Edit on July 16h:

The game is out! Check it out bellow:

https://itch.io/embed/1610800

Cheers!

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Day 1 - July 2nd

This is the first time that I'll be in a Game Jam and I’m so excited with this experience! I hope that everything will be great and fun on the process!

Today I’ve started using the theme of the jam to define my game itself. With that in mind, I’ve come up with this concept:

Be the support of my mates in the middle of a combat.

Think of that like you being the supplier from a squad and they need that you reach them to get up they morale and health, with the right supply for they need.

To make it more clear, I also have defined the core loop of the game:

• Find someone to be helped (can be the player itself)
• Hide from or avoid the shots
• Grab the right supply in need
• Hide from or avoid the shots
• Give the needed supply
• Find someone to be helped…

I don’t know if I will be able to create all of this things, but it sounds really interesting to me. And from this I’ll make the iterations of the mechanics in my prototype on Godot Engine, with simple forms on a 2D canvas. I will share the playable prototype with you so we can validate and evolve together :)

To expand my ideas around this concept and the game loop, I’ve made some really simple hand drawing to make it more visible:

For my schedule, since I work on weekdays, I've come up with spaced tasks, that will follow that order:

• Setup the game concepts and foundations (this stuff right here)
• Work on prototype to validade and evolve the concepts and game loop
• Roll out the prototype for validation from the people on the jam
• Work on pixel art to make it more interesting
• Roll out the polished version for validation from the people on the jam
• Getting closer to the deadline, pack everything that was able to do and finish the game jam version
• Submit the game :)

If you want to keep an eye on the code, you can go to the game repository on GitHub.

That’s it for now! I hope to bring more stuff, starting with the initial prototype of some mechanic from the main concept. If you want to get updates from this DevLog in other places, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

See ya!

Day 2 - July 3rd

For this day, I started segregating the concept into elements and actions. With that in mind, I’ve come up with the following:

Elements

• Player
• Mates
• Supplies
• Barricades
• Bullets
• Enemies

Actions

• Player can move, be hit by a shot, pick and give a supply to a Mate.
• Mates can move, be hit and take a shot into Enemies and receive a supply from Player.
• Supplies cannot move, can be taken from Player and be give to a Mate.
• Barricades cannot move, stops shots.
• Bullets can move as a shot made from a Mate or Enemy, stops on barricades, hits Player, Mates and Enemies and slow health from them. 
• Enemies can move, be hit and take a shot into Mates.

—

After that, I started to work in the prototype, building the foundation to create the Player and Mates on an early stage. I’ve also made the Player movement, without any collision checks. It took all my time today, which the result below:

Pretty cool, right?

All the code are in the game’s repository on GitHub.

And that's for today's work. Tomorrow I hope to evolute in the collision between then, create the barricades and start to create some automatic movement on the Mates.

If you want to get updates from this DevLog in other places, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

See ya!

Day 3-4 - July 4th-5th

Unfortunately I couldn’t do anything on this days. Too tired to keep doing the tasks. Used some little free time to make random pixel art, like my new avatar to represent a graphite crystal.

Let’s move on hoping to have time doing something in the middle of the week. 

Day 5 - July 6th

Today I have implemented a simple collision system between the Player and the Mates. 

After that, I created the Barricades with the collision system learned from the knowledge with the other elements.

Now it looks like this:

Nice, right?

And that’s it for now. I hope make the IA movement for the Mates and the initial resources concept in the next day that I’ll be able to keep working on this game.

If you want to get updates from this DevLog in other places, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

See ya!

Day 6 - July 7th

Today was really fun to start making some simple sprites for resources to be pick by our supply guy. I’ve also made some sprites for the supply guy to show that he has each of the resource on his behalf, and other sprites for our mates show what they need right now. This guys I’ll show in the next day, when the resources dynamic will be more close to be completed.

Another thing that I’ve made was to move the mates to the sides of the playable area. This felt more compelling for the playability, as in this way the supply guy will need to pass more danger as the “clear area” without barricades is greater than before.

Here are the changes and the additional of the resources below the supply guy spawn position:

Nice, right?

And that’s it for now. For the next day, I hope finish the resources implementation, including the mates in need, and start making the IA movement for the Mates.

If you want to get updates from this DevLog in other places, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

See ya!

Day 7-8 - July 8th-9th

On this days I’ve couldn’t make anything on the game coding. Just improved the sprites of the mates and the player with the resources and thinking about what and how to do on the resources mechanic.

Day 9 - July 10th

The best day so far, because I was able to make a lot of things on the resources mechanics. 

First of all, I’ve made the sprites of player and the mate change when the correct resource was in need (with the Mates) or on held (with the Player). 

Then, I was able to make the main mechanic of the player picking the resource from the container and take it to the Mates in need, changing to the animation loaded. And by that, I was wondering some way to not just pass near the resource bucket or the mate to pick and/or delivery the resource without any interaction. For this, I mapped the space key to make the action of pick the resource and delivery it when you are near for then. In this way, the mechanic now is simple as that:

• Look to the mates to choose one resource to pick for the most needed one.
• Move the player with WSAD/Up-Down-Right-Left to get the resource.
• When really in front of the resource, use Space to grab it.
• Move the player to the Mate in need.
• When really touching the Mate, use Space again to delivery it to him.
• Look to the mates to choose one resource to pick for the most needed one…

It’s already fun to play with that :D

To finish, I’ve created the health bars above the Mates, to indicate how much the resources were running out. In this, I’ve put some randomness in the pace of the bars, when the game choose the new resource in need after the player take it to the mate. With that, you will need to pick the right strategy, because for out of sudden, some mate can lower his resource faster than other. You will see it in action below.

So far, so good, here is the status for now:

I’m loving it!

Even without the enemies, bullets and the AI of them moving and trying to hit themselves and the player, the game is already interesting to play around, just needing some fine tune in this mechanic :)

And that’s it for now. For the next time I, finally, hope to start making the IA movement for the Mates, create the enemies, and begin to shoot some bullets between enemies and Mates.

If you want to get updates from this DevLog in other places, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

See ya!

Day 10 - July 11th

Just a quick update, as now you can play the game in it current state!

Check it out it’s page:

https://itch.io/embed/1610800

Please, play it and send feedback here or in there’s page for improve the game loop and fine tune.

And that’s it for now. For the next time I want to start making the IA movement for the Mates, create the enemies, and begin to shoot some bullets between enemies and Mates.

If you want to get updates from this DevLog in other places, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

See ya!

Day 11 - July 12th

In this day I sended the game link to be playtested on Game Jam's Discord. For my surprise, the game had incredible feedbacks from the play testing channel on Discord made from @zennnci and @DustoTail. Thanks guys!

After that, I used the rest of the day to think on this ideas and how I could bring them to the game.

Day 12 - July 13th

As I realized that now it’s very close to the deadline, I’m going to cut some planned features, like the IA movement for the mates, enemies and the battle mechanic with shoots between mates and enemies. I’ve come with this because of the incredible feedbacks from the play testing made yesterday!

So, for now on my planning of what to do before the deadline is:

• Improve Mate’s sprites with expressiveness (@zennnci suggestion)
• Implement a reward/punishment score system for the game (@DustoTail suggestion)
• Create a HUD for the game
• Create an entrance for the game, if has enough time (to have a feel on how to make a game in this kind of detail aswell)

And today I started the creation of the score system with a simple mechanic for it. To start with some reward/punishment score system, I'm computing the score when the resource is delivered as the health * health_pace of the mate helped. With this, you will earn more from the more needed. Now I'm not planning do anything on score when someone dies, but is something that I'm thinking about.

Look how it is now:

Finally we have a game! Now let's work on its polishment.

You can play it here: https://brendaw.itch.io/supply-guy

And that’s it for now. For the next time I want to add more expressiveness for the Mates, create a high score counter and replay function, and maybe some intro/menus to improve starting experience. If you want to get updates from this DevLog in other places, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

See ya!

Getting here to say that my final version for the Jam is out!

https://brendaw.itch.io/supply-guy

https://itch.io/embed/1610800

Tomorrow I'll write everything about the finishing of this exciting journey!

Hope you enjoy!

See ya!

Day 13 - July 14th

On this day I couldn’t make anything on the game coding and modeling. Just thinking about what to priorize until deadline.

Day 14 - July 15th

One day until deadline!

Today I improved the mate sprites to show he is dead when the resource run out. 

Then, I made some reward/punishment system for the player. For instance, the player get a little time boost of speed and start to blink green when deliver a resource in need. And gets a small time penalty in speed if some mate die, blinking red to note it.

I have also made invisible boundaries around the screen so player don’t get out of the camera.

Because I was working on the game in the night, I was too tired and excited by the last day so I didn’t generate a gif with this game state. Sorry about that :/

Day 15 - July 16th

Last day! OMG 8O

This day for me was, by far, the most productive in the entire jam. Too much things accomplished.

First of all, I tried to implement a difficult system when the mates start to dead. But that was not very satisfying, especially when two or one mates are left. So I limited the game run to a maximum mate dead count to two. This way, the game keeps in a good pace.

Other thing that I worked on was the HUD and enable replay of the game. Before was just a prototype with the core loop, but now I made an intro menu waiting the player to press enter to begin, a countdown before game begin, the core loop begin, and a game over screen waiting the player to press enter to play again.

Too much stuff that made the game more “polished”.

Another feature added after that was an high score, so the replay flow was more satisfying.

Then I worked in the mate animation. 

First creating an animation for when he is waiting a countdown to randomize its next resource choose. 

After that, another animation to sinalize the level of worry of the mate. It start neutral when the resource level bar is green. 

Then, gets a little worried when the bar gets yellow. And gets in panic when the bar is red. It looked really interesting.

Other thing that I worked on was in a special animation for the mate when the player gets the resource in need. His eyes now turn into hearts to show his satisfaction hehe.

The final feature that I’ve created for the game was a scrolling background that stopped to scroll when the game started.

And before deadline, I’ve made some polish in everything to just get it right and published the last version that was submitted to the jam!

Here is the latest version of the game:

I’m so proud of the result!

And that’s it for this incredible journey! I’m really happy to get in the finish line for the first time, be able to experience, and commit with such amazing experience. Tomorrow I’ll publish my post mortem of this ride!

To keep up with this and my other projects, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my projects' newsletter!

Thanks to get though here and see ya!