I'm HadeZerX, a random guy from Poland. This is the first game jam I take part in, but I have made one small game before - Expanding Snake.

I've been working on this project for three or four days already, but only now I have noticed the option to create a devlog here. I'm working alone, doing every graphical asset and coding everything by myself.

Genre: 2D Platformer
Engine: Unity
Art: Aseprite
Concept:
You play as skeleton-druid-necromancer, who has an ability to heal plants (by clicking on them with the mouse). However, due to being a necromancer and not a true druid, you can only heal one plant at a time. If you heal a second plant, the first one will wither away and return to its default state.

Using this ability (and jumping, and walking), you will have to get through the levels to the other side of a dead forest/caves.

Progress (first 3/4 days):
I have created the graphics for the first plant - Expanding Plant, and the titular Necro Druid, both fully animated. I have also finished the mechanics for the Expanding Plant - as the name suggests, it expands. The movement of Necro Druid is also ready, but I suppose it might need a little tweaking later.

Here's a video of what I have made so far:

Additionally, I have made those two enemies that will be added to the game later. The eye will gradually open and shoot a laser at the player when it fully awakens. The spikeroach will mindlessly go left and right from wall to wall.

Further plans:
Tomorrow I plan to create a tileset for ground, background and roof for the game areas and learn how to use them. I will also probably make the first tutorial level.

Original idea and nice pixel art! Looking forward to this game.

Necro Druid | Devlog #2

Current progress:
I have made a cave+ground tileset in Aseprite. Further additions such as trees and sky will be created towards the end of the game dev process, so the mechanics and level design are ready beforehand.

Using those tiles and other things I made so far, I created a sample level, which you can see in the video below. I haven't made a way to exit a level yet.

Here's the tileset I made. You can take it and freely use it if you want. Each part of the tileset is 32x32 pixels.

Future plans:
Tomorrow I plan to make the first proper level, introducing player to basic movement, Expanding Plants and Spikeroaches. If I will still have energy, I will create a second one still using those mechanics but more difficult. If I manage to do that, I will make a way to go from one level to another. Also, I'll try to tweak player's movement a little.

Oh wow I thought I understood your mechanic from the pitch but honestly seeing it in motion in the video--this is really cool! I love the constraint of it--it seems like it'd have a lot of cool puzzles. This is looking great already--I'm excited to see more!

Necro Druid | Devlog #3

Current progress:
I have postponed making the first level to tomorrow, because I was busy doing other things in real life. Instead, I focused on doing small things that I will need later and generally adjusting what I already had.

I have implemented Spikeroaches in the game, so they are ready to be added to the levels whenever I need them.
With the first enemy in game, I have added the death of Necro Druid whenever he touches an enemy and death particles at such an event. Also, the screen fades away to blackness at death, and returns to normal at level restart.

I have modified the script for Expanding Plant, so now it can grow not only upwards but also sideways and downwards, depending on the location of the seed.
Due to problems with colliders and triggers, I decided to make the druid able to jump in the air if he fell (but not voluntarily jumped) from a plant. I don't know yet if this gimmick will be needed for completing any level, but I'll leave it be regardless.

I have also done some little technical stuff that I would need to set up later anyway, such as making level controller for going to other levels; adjusting the camera and player movement, etc.

Here's a video of the updated sample level. Not much changed.

Further plans:
I plan to make a sprite for spikes later today, so that it's ready for tomorrow. Aside from that, see Devlog #2.

Update 9th July 2022  22:00 CEST
I've made spikes sprite and a background dead tree sprite.

Necro Druid | Devlog #4

Current progress:
I have created the first proper introduction level, which you can see in the video below. I have made the first build of the game, containing said level, and sent it to my two friends in order to check if their computers don't explode. From now on, I will not publish more videos, because I don't want to spoil the further content of the game.

Further plans:
I will make three or four more levels, introducing one new plant type and the laser eye I've shown in the first post. The playtime of the full game will be probably around ~10 minutes. In the final day, I will polish the game - add menu, so the player can select levels and properly exit the game without using ALT+F4, and maybe also add some particle effects of dirt flying away where the druid steps.

Next devlogs:
I will make the next devlog (#5) whenever I make the next plant type and implement the laser eye in the game. Devlog #6 will be the last one, and I will write it when the game is ready and uploaded to itch. I plan to take part in GMTK Game Jam, so I'll submit Necro Druid around a day before deadline, whatever the progress in that moment might be.

Necro Druid | Devlog #5

Hey, it's me again. A lot of progress was made.

Current progress (last 4 days):
I have created a new plant type - Bouncy Plant. It bounces Necro Druid away when he lands on it.
I also implemented Laser Eye in the game. It tries to reach the player's position with Unity's 2D raycast, and if it hits the druid it starts charging up its laser beam.

I have created a fully functional main menu, in which the player can change settings (resolution, fullscreen mode and sound/music volume), quit game and load any checkpoint previously reached. All of these things are saved in XML files in AppData.

I started to get the project's page on itch.io ready to publish. I will finish it tomorrow and launch it when the game is ready.

I have made two proper levels after the intro one. I think that current game content is around ~5 minutes long.

Here's a video showing off Bouncy Plant and Laser Eye in a throw-away scene.

Further plans:
Today, I will create level 3 and an in-game pause menu, so the player can return to main menu.
Tomorrow, I will create level 4 and add sounds to the game.

Necro Druid | Devlog #6

I have finished the project.

All four planned levels have been created, all the features I wanted to make has been made.

There's not really much more to say.

Link to the game

Link to post-mortem thread