Hey everyone! This is my first ever game jam, and I'm really excited to get started. For this game, I will be making a 2D semi-random platformer centered around frogs!

It draws quite some inspiration from the streaming game Choice Chamber, but hopefully this game will be unique enough due to the various mechanics I'll be implementing into the game.

I made a rough design document, which you can find here. The game will be made in Unity, with Aseprite used for the majority of the artwork. If I have time, I will also try my hand at experimenting with making some 8bit / chiptune music for the game.

End of day one

No sprites have been implemented yet, so everything is good ol' purple and black!

Basic character movement: walking and (double) jumping.

Random warps: Each entrance and exit has a type, to ensure you can't be teleported to the same kind of room multiple times in a row in the final product

The above GIF also showcases the font I'll be using throughout the project - a remake of the WarioWare Inc. font made by ocheung over on FontStruct!

Tomorrow will be mainly focussing on starting the random room generation. This is going to be a tough one and has a real large amount of variables associated with it, but it'll be all the more satisfying when it works out ^-^

And day 1 went on for a bit longer...

Random level generation has started! The barebones for the algorithm is there, however it tends to get stuck in smaller heights because of the way it's set up now. Good progress nonetheless on what will eventually become the core algorithm of the game, though!

ooo nice! it's awesome to see an animated gif of your progress so far. the random room generation sounds very ambitious! i'd love to see some of the results of your generator.

Day 2!

A lot of things happened, then un-happened, then happened again. Let's see what happened today!

We have frog! This little fella will be the playable character in our game. He has no animations (yet), but he does flip his sprite if you decide to move the other way.

I was well underway with the random platform generation, before I found out that Unity introduced an entire tiling system in its 2017.2 update. It's a lot nicer to work with and a lot less guesswork, so I threw my old algorithm out of the window and decided to get cracking on making the levels using a tilemap.

This is the tilemap for the platforms of the game. They are white and gray for a reason; that way they can be easily recolored within Unity to quickly and dynamically create differently themed rooms, while still maintaining a consistent color palette throughout the room. Bonus smiley, since I had a tile left in Aseprite anyway.

Using a very good Unity tutorial on map generation using the Tilemap system, I implemented the Random Walk Top Smoothed algorithm to generate the maps instead of the messy old system I was using. This ensures maps are a consistent width, and also includes seeding which might allow for level sharing in the future. This algorithm also makes sure that there are way smaller differences between platforms, making for a more consistent user experience.

Plans for day 3:

• Create an end platform, that consistently ends up at the same level as the topmost tile in the last room
• Apply the tilemap to the randomly generated level, adding corners and decoration where necessary
• Allow the algorithm to make one- or two-tile pits so that there is environmental danger in the level
• Get started on the actual map rather than messing around in the testing area
  • Also includes spriting backgrounds and warps
  • The main menu will most likely also be a "level", though one that you can't return to once you start a run

Day 3!

• Levels display their seeds now. This one was obviously input, but it can be randomly generated if omitted in the level generation settings.
• The level can now generate pits. The chance of these appearing and the maximum size can be set in the level generation settings.
• All tiles have been decorated according to the position they're in and the tiles surrounding them.
• An end platform is now consistently generated at the end of the level, at the same height as the topmost tile in the last column.

If anyone has any idea whatsoever on how I would go about making interactable tiles for the warps, don't hesitate to tell me. I'm kind of at a loss. Level building didn't happen today, but I'll see how far I get tomorrow.

More day 3 because sometimes I have good ideas.

Warps now automatically generate from the exit platform wherever a smile block is in the template, and also shows text when walked on! The latter was a lot harder than you'd think using prefabs, but it works like a charm.

Day 4

Not much progress, sadly - real life is currently happening in full swing, which means the output will be less than the past few days for the coming three days to a week or so.

The main menu is as good as done though, and seeing as I love games where the main menu is also a level, I decided to go with that concept. The warps aren't hooked up yet, but that should be a quick little job for tomorrow, as well as continuing to build levels whenever I have some off time.

EDIT: Also, I should recolor the warps so that starting is green and exiting is red. Environmental storytelling.

Day 5 already? Time goes fast!

Again, not much progress, BUT I've implemented another room and made warping work correctly. This new room will be the one where the RNGinator chooses the fate of our frog, deciding the next room the player goes to and, if applicable, which modifiers count for the room. The door will open after this has been done, allowing the player to continue.

Day 5 plus plus: I should really make it a habit of updating my devlog when I'm actually done for the day

Introducing the Chancemaker! This machine will eventually decide where you go and what the next level is going to look like, but for now it just opens the door to the non-functional warp ahead. This is the room that every room loops back to, and this is the room that defines your gameplay experience.

And thus, a week goes by with barely any progress. Real life is a real fun sucker, huh?

Today'll be my last day. I'll be trying to at least implement a very basic gameplay loop, maybe including the Chancemaker, but no guarantees on that. My next post will be a recap for today and will most likely also include the project link.

Day... uhhhh... final minus one?

I forgot there's another day to submit the project, so hopefully I can get something done after melting away in the sun for 5 hours during work. I've set up a shortlist of somewhat easy tasks that should theoretically be doable before the end of the jam. Fingers crossed!

The game has an INCREDIBLY basic game loop at this point. The Chancemaker actually picks a random level (not that there's anything except for the randomised level right now), but nothing gets reset at the end of the level yet, which is a task for tomorrow. You can also see some nice tooltips, which are incredibly flexible on the backend while still providing a consistent layout. Last but not least a fairly dynamic camera system which allows for setting up "tracks" that the camera follows alongside the player.

And because I'm very good at planning ahead, the final shortlist of stuff to do before publishing the game. I've also set some goals for finishing the game after the jam is done, which I hope get implemented at one point. It depends on how much free time I'll have though, but there won't be any time pressure after the game ^-^

And we're live! https://thepsionic.itch.io/frogleap

The last point on the shortlist isn't done (yet), but I may consider it for the future. For now, this is finished.

The final update to the jam adds some placeholder rooms as to not confuse the warps with invalid locations, a bounding boxed camera in the main level, and some restraints to the Chancemaker as well as automatic generation and resetting whenever it's needed.

All in all this jam has been a blast. I've learned how to use Unity's tilesystem in both a beginner and a more advanced sense (access and generation through code). I've also done more pixel art for this project than I've ever done in my life, AND this is the first time for me both publishing a game onto itch and publishing a game using WebGL (which works like a charm!). I would definitely participate again, and this has sparked my interest in other jams too - I just need the luck that real life is on my side next time ;)