I'm trying my hand at making a horror RPG game for this jam!

(I'm also recording my progress on tumblr at https://sushis-first-game-jam.tumblr.com/)

I don't know if I will have a product finished by the time the jam is over(due to my lack of coding experience, this being my first time making a game, and my unwanted procrastination) but I still think it will be fun! Even if I don't finish a demo by the end of the jam i'm still going to continue making the game to get experience. I also don't know how much it will fit into "horror", buuuut thats what I'm going for!

Now: onto the game description! none of this completely finished, especially the end of the note and you might have to do something different to get the humans back.
you wake from a painful dream, it felt like you were being struck with lightning. when you turn over you notice a note on your bedside table. its written in a strange language that you have never seen before, yet you understand what it says. It reads: You are lucky that you're still alive to read this. No one else is here. the only beings left are things we call "shadow demons".
"Another prank? Jacob must be working overtime!" you say to yourself
You continue to read: As far as we can tell they don't attack in a pattern. if there is a pattern for when they strike, we have not found it yet. Too many of us have been terminated by them, we can't afford to loose you as well. Don't wait for them to kill you, you must strike first. If you can make your way to us, we will be able to help you bring them back.
As soon as you read the last sentence, your TV switches on. the screen shows the morning news, but there is no presenter. A pitch black creature with glowing eyes sits in the chair. It looks directly at the camera, unmoving, as if it were watching you. 
"the note can't be true... Can it?"

DAY 1

I didn’t get any physical results from day 1 because I spent most of my time creating the storyline, sketching things, and looking at engine tutorials! When I have the plot totally figured out I will post a synopsis of the game (like you would see in the game description)

originally the mc was going to be a child:

but after playing with the thought a bit I think he should be a teenager.

and here is how the monsters look for now~ kinda like endermen!

DAY 2

once again I don’t have much material progress to show for, but I figured that I should start with the art as thats what I have experience in.

that means sprites for now! mc’s bedroom is started and I have wall + floor tiles >:) I'm pretty happy with what I have cause I've never done pixel art before!

DAY 3

hah,,, I haven't got anything done today because I spent the whole time trying to get my programs working D:

I cant use asperite properly on my mac so I had to download it again on a pc and redraw the sprites that I started. Not very good use of time but hopefully all the issues are fixed and I can use the rest of today to continue my game!

DAY 3.1

I've spent about 9 hours working today- I'm just having so much fun with this (other than the 3 hours spent fixing my programs and re-drawing the sprites I already made) and am quite slow so i gotta use my time well!

still working on the sprites, and I have most of the things for MC's bedroom (where the player will start) drawn which is nice! (also did some more sketching for the mc to get his design down!)

another thing I have is all the writing done up until the player leaves MC's bedroom!!

godot is pretty hard to understand when I have no coding experience,,, I'm relying on youtube tutorials to help me ;0 hopefully I can make something with all the features I want playable in time-

feedback on everything so far is appreciated as I'm new to most of this-

DAY 3.2

I know I should already have this considering its day 3 but I've got a dilemma cause I still don't know if I am going to use RPGmaker or Godot- so I'm writing this mainly just to sort out my thinking.

Godot seems to have plenty of options that would allow me to make the game exactly how I want it, but it takes proper knowledge of code that I don't have and I'm not sure how much I will be able to learn in the 2 weeks. They do have a visual script option which should make some things easier.

on the other hand RPGmaker seems much easier to use for beginners, being able to make a game without any-very little coding. But I still don't understand the interface and if its possible to add my own tile-set and sprites to the game(if impossible then thats a dealbreaker)

I think I'm just going to see how far I can get with Godot using plenty of tutorials, and if I don't get the code done on time for the jam then thats fine and I will just continue testing and writing until a demo is complete.

Good luck with the program you choose! 

DAY 4

I got the forward and backward running animations done! i'm super happy with how they turned out- (I used this tutorial for the animating)

On my list to get done today is

• basic 4 direction movement
• left/right facing still sprite
• MC bedroom map set up in godot

constructive criticism is appreciated!

DAY 4.1

hah,,, I strayed from my plan for today and wanted to add the animations that I made to the player when they walk up and down but I couldn't! I followed the godot tutorial exactly yet I still got errors that I don't know how to fix. If anyone could help me with that(I would give credit of course), or reply with tutorials that work on the latest version of godot I would be so relieved because If I cant figure it out I might not be able to use the animations and that would make the movement look sloppy :(

on a better note I have the code for 8 direction movement written and working!

hopefully I'll be able to see my problem in a new light tomorrow cause I'm calling it a day for now. I spent about 6 hours working today and I'm super tired.

DAY 4.2

isorfilas is very poggers and sent some tutorials that really helped so I'm back on track! I've got the animation for walking up and down in the game, and as soon as I make the sprites for left and right they will go in too! 

Tomorrow hopefully I will get the collisions working for the walls and objects! 

DAY 5

today has been pretty productive! once again I didn't do what I said I would, and I was actually going to spend today playing other games for some inspiration as I'm still in the process of fleshing out the story. hah, I was so wrong thinking I would relax today cause I got some important things done and now have a better grasp on GDscript!

basically I got these things done:

• Place holder title screen with working buttons that send one to the first scene (used the GDscript tutorial assets, but I can just add mine when I make the art)
• A *mostly* working textbox

doesn't look like too much on paper, but they are both on my "things that will be really hard to make work" list so I'm quite proud! I was also working on a fade animation to switch between scenes, but I couldn't get It working so I will have to pick it up again another time.

DAY 6

*forgot to mention it but yesterday I also got some music+rain sounds with a license that lets me use it commercially or non-commercially which is perfect! I also drew out thumbnails for all the scenes that are kind of visual novel style, before the rpg elements come! its nice to have a reference for the script as well :D

I only got 3 hours of sleep last night then had to be out for 6 hours so I am super tired today. I tried to work a bit on the textbox and transition, but it wasn't going well and I wasn't vibing with the heat (pc is in a non-airconditioned room and it was 38c today-) so I decided to take today off as a break. especially because even though I know that I should, I don't mind if I don't have a working demo finished at the end of this jam. I'll work hard but I don't want to push myself if things just aren't working out and I'm tired! I will absolutely be back on the grind tmr tho hehe! 

I'm having trouble with Godot, as after a while of working on the project I can no longer run/play the game from the editor (you know how theres like a button in the top right where you can check if the code works, yea it just doesn't open another window). it says its running from there, but the only way I can test it is by closing the editor, reopening godot, then playing it from the page where you select a project. I'm using mac with godot v3.3.2 stable.official and Ive tried restarting my computer,  closing and reopening godot doesn't help, and this is gonna really make the process harder if it doesn't magically fix itself whilst I sleep-

i've asked for help once before but if anyone knows anything about this glitch or how to fix it I would really appreciate a message,,

DAY 7

again nothing new about the game today,

I spent today drawing my comfort characters cause I'm not feeling the best, but i am back to being exited when I think about my game (rather than frustrated cause of the errors)! which is good cause it means ill probably have motivation tmr :D

not so poggers. due to irl issues I wont be able to finish my game in this jam even though I really want to. I'm a minor and even though its school holidays (which is why I joined this jam) I'm moving so I have been busy packing up the house. I also wont have access to my pc during the last days of the jam, which I didn't plan for as I wasn't sure the dates where I had important events going on.

I am not giving up on my game though! I have a big project with a topic of my choosing that I need to do for school next year, and I think I want to make a game for it. So I have to have a demo for this game finished before ~August 12. Its much more time than a 2 week jam, but it should give me enough time! I want a demo of this one finished so that I can have some experience and a project already in my belt before I work on a year long assignment.

I wont be posting here anymore cause,, I'm not making this game for the jam anymore, but I will still be posting on my devblog over on tumblr! Wont be able to work on it too much because of how busy I will be, but when things get done they will be posted there! 

so I guess this is goodbye, goodluck to everyone! I'll be sure to check out the games when the jam ends :D