Hey all,

it's my second #devtober this time. In case you are interested in the DevLog of the first one, you'll find it over here. Since I'm already working on something but not near at a daily basis and the last devtober gave me THIS much, I thought it's the perfect time to continue with the work on it. My goal: Get a playable demo running at the end of devtober, even though I'm a perfectionist when it comes to the development of games and I don't want to limit myself because of this special month. It should also be a larger game. The internal name for the game is Isuaerra but it'll mostly change because I scrapped the original idea for the game and thought about something else.

About me:

• I'm from Germany
• Studied computer science at university until I abandoned it
• started with game development in 2017, before: mapping and modding stuff for some games
• Solo dev over here doing coding, art and sound
• Took part in 1 game jam and 1 devtober so far 

Please follow my twitter for lastest updates: https://twitter.com/TackRadGames

Other useful links: 

• https://soundcloud.com/not_falso

So now a bit about the game:

• it's going a be a tower defense game
• epoch based (Stone Age - Space Age)
• depending on the epoch -> music, towers (sprites, towers in general) and effects in game will change

Day 0:

You may ask now what I've so far:

• basic wave system
• basic damage-health-system
• pathing
• basic menu for tower(s)
• camera-system
• intersections (pathing can change)
• stacked sprites for towers (will most likely scrap this idea)

Day 1 ToDo:

• create music for the first epoch [day 1/X]

Day 1:

Error 404: No new content found - Try again later!

For me it was really difficult this morning to find some useful tunes & instruments for the first epoch (Stone Age) 2,5h of work for nothing :-/ . I also had due to my regular work not this much time. So I'll move this task to another day later sometime.

Day 2 ToDo:

• create music for the second epoch [day 1/3?]

Day 2:

Today the creation of the music went much better, even though I wish I could have done more. What I noticed is the following: I have much to learn about the creation of music, be it variety or other stuff. Nevertheless I think it went pretty well so far.

Here also a small picture of the music and I really hope you'll have a melody flying around now.

Day 3 ToDo:

• create music for the second epoch [day 2/3?]

Day 3:

Somehow I redesigned most of the old track. Less is sometimes more, because of that I shortened down some of the patterns but also gave this song a bit of an intro. So far I love the result from today much more than the yesterdays one.

Here again also a small picture of the music and I really hope you'll have a melody flying around again now.

Day 4:

Today I haven't done this much today, but nevertheless was working at least a bit on the song. Rearranged some pattern, recorded some notes and rounded everything up a bit. Overall it's a simple piece of music which I'm comfortable with.

Here again also a small part of the music and I really hope you'll have a melody flying around again now.

Day 5 ToDo:

• get used to Tilesetter and try to create some floor tiles using it
• create environmental sprites

Day 5:

Today I was using Aseprite to create some basic floor tiles but also more complex PixelArt, which separates the way which the enemies walk on from the tiles which the player can build on. Afterwards I tried to create a whole tileset with Tilesetter from these three images, below you can see the result.

So far I like the result very much even though I would like to look manually at some tiles again because of the perspective.

Day 6 ToDo:

• work on the tiles again to make straight things more round
• get used to Tilesetter and continue to create some floor tiles using it

Day 6:

Due to my regular work apart from game development not much has changed yet. Expect I understand now the tile generation of Tilesetter much better. Corners aren't this straight anymore, instead they are more "round", inclined walls \o/

But what I came up with today reminded me of WC3, still I like it.

Day 7 ToDo:

• recreate inclined walls in Aseprite (atm I just rotated straight walls 45° so I can test things out)
• create wang tileset in Tilesetter

Day 7:

Today everything was about PixelArt again, so:

• created inner & outer inclined walls in Aseprite
• created some ground tiles in Aseprite
• generated the tileset in Tilesetter
• put everything in the game

Day 8 ToDo:

This day will again be another one about PixelArt, so I thought about:

• creating some environmental sprites like tree, stones, rocks,...

Day 8:

Today nothing really changed, somehow it was "Lazy Thursday", but at least I removed a black outline from a tree of an older prototype, the one I made for last years devtober.

Day 9 ToDo:

Retry?

-------------------
| Yes | No | Exit |
-------------------

Yes!! Let's give day 8 another try on day 9

• creating some environmental sprites like tree, stones, rocks,...

Day 9:

Today I created some environmental sprites like trees, stumps, rocks and put them into the game. Got rid of the tree from the "lazy Thursday" since this one wasn't in the perspective needed.

Day 10 ToDo:

Since I will not have this much time:

• Get rid of this green floor and put some grass on it 

Day 10:

Today I tried different styles of grass tiles, but so far I wasn't comfortable with most of those. Nevertheless the one I liked most of these was this one below, I know it also doesn't look awesome but the tile does its thing... away from the plain green stuff. At some point after the devtober challenge I'm pretty sure I will work on it again and I also know at some point there should be grass which is moving with the wind.

I'm really looking forward at the coding days in devtober since I'm more of the programmer myself \o/

Day 11 ToDo:

Since I will not have this much time again:

• create some more environmental sprites

Day 11:

Today my goal was to create some more environmental sprites for the game which I also did in the morning. But like in the last days I wasn't this satisfied with the work I did.

So I studied instead some PixelArt, be it tutorials, games with pixelart or whole tilesets and spritesheets. Because what I noticed at the end of last years devtober: 'I learned this much during this challenge, I can't describe it' So why not this year again? Since I don't plan to ship something real in the end of devtober, maybe just a small prototype or an one-level-demo. So I'm going to study also tomorrow until I try the learned stuff out then the days after, so I can finally start with the coding part on day 15.

Day 12 ToDo:

• study some PixelArt [day 2/2]

Day 12-15:

During these day I made a much slower progress on the game than before. Because I decided on studying a lot of pixelart stuff, much more than I wanted to. But nevertheless at least a bit of progress is also progress. So below a comparison screenshot of a part of the game with upgraded pixelart. I know it's not this much, but also not final, nevertheless work continues on it after the challenge. So far I like the newer ones much better. <3

Day 16 ToDo:

Finally some real coding for the first time at this challenge \o/

• Create upgrade circle for the towers

Day 16:

Today I started the work on the upgrade circle. So far it is working really well and I'm really proud of me how it turned out. I also did more than I wanted to, because I also added fade in & out animations. :O \o/ Work on it continues next week when "my weekend" begins.

top part:

• space for three different upgrades

bottom part:

• stats of the tower
• improved stats depending on upgrade

Day 17 ToDo:

• Fix bugs in camera object
• take a look at spawner (fix bugs & remove duplicate/unnecessary code)

Day 17:

Due to work didn't get this much done :-(

• merged some things in the spawner object
• added delta-timing

Day 18 ToDo:

• Fix bugs in camera object? (for real this time?)

Day 18:

Finally after all this time I could fix THIS bug in the camera object, which really annoyed me \o/ Somehow it was really easy to find now :D

• refactored and merged code in the camera constructor
• tried to find some small things which could be done in the next two days, since I'll again have not this much time

Day 19 ToDo:

• continue refactor code in the camera constructor

Day 19:

Today I finalized the refactoring of the code inside the camera constructor. But since it's a tower defense game, I also started with collecting some ideas for the first tower, which was a bit difficult finding some accurate information about fortification in the prehistoric age.

Day 20 ToDo:

• create the sprite for the first tower and make use of frames for a short "build" animation

Day 20:

Work on the first tower for the human prehistoric age started, but also on the build animation.

Day 21 ToDo:

Since my "weekend" starts, I'll have a lot of time:

• finalize tower sprite and build animation
• implement it into the game
• create bullet for the tower

Day 21:

Starting today the game starts to feel like a real TD game <3

I really like how the tower turned out (sprite & build animation). Nevertheless I think at some point I've to rework the arrow sprite since it's barely visible, but also fine tuning some variables :D

Day 22 ToDo:

• Health bars enemy
• rework tower selection GUI
• ???

Day 22:

Today I figured out about masking & alpha channels and created some basic health bars. So far I think they are pretty nice. 

My second task for today was the "rework of the tower selection GUI" for building a complete new tower. I quickly scrapped this idea to have such a GUI somewhere in the game window and went with my first one, since the game should also include an strategic aspect. That's why I placed some "buildable places" on the map, only there you will be able to build towers. So you created these and just copied over the code from the "upgrade GUI" with some minor changes.
Today's result is really something to be proud of.

Please ignore the lines which are drawn from the arrows on the gif, you'll not find them in game they are from the gif encoder. :-(

Day 23 ToDo:

Fix bugs:

• clickable circles (selection & upgrade gui)
• cursor somehow not in place

New stuff: (depending on spare time left)

• start work on menu

Day 23:

Since the day was really exhausting for me today, I just sat down and fixed the mentioned bugs above and a bit more:

• circles in the upgrade gui are now clickable in the whole circle & not anymore the half :D
• "cursor somehow not in place" fixed itself, because of the fixed one before :D
• added better display of the free lanes in the pathswitcher (debug only)
• better handling of the selected "buildable place"

I also decided to move the work of the menu to another day so I can't just only start the work on it.

Day 24 ToDo:

• improve wave-system

Day 24:

Today I improved the wave system! \o/ So far it was only possible to create waves by ONE enemy and their amount. So for the new system I created some more enemy prototypes for testing purposes, which are currently just copies from the original one.

Then I thought which will be the best way to handle the new waves, so I also thought about a new data structure for it, so I came up with something pretty neat.

Now it's possible to create custom wave lengths with different enemies & different amounts:

Also in the data structure I reserved a part for a time which will count down for the enemies to begin spawning.

Last but not least I also created a function to check for the integrity of the data structure, which can be used to external file reading custom waves at some point later, maybe.

Day 25 ToDo:

Improve wave-system #2

• handle more waves
• implement time value
• call waves early

Day 25:

Handling of multiple waves is now working great. What isn't working is the implementation of the time value, somehow I messed up the timer maybe, also this one is triggering when he shouldn't. Was working on it for hours but couldn't find the bug. Maybe tomorrow...

Day 26 ToDo:

• bug hunting in timer & time implementation in spawner

Day 26:

Since I was really annoyed yesterday evening because of all the things with the timer and other stuff, I was debugging the spawner & timers a lot today in the morning to see what is triggering at which time and which variables are changing. And voila... things became more obvious in the morning.

Because of that I successfully implemented in the evening the timer & time values but also the feature to call waves early which wasn't really on my list for today, but it was really easy :O

Thus I am more than enthusiastic about what I have achieved today:

Maybe at some point I have to work on both things again, but this is another task on another day far, far away...

Day 27 ToDo:

After this really successful day 26, I'll take day 27 off to gain more power and strength :O

Day 27:

This is not the devlog you're looking for.
Move along...
Move along...

Today at my day off I was really lazy, I have not even thought about my tomorrows task.

Day 28 ToDo:

Let it be be a surprise for you and me what this day will bring. Usually I don't like working without a task and no plans, but yeah let's see.

Day 28:

Not this much to show today since I have not planned anything beforehand. Was thinking about tasks I could do, but took then the one from day 23 which was planned: The Menu!

So I thought about a data structure how to store all the data, how it should look like and which fonts to use. When it comes to the fonts I went with the Pixel Font ones by Chevy Ray, which are awesome! For the other two things? Be surprised! ;-)

So here the really basic menu as sneak peek:

Day 29 ToDo:

Sadly have to work again, so not THIS much time, but let's see how far I'll come with the menu.

Day 29:

Today I continued a bit the work on the menu in the early morning. Sadly I couldn't continue the work in the evening due to the current situation we are all in and an unexpected incident tomorrow in the morning. That's why I've to call it a day.

Day 30 ToDo (last day):

• Continue the tasks which I wanted to do today
• write the post mortem

Day 30 1/2: (last day)

Today I continued to work on yesterdays task:

I added nothing special to the menu but a little gimmick which is a little guy taking a look at your menu selection and is commenting this one.

I think it's really fitting the game since you'll also find many more during the game.

Day 30 2/2: (last day)

Devtober ‘20 – Post Mortem

This year I really forced myself to do something from time to time due to the current situation we are all in and my stressful job.

State of the project:

During the past months the project hasn’t changed this much. Nevertheless some things have already existed: one enemy, spawner, goal, pathing and a tower. You think that’s all you need for a tower defence game? You may be right, but there are much more things which need to be added since in the project no music & no real sprites were found. Also the gameplay was really simple at the moment.

What went wrong?

Like last years devtober not this much, but somehow I made the same “mistakes” in this year too. Yeah you see right: I set mistakes in quotation marks. Because I was using again new programs which I have not used before, be it in composing, when creating the tile sheets or something else. Sure, it’s a good move because you learn something, but I also think: I could have done more by doing things which I already know.

What went right?

Already anticipated: In this one month I had achieved much more than in the many months before all together.

About the project:

I’ve now designed the first tower, sprites & textures exist. I also was working on the first two tracks. I also have an idea how the first set of towers should look like, but also a system how the player places these ones on the map, including a tower GUI & upgrade GUI.

In general:

I learnt a lot of stuff by using new programs which I have not used before. All in all I think everything went quite well.

What’s next?

I will continue to work on the project, maybe not every day due to my stressful job I have which became more stressful due to the current situation we are all in.

Anyway the project must grow! Grow much further! I will again plan structured days and small tasks which need to be done. Things have to be reworked, many new levels have to be created but also I still have to study a bit of history, since the game is epoch based.

At this time and year I won’t give an estimate since I know I will not stick to this one. But also because the work which has to be done is much.

In case you want to be up-to-date about the project you can follow me on twitter.

The End!