress... probably. I wrote about half a minute of dramatic-ish music to go with my friend's intro voice lines. And then I put the music with the voice lines. And it sounds really good, which makes me quite excited to see the finished product (not that I wasn't already excited to see the finished product). And then I repurposed a previous incomplete piece into a loop which, I really hope, may be fitting for the mood of the game. It's only like 20 bars long, but I'm listening it back on loop and it's sounding pretty decent, if I may say so myself. At any rate, it's not unpleasant.

If I'm going to be honest, the loop actually sounds a bit too calming for the general feel of the game, but I think the disparity between the mood of the music and the dark themes of the game may create a very special feeling in the heart. Maybe. Well, it's not too happy or upbeat a piece, so I think it'll probably still fit decently well.

Tomorrow I need to work on a darker loop for less important dialogue. I think I need something more fitting than the one I've just completed. And then a minute-and-a-half piece to accompany the epilogue. I think that one can be slow though, so it still won't be way too many bars or anything. That one will also be quite dramatic, because the epilogue has a legendary twist.

Or maybe I'll work on it a little right now. Or I might code. Or I might sleep. I'm not sure, but I'll think about it for a minute after updating this post.

And for coding I will need to do the following (mapping it out so I can follow some plan when I forget what else I need to do later on):
  • environmental interactions (with Claude, i.e. a lot of animations)
  • npc behavior (farmer and crow)
  • ui and ui interactions
  • win and lose conditions and outcomes
  • cutscenes (no sequences), plus other dialogue
  • audio (sfx too, if I can get there)
  • actual level design
  • I'd like to do a level editor, but I don't think I'll get there
I honestly think I probably won't, but it would be really nice if I could finish a playable game, with cutscenes, by tomorrow (today) night. Maybe if I drink even more caffeine, and then stay up right now to finish music...

Anyway, short break and then I will decide whether or not I want to stay up even longer and/or pull one. (yeah, one of those)

PS this loop is actually very decent. It's been going for almost 20 minutes and I'm still not tired of it.

If I stay up, I'll do another devlog before I go to bed. Else, good night/morning/afternoon.
My head hurts. I wonder why 🤔

So I decided to stay up some more, which kind-of pays off, because I don't need to do any more music tomorrow. I think I've had enough of composing in one weekend. Well, it wasn't that much, but still a good amount for one night (or rather, half a morning).

I managed to complete the music items listed one devlog above, after a short-ish break. The loop is very short. Like four measures kind of short. But I think it fits really well with the dialogue I'm planning to use it for. The epilogue piece I also quite like. It's not as full as the intro piece, but I think that's more suitable because of the nature of the epilogue (you'll see, I hope). I managed to get away with a mere 30-ish bars on that one. Which is still sizable, considering all my other jam music has been even shorter. But the 60 bpm really saved me. Kind of cheating, but it fits the scene, so it's all good.


I think I had best head to bead now, before I collapse or something, so I'm going to end the devlog here.

I've had a lot of caffeine, so I think 4 hours ought to do the trick. I'll be back to the logs and/or project around 10, or 12. Who knows?

Good night/morning/afternoon.
Maybe staying up until 6 wasn't such a great idea. My head still hurts and I'm pretty tired in general.

I want to get as much done today as possible, so that I can do some non-jam-related things tomorrow. And also finish by tomorrow night (and not Monday at 4 in the morning). I wonder how much I could get done if I went maximum efficiency mode... but I'll probably get distracted by a bunch of little things again.

I need to learn to focus on finishing things, rather than trying to polish in the middle of doing. I'm not learning any superbly advanced coding techniques this jam, so if anything, I want the main take-away to be an actually completed game (might be my first). That would include core mechanics, narrative, and level design. Anything else should be secondary.

Well, I could say / write all these things, and then work totally differently and end up taking until the last minute and then skip a few monologues to get to the epilogue. Who can say? Not me. But I'll try, I guess.

Goodbye for a while, devlog readers. I probably won't update with another until I've made really substantial progress.

As promised, here is an update on the post after making some substantial progress. Also, devlog 3, because why not? and my numbering convention doesn't make much sense anyway.

I think I got a lot done. It's hard to tell though, because it's still not a playable game. Regretful, because I'm feeling quite tired and don't really want to stay up late again, tonight or tomorrow night.

I've got a lot of movement stuff down. I was going to do something like allow the player to pull the cart with the bodies on it, but I think I might forgo that feature, because it's not really that important. I think that's the only pre-planned feature I'm taking out though. There are also crows and farmers, which have special effects that are important to the game, so I will keep those two.
(I bring up the cart because there was some movement stuff going on with that. But the cart moving around will mess with my brain more than I need to, because I would need to do a lot of checks to make sure it's not going over a hole, that the player's not going over a hole when pulling, that neither go up hills, etc., not to mention the extra variables and inputs to account for switching direction and pulling/not pulling. It's doable, probably, but I would spend way too much time on it.)

On the bright side, I got some pretty good mechanics going for dirt physics. Nothing too complicated, but it took a lot of fenagling the code and now it works pretty well (I hope). It was pretty buggy though, which gave me a lot of issues, and took a lot of time (reference to when I wrote that I would avoid polishing while making the game; but this one can't really be helped, because dirt bugs are gamebreaking bugs in "Six Feet") to fix. There are still some bugs / unintended effects, but so far they only occur when the player shouldn't be able to escape (like when I accidentally trap myself in a hole and then try to leave and then glitch between two x positions). Don't worry, I'll include an 'R' to restart this time. It might be needed in general anyway.

Now I will need to implement carcass physics (pretty similar to the dirt, but only a small part of the dirt, so not terrible at all). I also have a fun surprise for the bodies, so look forward to that. And then after that, retrieving bodies and grave markers from the cart (might be relatively easy) and utilizing them in the environment, and then detection for points (grave marker over bodies equals more points (the points are pointless, but in case anyone wants more of a challenge they may feel free to go for all the points)).

After bodies, I need to implement crows and farmers, the AI for which should be decently simple and doable in a few hours at most. The dirt should have been the most complicated part, because the relevant mechanics involve the most checks out of everything (I think, and I hope). And then, after that, win and lose conditions.

And then probably mid-level dialogue with Father Jerome and some simple UI matters.

I hope I can get these done by tonight, before 2. If not, I may need to stay up until 4 again, but I want to wake up early tomorrow, so I'm going to try to avoid that. Finishing by 2 gives me 6 hours, if I don't count breaks, which is basically tantamount to the 9-ish hours in-between this devlog and the last, including breaks (of which lunch and dinner were the most substantial).


Hopefully, tomorrow will be pretty relaxed (in comparison to today -- the dirt was actually a pain to figure out, or at any rate the way I've been doing it; i.e. poorly). Cutscenes (once again, no sequences, RIP) and other audio, maybe other aesthetic details??, and level design. I think level design should be decently kind to me in comparison to everything else. I only have a few core mechanics for the puzzles, but I could theoretically go a far way with it. I think I focused more on aesthetics (kind of??) and narrative elements this game, so I wouldn't be too disappointed with myself if I only make half-baked puzzles. In any case, it'll be a nice change of pace from hours of drawing and coding to do a bit of non-stressful (??) level design.

Speaking of stressful, I think if I don't get going soon I will become more stressed out about finishing today's work by 2 or 3 or 4. I believe I had best stop rambling on the devlogs.

So long, and best of luck to those who are also stressing over finishing your game on time. I'll update later tonight: if not in 4 or 5 hours, then once before I go to bed.
This is the 'once before I go to bed' devlog. Sleeping before 4, for once.

I've finished most of the interaction mechanics, including picking up and throwing bodies and crow behavior. I can probably do the farmer in one or two hours tomorrow morning (he only has one or two significant functions) , and then it's on to level end conditions. And bug fixing.

I'm still getting crashes, but very occasionally, and for reasons I thought I avoided. Maybe I'll fix them after, or maybe I won't, and it'll be a feature 😬 (dw I'll probably add a simple auto-save every level)

And then I'll fenagle a cutscene/dialogue system and call it a game.


Oh wait, there's also level design and sounds. Maybe I'll end up without sound effects again (or at least not too many), but level design might not be too terrible.

I hope I can get it all done by 10-ish tomorrow/tonight. Or at least 2 I guess. I'd like to sleep before class.
I almost couldn't get up at 9, but I did. And I'm feeling much better today than when I got up yesterday.

I didn't want to miss church service (online, ofc), so I didn't do any coding. But I did do some level design while listening (interpret that however you'd like about how good of a listener I am).

For now, level design is finished, except for time constraints, for which I'll have to test each level layout one by one, but after I finish implementing the farmer. As well as level-end conditions (shouldn't be too terrible, I think). And then it's testing levels and finally implementing the time-limit lose condition.

After that, some dialogue and ui stuff, plus what little audio I've reduced my list to.

And then cutscenes. I'm hoping I'll be able to do those in less time with the experience I've gained over the past three months since last jam. Who knows?

And then I think menu and finish. Plus any aesthetic features. And, potentially, debugging crashes.

I'll probably update after finishing win-lose items, before I start testing levels.
I've finished the core gameplay loop for the most part. And now I can move on to the part that some others have already been working on for a couple of days: the rest of the game.

The gameplay is done to the point where everything interacts as it should. Except for the option to actually end the level (you need to talk to Father Jerome and tell him you're done, because you have the option to get extra points if you still have time). And then I need the level over screen. For that I'm mostly good for the lose conditions (I've already implemented those to go into a game-over state); I just need to code what happens after fulfilling each condition and then make an object that checks for level completion.

I also wanted to keep track of things like score, etc., and keep them in a text file. (speaking of which, I haven't actually done save files before (specifically reading text files), so that'll be new, even if relatively simple and very doable)

And then I can finally get onto audio and cutscenes. Looking forward to that, but also not.

I'm definitely not finishing by 10, but I'm hoping I will be done by 2 by the latest. I don't want to be up until 4 while forgetting that UTC doesn't have daylight savings.
I'll try to get in another devlog once before finishing, and then the last update after finishing.
It's crunch time! Six hours remain and I still have quite a bit to do.

Lose screen and talking to Father Jerome took a bit longer than I would have liked. Now I have to check for level completion and count points (probably take like half an hour tops). And then it's on to level switching and cutscenes.

Speaking of levels, I sure am glad I decided to take the time to figure out text-to-grid level generation. Now I can use just one room (and probably another for the cutscenes) and don't have to mess with hundreds or probably thousands of instances in the room(s) editor.

I don't know if I'll get to sounds (or at least any more than music and four or five important ones). But if I do I'll probably fenagle it real quick.

Hopefully, I'll be back to the devlogs by around 3 with a finished game.
;
Very nearly done. I think I'll probably upload within the last ten minutes (lol). Until then, very simple menu, and light play testing.
I had to rush the last parts of the project because I overscoped again. The menu sucks and I profusely apologize if there are any game-breaking bugs. If the game crashes you can use 9 and 0 to cycle through the levels.

I also didn't have time to test, so every level starts at 12PM and ends depending on the month it is (instead of starting later to increase difficulty). Theoretically, every level should be doable, but once again, I didn't have time to test them. Maybe I'll play through it once tomorrow and update somewhere whether it is possible, and also what other problems I had.

Speaking of which, I just noticed after uploading that using R to restart won't stop the background music when cutscenes begin. Cycling a level before skipping a cutscene or letting it end also doesn't stop the audio, so please be mindful of that.

I'm going to sleep now, because I have class at 10. I'll probably put another devlog collecting my thoughts, if I decide to write one, and post it on the discussion thread (linked below).

final devlog here (maybe)

PST times are accurate; hopefully, I'm getting the UTC times correct (in terms of the 12-hour system, anyway)
 
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Josh Chen

Member
WHERE CREATURES ROAM

The wild story of an adventurer, searching for gold, fighting for his life, and discovering the mysterious Portal to another dimension; the point of no return.

By @Josh Chen & @bandman28

Download link

We hope lots of people can make it to the final dimension and hopefully win! This game has no levels, you can build and collect resources in the main dimension, kill creatures for loot or self defense, and find traders to make upgrades. When you think you're ready, you can gather your resources together and enter the Portal. There's no going back, you win, or you die, so make sure you're prepared!

If you want an extra challenge, or you've beaten the game and want to play again, try speedrunning! Just time yourself playing the game and let us know your best time in your review!
 
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Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
logo.png
By: Evanski


DꓵWN̵L̴̡͓̱̤͕͊̌͂͊͒͝OႧA L1N̵̨̢͉̦͓̥̍K̷̙̬̩̪̫̲͛͒ͅ

Reflection Is a Horror sim designed to make you feel uncomfortable playing, The goal is to answer questions from the game,
whether or not you have a fun and easy experience, is up to you.
"Hope to see you soon!"

You can only play once, so make it count!



Started with @HayManMarc
Got an game idea going, and a basic prototype, Family issues and personal stuff has popped up so this might not be finished

due to issues it seems that that game will not be coming out How, ever I want to work with another idea I had, and I will make sure it comes out

got my backup idea started
got some basic concepts all coded out
reused some assets from The fault in our code hope my previous partners @Cloaked Games & @JosephEllis dont mind. :p Im not an artist by any means and so reusing assets and recoloring them was a fast and easy way to climb over the cliff, there only used for the title screen as the rest of the game has a minimalistic art style

overslept, Computer wouldnt let my login, problems left and right, no one showed up to my stream
today has not started out good, after about 40 mins I got player choices working, did some polish and added a few, surprises!

I've lost track of time, but I have alot of ideas for the project and really want to continue it, so I will ;)
Front page of newest horror games, uh-oh
 
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Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu

DUNG BEETLE: ENDANGERED FECES
By
Pixel Team

DOWNLOAD LINK

Dung_Beetle_Title.png

Dung_Beetle_Gameplay.png
DEVLOG
DAY 1: So... being Thanksgiving today I'm not allowed to go on my computer, so I will focus on the planning of my game. My game will be an arcade style game where you are a dung beetle eating his way through levels made of..ahem. I'm thinking Dig Dug, but with doo doo. I've always been a fan of bathroom humor, and I hope I can make something that leaves a mark. Oh, dear. I'm doing it already.

DAY 2: I got a dung beetle moving around the level made of doo doo. He eats his way through the level like Dig Dug, with some autotile masking working. The beetle can only eat so much doo doo and as he eats, he collects a ball of doo doo behind him. When he can't eat any more, you have to roll the doo doo ball to the top of the level to get rid of it, and then you can eat more doo doo. I know. It turns out that the Pathetic Creature in this story is me.

DAY 3: Man, this 💩💩💩💩 is getting crazy! No, seriously. There's doo doo everywhere, and it is straight up crazy! So today I got a ton of work done. I got Wasps that come into the level and pathfind their way to the player. They move really slow, but here's the thing. As you dig through the level, you build up a little ball of doo doo. When it's full size, you can launch it at the wasps. It won't kill the wasps, but it will trap them in doo doo temporarily. When they burst out of the doo doo, they come at you a little bit faster. You now get 3 lives, and after those 3 there's a game over. What I'd like to do tomorrow is work out some patrol behavior on the wasps when they can't pathfind to the player. This way I can place them at the start of the level in areas where the player needs to be, so like in Dig Dug, sometimes you'll have to free the enemy to get to the goodies being guarded. Another thing I want to do is some sort of intro. I'm thinking like an arcade rom initialization, and perhaps a "Winners Don't Do Drugs" screen, and an intro using Sequences. I'm pretty sure I can knock all that out tomorrow. Wish me luck!

DAY 4: Well, I didn't get the arcade rom intro, but I got an even better intro, and even managed to squeeze in some voice-over work. I think if I had some more time I would add some more enemies, some power-ups, and perhaps a way to get extra lives, but being Thanksgiving, I had to spend the first day with family. That said, I'm happy with the game. I hope you like it. Cheers!
 
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Mightyjor

Member

awaremon title.PNG
(Pathetic Monsters...? Maybe I don’t speak Japanese)
By
Mightyjor
DOWNLOAD FROM ITCH PAGE


A Pokémon style game where all the creatures are sad and it’s your job to cheer them up! Take part in turn based combat where you don’t fight but protect and uplift. Find the secrets to cheering up the Awaremon and bring happiness to their world!
The theme was announced at 5am MST so normally I would only now be seeing it, however, my dog decided it would be a good idea to sit on my face at 4:55 because she needed to go to the bathroom. Since I was up, I checked the theme and was so relieved it had nothing to do with the Pandemic, like I’m sure most of us were.

I mostly laid in bed after thinking about what I want to do, and since one of my dream projects is an Earthbound style deck building game, I figure I could give it a practice run here to figure out a good turn based combat system in GMS2. I’ve tried making one before, but it was too complicated for me at the time and I think I can do better this time.

My idea would be a game where in turn based combat you would praise, hug, or listen as your 3 combat options. You’re trying to raise the happiness of your combatant and they’re constantly trying to put themselves down. Praise would raise their happiness by a large amount, hug would give them warmth which raises a small amount every turn, and listen would mitigate the incoming damage from them putting themselves down.
My starting goal is to have 6 creatures to uplift. We’ll see how many I can do! I plan on using a simple GB style so that I can knock out most of the code and game in a day. It’s Thanksgiving around here so I want to spend most of the weekend with family, but my wife works on Friday so that will be when I get most of the work done. Wish me luck!

As I said before, I don't plan on getting much done today, but I am trying to get something. So far I've made the following:
I made some placeholder sprites for the 6 creatures I want in the game:
placeholder creatures.PNG

I've also made a general layout for what I want the battlescreen to look like:

battlescreen.PNG

And I've put together the outline for some code that should handle most of the battle system (though I haven't actually programmed anything. Mostly just busy work that doesn't take much thinking, like a huge switch statement to handle the turn based combat with a bunch of comments as more of a checklist so I don't forget anything.




I also created a better looking version of the tall creature...she's a little scarier than I had originally imagined but I kind of like the look.

tall lady temp.PNG

Overall I’m really happy with what I was able to get done today. I managed to make some cool art for the enemies and animated an idle position for them too. Because of the way the battle screen is set up, that’s basically all I’ll need. If I get more time, I might my a smaller version for finding them in world. At the very least I’ll have some visuals that can draw in an audience.
Tomorrow I will pretty much need to get the whole game done in a day since my wife will be at work and it will be the only full day I get to work on it. Honestly if I can at least knock out the battle system, that will make me happy since everything else can be sacrificed if necessary. I have plans for cutscenes, an ending, and an over world where you run around helping people, but as long as I can have a battle system where you praise, hug and listen to the creatures, I’ll be happy.

Devlog Day 2: General battle layout

I created a menu near the end of the day which you can see here:;


I got a aesthetic going for the battle, but it doesn't really work the way I want it to yet, mostly just smoke and mirrors.


Battle system is up and running! It is easily changed depending on the enemy that is put in the room, so I can just modify the different stats of the enemies and place them in a room and the game will do it's magic. I guess the next step is to put together normal play area for walking around.


Well it's getting near the end of the day now, and I finished up just about all I'm going to do for gameplay and visuals. I have the rest of the jam to complete the sound, but that's usually the easiest one for me so I'm not too worried.
Here are some more shots of some things I accomplished:

I made a self portrait as the professor who introduces you to the game and gameplay, which acts like a tutorial section:


I made a tutorial section where you can learn on how play, here's most of it:



I created an overworld for you to walk around in and grab things for the characters. It doesn't really constitute as "gripping" gameplay, but I think it does a little bit to break up the combat and gives a little insight into the characters. Also I created this cool little town, probably the best pixel art work I've ever done.

And to finish things off for today, I added a Slay the Spire type system that shows how much damage the enemy is going to do. That way you can choose to "listen" (guard), buff your attack if its low with "hug", or just use a normal attack.


That's it for today, I will probably pick this back up tomorrow and Sunday. If anyone wants to try it out, I'll work on getting the itch.io page up so you can test for bugs and let me know if you run into any.

Music
I had a hard time getting the music right for this game. Every time I make 8bit music, I realize it’s a LOT harder than I think it’s going to be because you can’t cover up any mistakes or ugly notes and you still have to keep things interesting with only 3-4 tracks. I ended up making a lot more instruments for the battle theme and not doing 8bit just because I got bored of the 8bit stuff and it wasn’t sounding as good as I wanted it to be. I figure if Undertale can change out of 8bits whenever it wants, so can I. In the end, the town music is just a Pokémon knockoff which is exactly what I was going for.

Bug Testing/Polish
I reduced the difficulty of the enemies to prevent anyone rage quitting. I’m realizing as I’m playing more that it’s not terribly fun to whittle away at the same bar only to have your work constantly undone every turn, so I’ll keep it easy this game. There is a strategy to winning on harder difficulties, but it also requires a lot of time and back and forth in combat which no one has time for in a game jam. Add to that I’ve got 6 different enemies with a 7th final boss and I’m already expecting a lot of time from the player for a jam. If every fight lasts 1-2 minutes, my game will probably take about 10-15. That means the battles have to be snappy.

I also want to add something to show what the next enemy attack indicator. I’m not certain it’s immediately obvious. Maybe I can add some tutorial text on the text bar in a fight that supersedes all other instructions. That should help I think.

4:10pm -
I'm pretty much done now. I've added in an item inventory area on the bottom of the screen:


I added in a small text that appears when you hover over the number or the healthbar that will teach the player what it's doing. I figured this was a better option than hard coding it in because it would take up too much space in the battle screen.


I created a trailer for the game that you can find at the top in case you're on the fence about trying it out. I also set up most of the itch page so you can play the game now if you like. The link for that is up top as well.

Well that about wraps up my time on this game. I'm looking forward to trying out all of the entries! That was my favorite part of the last jam. Hope everyone else is faring well on their games!

5:06PM - Ok I thought I was done, but I had some last minute bug fixes to do and a few other quality of life features.

Difficulty Selection:
On the main menu, I added a difficulty selector. Now no one can complain the game is too easy! If you want to use the actual strategies in the game that require using "listen" and "hug, you can up the difficulty. It starts out at a 1 difficulty and this acts as a scaler to scale up the HP and attack power of the creatures. It also makes the fights last MUCH longer. People like myself usually like short games, so a 1 would be lightning fast with almost no strategy involved.



Healthbar:
I made the text on the healthbar a little more readable as it wasn't super easy to read before. I also added a little happy and sad face on either end of the healthbar to maybe make it a bit clearer what you're supposed to be doing. I ran into the max photo upload limit so you can't see it but its nice.

Ok that about does it! Excited to see everyone's games!
 
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FIVE MINUTE MYSTERY
by Terminator_Pony
DOWNLOAD

thumb1half.png
A short paraNormal mystery.


I'll throw my devlog in here sometime. Probably tomorrow now (which was tomorrow).

Day 1: Mostly brainstorming between other obligations. Decided to make a small mystery game on the paraNormal side of things. When evening came around I was able to hash out some basic mechanics and graphics.

Day 2: Finished! Sort of. The graphics are aweful, but it's all temporary programmer art. What it does have is fully fleshed-out spaghetti coded dialogue, with some 'optional' banter depending on the order events happen. So much of the code is straight up disgusting (and some of it is "forward-thinking" with a few unneeded variables! yay), but obviously rehashing every line as the ideas (and problems) roll in isn't going to get a game released. Somehow I've been able to mostly avoid bugs (I'll save those for release), but I have found myself pressing ":" instead of ";" much more than usual. I guess I'm not used to crunch-time and typing fast.

4mmS1.png
Finished day 2 with a movie break and some sketch help from my wife. Starting day 3 with some sleepy brain fog. I'll probably start tinkering with music/audio until I wake up a bit, then move onto digitizing the sketches. I'm thinking about including the "original" art as an option, but who knows - still have a fair bit of sketching to do.
It's all a blur. Not 100% how I envisioned it graphically, but it has its merits. I'm amused with the result, but also terrified that some undiscovered bug will break the game. I had to re-write a bunch of the code when I transitioned from the fully working prototype to a closer representation of what I envisioned. On a side note, I thought I'd have a more cohesive dev log this time around - I blame obsessing over my art/lack there of.
Download is up, time for bed. I'm glad it's over. 😅 I'm curious though if people will find a few of the "hidden" dialogue branches...
 
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Sirham

Member
BLOCK.png

DOWNLOAD

BLOCK is a simple little puzzle game. You play as Block. He can't really jump, but hey, it's the hand he was dealt. Move around and use your mouse to solve the puzzle.

Not the greatest game ever. But with what little time I had, I tried to make something sorta kinda fun. Enjoy :)
 
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The M

Member

HÅRS
"It's like QWOP but you have four legs"

[DOWNLOAD]
Devlog:
Day 1: I wasn't expecting this theme and I don't really know what to do with it. I got an idea to have the player play as a fake horse where you control each leg independently. The game would require some sort of physics, probably with box2d which I haven't really used. This is great! Starting with last jam I've decided to challenge myself a lot more with these jams and making a physics driven game fits the bill nicely. :)

One thing that'd be really cool is if I could add online multiplayer too. It's probably a bit too ambitious for a short jam game (and a whole different beast to tackle) but since the horse is made from two people, it would be awesome to have one person control the front legs and one control the hind legs.

Day 2: I've created a physics body for the horse and connected each leg to a button: press it to bend the leg, release to stretch it. Now the horse can stand, and kind of walk?

No, not really walk...

The main issue I think comes down to A) getting the physics properties right, and B) having the legs apply forces on the horse or the ground. The thing is that with four legs, the horse is just very stable as it is and lifting one leg (or two) does nothing. I've experimented with making the horse's body a lot lighter and changing the force applied to the legs but that has only taken me as far as you can see in the gif above and it's not enough for it to be remotely playable. I'm thinking that maybe I can make the horse tilt forward if it's got a front and a hind leg raised. This could create forward momentum and make it possible to walk. The only problem is that the legs are super rigid at the moment and don't allow bending in those directions (I'm basically using revolution joints with their motors cranked up to max and using angle limits to make sure they don't overstretch). Somehow I need to keep that, while also allowing the legs to bend a little extra beyond straight...

For jumping I could just apply some extra force when you release both buttons at once so that part should be easy enough. Then there's the question of whether or not the horse can carry anything on its back but I guess I'll save that for after I've made it walk. ;)

....

Welp, I've gotten walking to work, though it goes slowly. Jumping turned out to be a lot harder though and while I can get the horse to make beautiful flips and land on its head I can't make the jumps particularly useful from a gameplay perspective. It's going to take a fair bit of iteration for this to work...

Day 3: I'm slowly ironing out the physics of the horse while at the same time trying to make a game of it. I've given the horse's head a physics fixture so it doesn't look as weird when it lands upside down (which still happens too often). I've also made updated the terrain to be generated dynamically from nodes I place in the editor. It allows me to create much neater and more natural environments. It also showed me that the horse can't climb slopes at all which mean I either need to keep the surfaces somewhat flat or rework the physics even more...

I've put The Good, the Bad, the Ugly theme on loop for the last 30 minutes while testing this segment.

....

I've set up a castle with a friendly guard on top who will open the gate for you. The guard has a dialogue line and I put an unreasonable amount of time on the dialogue box where each letter is its own object with properties for how to draw it and makes sure the spacing is dynamically taken care of, despite writing one letter at a time with centered alignment (to make it extra annoying for me to create). This lets me highlight and animate words differently which adds to the goofiness of the game, but I question whether it was worth the cost.

Once you've entered the castle it gets dark and then you'll make a daring escape with the castle's princess (naturally, every castle has one of those hanging around). The biggest problem with that isn't that I have no idea how to balance the princess on the horse while still allowing her to fly off it. No, the big problem is that I have no idea how to flip the horse and walk left! Right now I'm leaning towards creating a duplicate horse that's mirrored, but that's a lot of work and objects and is going to come back and bite me hard when I inevitably need to go back and tweak stuff (which will now exist in duplicate versions). We'll see how it goes...!

Finally, I've managed to reign in the horse and stopped it from flipping over when jumping by forcibly limiting its rotation to at most +-45 degrees and added some course correction so that it tilts back to upright position if it starts rotating too far. It's a shame that you can't flip anymore but on the other hand I don't need to worry about players getting stuck upside down all the time.

....

I found a solution to my princess problems: cheating! The princess was too heavy (don't tell her) which made it too hard to move and just lying on top of the horse was precarious at best and she mostly slipped off. My solution was to just turn off the physics engine and update her position manually through code. Then, if you tilt at a too extreme angle, I turn it on and let her tumble around on the ground on her own. Then I turn it off again when you move close to pick her up (though you have to bend down to do it). I'm having a bit of trouble with turning again as you might have to move back to pick her up and just replacing one horse with the other resets its position which can cause the legs to get stuck in the ground. This usually isn't too bad since the physics engine can push you up so you don't remain stuck, but it looks and feels kind of meh. I'll see if I can get around to fixing it but there are a lot more stuff that needs higher priority, like making the level winnable or tuning the camera so it behaves alright when you turn and doesn't snap around like crazy!


The bestest horse in the kingdom!

Day 4: I've made it possible to win the level if you can bring the princess to the left edge of the stage. The victory screen received a little more attention than it really needed but that's fine, it feels good to have a beatable level.

Now I have to add a few obstacles to make the levels interesting. The first stage will have a rock you have to jump over and that's basically it. I was thinking of having a water obstacle but I'll probably save that for a later stage. I don't plan on having more than three stages so that should put me in a good position to finish this. Of course, the third level will have some kind of twist, but we'll get to that... ;)

....

All levels are now done and I've got most of the audio done too, at lest to a good enough level that it doesn't feel like it's missing (but there are of course a lot more you could do, given time and priority). The third level has water obstacles which proved to be a challenge in their own way. The water is just a simple rectangle drawn behind the ground which means it looks nice, but it also means the horse is drawn in front of it. I've yet to figure out a solution to that.

By the way, there's a small Easter egg in the fourth stage. The level is not beatable but there's a little secret at the end of it.

....

I've solved the water issue and added a check that prevents the horse from jumping when picking up the princess, unless you actually want to jump (this part makes it a bit finicky and not 100% reliable). I've also come across one instance when playtesting where the princess was catapulted into the stratosphere when I jumped. I have no idea how it happened and don't have time for anything fancy so if the princess goes too far off screen you now lose. Finally, I've added another batch of sound effects and with that, I'll call it done! It's a smaller game this time, but it's complete and I'm fond of it, even though it's really dumb. As it should be!
 
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gmx0

Member

Reservation, not sure yet, but it may come clearer once I recover from Thanksgiving Dinner

It will probably be some kind of turkey RTS

GMCJam.PNG

Had to switch to GM 1.4.999 mid-production
Cause for some reason GM2.3 after the updates or something does not render in my machine or I coded something wrong
TurkeyRTS.PNG
 
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Monster Hunger
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Check out the game on itch.io

Developer: TheWingedBlue
Artist: Unreal Boy

A game about a Pathetic Creature that is too lazy to move, and it's starving.
So it uses mind powers to command its followers to feed him with some delicious treats.

DEVLOG:
The start of an idea was formed into the mind of the two collaborators of this project. A puzzle game with the characters having different abilities based on their color. Some random fruits. And a monster with hunger. The basic mechanic of movement was made, as well as the preview of the artistic concept of the game.
All the mechanics and the art was fully completed. The menu was made, as well as the level selection and the how to play page. Levels 1 and 2 were made.
Nothing.
The rest of the levels were made in an incredible rush of 8 hours. And 5 hours before submission the game was finished. I know we had enough time to make better levels, but honestly my mind was all out of ideas.
 
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PUGTHETIC
Fernand G.

screenshot_1.JPG

There is not much to add here, I was only able to work this Sunday so I proposed a simple idea to force myself to finish the project, both the graphics and the sound were taken from the web and are not my own. I forgot to put the credits in the game.
Background music: Kevin MacLeod - Pixelland (NO COPYRIGHT 8-bit Music)
 
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samspade

Member
Distress Signal Found
Sam Spade
DOWNLOAD LINK

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Post 1:
I actually started working on the game jam on day 1. But since I backed out of the last jam, I decided I would wait until I was at least 75% sure I would finish. At this point, I have 95% of the engine done and a 'playable' game, that I could submit (although it would be terrible) and most of the rest of the work is writing the content. So I figured it was time. Hopefully, this will motivate me to actually finish.

While I like coding a lot, I don't like coding for long periods of time which make game jams tough. This time though, the idea I had was to work on a choose your own adventure like game, but a little more complex. This gives me a chance to experiment with the new array/struct json format and array functions and means that at least half of my work on the game is actually not coding so I can break up the type of work I have to do. I also decided early on to limit myself to black and white and text. No colors, no art. No sound beyond a few basic ones to let players know that their interactions are being recognized. If I get everything done in time, I might try to add these things, but at this point, I think most of my remaining time will be making the actual content.

Post 2:
Well, a version of it is done, as in I've written enough of it that it works. It could be improved a lot though. It feels pretty incomplete at the moment.

Post 3:
I had someone playtest it for me and it revealed a fair amount of flaws/ux issues, but I think I have okay solutions to most of them.

Post 4:
Well, I'm finished. It could definitely be a lot better, but it doesn't crash as far as I know. The current version will likely be the final version as I don't think I will have more time to work on it today and my time zone basically means that for me the jam finishes tonight.
 
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N

NavierIsStoked

Guest
detrituscover1.png
Developed by NavierIsStoked/ShadowOverseer and Chalkbot
[Download Link]

A game about the deep sea, holes, wretched creatures, and ascension.​

Screenshots

The Game
Find and collect the sustenance that falls off the lords of the deep to grow your following. Their influence will transfigure your creatures into greater beings of higher power - but take care, for ascended creatures do not always have cause to follow your lead.
Controls
<Left Mouse> to Select
<+ Ctrl> to Remove from Selection
<+ Shift> to Add to Selection
<Space or Middle Click> to Clear Selection
<Scroll> to Zoom
<Right Mouse> to Pan

Juul
JUUL.png
 
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Poizen

Member
Journey to Earth
Poizen
DOWNLOAD

Wreck humanity with your mighty ball.


Day 1:
I think I'll go with the obvious choice, that the pathetic creature is man. And then there's aliens. Something like that maybe.
I want to make a breakout clone that looks like a DOS game.
Doodled a little. Slacked off a little. Getting started is always the hardest part.

Day 2:
I'm trying to implement a little bit of a backstory this time. People always love a story. And it's all I got to justify the theme.
I drew this:


Day 3:
Worked on my breakout engine a lot. Still a lot of graphics to do, music and sound effects to pick, and all the levels to make.

Day 4:
Did all the things.
Another hard part is coming up with a name for the game. Journey to Silius music has been playing in my head so I'll call this game "Journey to Earth".
Tweaked the dialog. In the end I'm not sure which side is the pathetic creature, but maybe it's fun to leave it up to interpretation. The intro "cinematic" runs for 40 seconds so I hope people have the patience to watch/read it (but it is skippable).
Found a weird bug where sometimes the ball goes through the walls. Couldn't fix it. Have to leave it in.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
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Morse Code Trainer with Pathetic G-chan
By Dickson Law (FrostyCat)


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What's more pathetic than a cockroach? Born to be exterminated however possible --- this time in Morse Code!

This short jam entry is a typing game where G-chan the cockroach gets crushed with various objects --- but only if you know your dots from your dashes. Play in 4 different modes to practice tapping, reading, receiving, and listening to Morse Code. You can toggle on a handy on-screen reference chart if you're new to Morse Code, or hide it if you know it already or want to challenge yourself. Mastering Morse Code has never been more fun!

Link: Direct Download
 
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Mr Magnus

Viking King
Hello everyone!

I'm coming out of Game Maker retirement to present the lowest bar in the competition by a country mile - This isn't the game to beat folks, this is the game to desperately avoid coming below, for this baby was made In the last six hours.

Yes siree ladies and gentlemen! In a clever ploy to get a bit of a break from writing final exams and studying for papers due I instead spent a good six hours or so throwing this mess together: and it shows. Ever wondered what a professional web developer with a degree can throw together in six hours while under copious amounts of energy drinks because there are too many papers to write? Well, strap in and prepare to find out with my (not so) Magnum Opus:

PATHÉTIQUE: A QUEST FOR NEW PIPES
By Mr. Magnus




Never before has such marvelous monstrosities hit the GMC, nor the shear depths of bad mechanics and unbalanced platforming! There is *nothing* original here but don't let that stop you from spending literally ones of minutes helping our pathetic blobbly looking friend to the surface so he can buy some new pipes! Given that he spontaniously combusts when touching water it's a wonder what he needs water pipes for at all, but that's for him to figure out!

DOWNLOAD NOW FROM GOOGLE DRIVE!

(or don't, I'm not the boss of you, do whatever you'd like darling).

Now, if anyone needs me or is desperate to hear all about the difference between the works of Chaucer and Boccaccio; specifically the Canterbury tales and The Decameron I'll be in my office, or bed, whichever is closer to the kitchen at this point.
 
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L

Lt. Farfetch'd

Guest
Prepare to behold evolution's boldest statement yet. Objectively the least pathetic animal to have the ever walked the earth. Definitely. We promise.

Adam, Aidan, Marcus and Noah present:

Flight of the Bin Chicken
(Otherwise known as the Australian White Ibis)

Download From Itch.io!

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