This is the Devlog of Atai, a game about the martial art Atai, or Way of the Formal Neckwear. 

I'm working on this project with a friend and we both want to get into game development, so I figured this would be a great way to test the waters. We are learning everything basically from scratch, we have some coding and design experience, but in short this is our test run to see how we work as a team and what we should focus on going forward as game devs. 

We're starting with unity because it has strong 2D support, and experience with Unity should give us some good practice for future game use and options. The game should have a simple polygon style and a semi-decent combat gimmick. We'll see how it goes!

First step is to watch some unity tutorials and see what we can do with that, along with a design doc that should be up and shared like the day after the jam starts.  We want to see if we can incorporate the theme, once we figure out what it is. 

Let us know if you have any thoughts! We appreciate all feedback!

Signing off,

B&B

First update, is another friend of mine agreed to help! He wants to be an illustrator, so He'll help with asset generation which is exactly what we need! 

The other update is we'll be using Gamemaker Studio 2 because it's waaaay more friendly to our skill set. Unity had a lot of good tools to offer, but it was almost too much. We're running through the tutorials now so we'll be ready when the jam starts! 

Can't wait to hear what the theme is!

Signing off, 

B&B&B

(our last names all end in b, so...)

Now that the jam is started, We can finally get it going! We got two new people to help with coding and game design (also friends whose last names start with B) and we just started GOING!

If you want to view our mess of a design doc, you can check it out https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ir-VpxGeZ6HUxes2lkWocutJyqIFpLHB4WdDZVSgpP4/... 

And also, the concept art for the main character is finished! Our artist has gone through I think 8 drafts? Part of the design is not seeing any skin, just the clothes the player and the enemies wear.

We're working on coding now, and hopefully we'll have a player, a starting level, and some basic enemies for you guys to mess around in! 

Feel free to ask if you have any comments, questions, or feedback!

B5

(cus their's 5 of us now)

Hahaha oh my god I love this concept so much? This is really charming I love the idea of dramatic narration coupled with formalwear + ties. Excited to see more!

This is my kind of game! I love games that are purposely over-the-top and this is a really interesting concept I don't remember seeing anywhere. This has the potential to be one of those jam games that end up being full-on games, I love it!

Its been a hot second since we updated! We decided to do the game jam kind of on a whim, so we're working around individual work schedules and meeting times. But today, all levels are designed, and we started with Gamemaker!

A LOT of issues have been encountered, including different sizes of art within the game, and making sure it all fits within a certain window, but luckily this is exactly why we're doing this game jam! To figure out small things, like making sure we're all working in the same size,  and generally chucking around ideas and playing with them.

One of the bigger ideas we're considering adding is that of a State Engine, so we can dictate what state the player is in. This should make coding simpler, (i.e. if you are in the jumping state, you cannot jump again) and some fun times with enemy Ai (Player is staggered, enemies get real aggro on ya) This should also allow for combos to be easily manageable and help make coding waaaaaay easier. But we're learning as we go, and first we have to keep this guy from disappearing when he touches the ground!

B5 

Today, we finally hit Guy is a room! Our game has a guy, and he is in a room. A little behind schedule, but we're finally there! He can jump and everything!

We also fleshed out the combat and the state engine we're gonna use, and broke down our ideas into the bare bones levels. Everything is planned out, and now its just a matter of execution and seeing how playable this end result is.