Alright, Day 1. Even though the jam has started a few days ago I've been a bit busy (and will probably continue being busy but ...less busy) Right now I'm in concept mode.

The theme is free. I'm thinking about a text adventure game about freeing yourself from somewhere (since I can probably pull that off) or a simple top-down locked room puzzle where you have to get free. ...Lets see what I can pull off. :)

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EDIT:

I should call this a devblog instead of a devlog. The last few hours or so (haven't been checking time) was a breeze. Haven't really gotten into much coding yet since most has been UI setup. I made custom buttons and text in Godot, AND my very first main menu!

Look at that pretty snazzy eh?

and the buttons work!

I set up my main game scene along with the main menu. 

This is far from the final product but it gives some layout ideas.

Not sure if I want to implement 'buddies' or not. But the inventory will pop up whatever items the player picks up along their adventure as well as how many. And actions will give the player an idea about what actions they should take during a scene. I also plan to use RTF formats so important words (that may lead to certain clues or actions) will be in bold or a different color to give the player a hint.

Now after all of that smooth progress, I spent the last 30 minuities or so suffering over a stupid popup.

My vision is to have it in the middle of the screen. When you click the x in the top right the popup pops up and asks if they want to go to the main menu. I'm not sure about save functions so its likely progress will be lost when leaving the game. I wanted to let the player know that. I open the game for a quick test play.

And when my menu pops up its in the bottom corner instead of the middle. Okay I can fix that right? WRONG.

 I changed the code, set the position 3 different ways, and did all of that over again in a different way after designating it as a child of the x button. And it persists! I didn't join a game jam just to fight a popup button.

Day 2

It seems like they only way I needed to solve my problem is a good nights sleep and a setting I missed. Now that I fixed the problem, I managed to get myself back on track! My program is visibly better, more dividers and now I can get started on coding and text!

First things first: how do I match the freedom theme? I plan to make it so that the player is free to do whatever they choose to do within the narrative. As long as its within the games programming. Also the plot revolves around it. I've changed the plot from a zombie post-apocalypse survival thing to escaping from slavery in a post-apocalyptic world. I'm calling it "taste of freedom"

Secondly: gameplay mechanics. I already began the text adventure mechanics. I have Pneumas tutorial to thank for help with getting that started.

The above code was for my zombie idea that I scrapped. But the new Idea looks pretty similar.

also above is my first attempt at a gif trying to show current gameplay (if you can call it that).

colored words are different things players can interact with. I hope to have a time system added as well. Each action will take up a certain amount of time (this may be a bit ambitious lets see where I end up).  The stats button was added because I want to incorporate stats and RPG elements.

In the game Kenshi you get to choose multiple 'starts' you get to begin with a certain amount of characters, stats and items. One is a slavery start and... you see where I got my inspiration. However, in my game I want players to choose what stats they start with which will have an effect on what they can do in their escape attempt.

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I have listed out all of my actions and stats in the right and coded in all of my new locations for future use. I still haven't written descriptions yet but its pretty much mapped out. 

After I have everything reworked, I need to lay out the interactions, items, and goals as well as plan my next steps. But that can be my plan for tomorrow. Because right now my braincells are slowing down.

Day 3

I ended up establishing a simple checklist in evernote for all of my features and plans. 

This is how I decided to manage my project. So, today I decided to work on the stats system. Possibly the items system as well If I have time. 

Stats

I began with a new stats scene and set up the UI- which was easy peasy. Whenever players hit the play button it will instantly take them to this scene where they will pick where they want their stat points to go. They can level up to 5 and there are 4 points to allocate. Next is the coding setting the variables were easy. The point system was... something else. The points incrementally changed based on the value. If I added 3 to strength then it would subtract 3 from points. Good enough right? However, it caused a bug where it would go into insane negative numbers.

this is not what I want.

Since the spinboxes caused more problems than they were worth I found an alternative solution. I made plus and minus texture buttons (not the best but hey, they work!).  If there were no more points [+] was disabled. If there were 4 points [-] was disabled. Plus adds minus subtracts. Pretty straightforward

All that's left to do now is move those variables out into the game so they are actually worth something. I decided to auto load the script. The game can pick up and identify the variables but when it comes time to showing results its always printing out 0 for all of my stats even though I set Strength to 4 in the Stats scene. I promised myself that I would get my items set up today as well so this is no big deal right now. I'll jump on this new stats problem when I need to.

Items

I have already conceptualized items. For ease and just saving space: Items wont be thier own node with a script attached. Its too messy. I also wont make a bunch of item variables or dictionaries and pop them into the main Game script. Even though its easier to access and program there is already allot going on in there and it will be tedious to keep going back and forth looking for the item in my code. Especially when I want to change something about the item. Because I would have to go:

 dictionary.itemx.var=new number. 

This is even more complicated given that I do not know every object that will be in the game yet. So I need flexibility.How do I solve these problems? Godot has this cool functionality where you can create resources. They are universal and can be accessed within any code in the game after its created.

For example this is the Object/Item resource I have created:

lots of Booleans involved. Not sure If I'll use the texture bit. It depends if I want to make icons or not.

And when I create a new one: here are the settings.

I'm pretty happy with todays progress. But there is barely any story to initiate gameplay... which is something I've been putting off. 

Day 4

I managed to finish up my plot, I have all of my items where to find them as well as a map of the place. I have even written up some 'buddies' that can escape with you. I might implement them if I have time to but for now I need to begin coding my text adventure. When you change locations it shows at the top of the screen. Interactable things are all color coded thanks to bbcode. 

Yellow= locations, 

Red/green=NPCs, (red are hostile, green is friendly), 

blue= interactable objects.

 I put a bunch of actions on the side to give players hint. I coded it to be flexible. For instance if you want to go to your cage you can type 'cage' or 'Cage' as well as 'go to cage' or 'Go to cage'. As you can see its not case sensitive.

Since I have all of my locations and actions ready all I need to do is implement them and voila!

Maybe if I put it under the ready function it will work. 

nope

It must be because I have the Cage text in there twice. If I could take it out completely and instead WRITE it in the bb text editor it will clear up.  

nope

What If I clear the text before the player changes locations

no you fool none of this works.

The only option now is to go back and rewrite my code.  I can't wait to go insane from this!

oh noooooooo--sometimes that is how you learn in game dev. games are often the product of a lot of trial and error--and the good news is once you make it once (or a few times) you'll find implementing the same thing later much faster and often with a few more ideas how to make it even better. this is such a thoughtful devlog--i really enjoyed reading it and i hope your progress is going well! best of luck!