hello everyone! this is my first time participating in this kind of project, i hope i can learn lots of stuff from this, since i've always wanted to make a game. i'm working solo for this project because of social anxiety i have a very specific concept in mind and i want to see if i can actually execute it properly!

the short of it is: you play as a bookworm girl who goes for groceries at her local supermarket, but falls into a strange world and meets a strange 'girl who seems familiar, somehow. explore this otherworld as you help the protagonist reminisce on the past and the thing she's loved and still loves, even if it's a little different now. 

Day 1

i only have some concept art to show for now, and i'll get to working on sprites as soon as i post this and then i'll figure out how to make them move on gamemaker. though, maybe i'll leave the figuring stuff out part for tomorrow, since i started to work veery late today.

(i censored some stuff to not spoil the story too much hehe)

this concept art is mostly me drawing while figuring out what kind of story i wanted to tell in the game, because that's my main goal here. at first the protagonist was going to have a hoodie but then i switched it for an open cardigan for better aesthetics. ideally, i want to include some combat, as this is supposed to be a little rpg, but the protagonist doesn't seem like a person who likes fighting and is instead better suited for a support role, so our little deuteragonist there wields a sword so they can fight together! we'll see if i actually include any combat though, haha. i  would've liked to digitilize this art first, but i lent the tablet i use to a friend so i'll be working on traditional for concept and with a mouse for anything digital! kind of terrifying tbh.

anyways, that's it for the concept art for now. if i don't work on gamemaker today, i'll write down an outline of the story and characters so i can organize the rough one i have on my brain haha.

that's it for today!

Looks great!

I like your art style! Looking forward to the rest of the project!

Your art is so cute! I love the girl's character design, and I can't wait to see how this turns out omg

Day 2

hi! i uhm didn't almost forget to update the devlog today haha, not at all! before anything, i wanted to thank the people who saw and replied this log! i didn't think anyone would see this, and it's very honestly helped me to keep my motivation up. i really want to show everyone this story, so fingers crossed i don't get frustrated and give up!!

anyways, even though i said i would work on sprites or the outline, i mostly worked on code today. i wanted to get a feel for how gamemaker language works, so i quickly made a temp sprite for the protagonist and got to work.

look, isn't she cute? even though it's a temporary sprite, it's fairly close to the vibes i want the finished product to have. i need to shorten the skirt and fix the hair shape, though. i'm not sure exactly what kind of style i want for the sprites, though it's most likely going to be pixel art, i think the one i used for this sprite is too simplistic. i need to do more research, i think...

i'll set some time aside to work on sprites properly soon. i don't like working with my mouse, but i'll make do! 

other than that, today was mostly about banging my head against a wall by trying to figure out how GML works. i still remember enough about coding from previous attempts that it's not too hard to figure out more or less what i need to do, the problem i have is how. specifically, i wanted to test the controls and movement/collision mechanics, but i couldn't figure out how to get the program to actually recognize the keyboard input! after suffering a lot trying to see what was different from the tutorials i was following, and eventually bringing calling over my dad for back-up, we figured out how to get the game cycle actually going and get it responding to keyboard input! even though the tutorials i followed didn't seem to need it, i ended up using if/else statements for movement. is this a bad idea long-term? maybe! but x+=( keyboard_check(vk_right) - keyboard_check(vk_left)) wasn't cutting it.

the only thing is... well, the protagonist certainly is moving... if only in two directions

for the record, that's the response to the right, left, and down keys, in that order.

but fear not! as i was writing this, i actually figured out the issue and now the protagonist moves in all four directions!

she's so powerful, she can even phase through the walls i built for her!!

but well! i have the whole day tomorrow to figure that out! tomorrow's objectives are:

• figure out how to make objects collide
• start on proper spritesheets for the protagonist and the rooms (aka the supermarket in the title!) + a temp sprite for npc's
• maybe work on a proper outline...?
• figure out the general aesthetics i want for the game, so i can decide on color pallettes for the sprites and figure out what to do about the sounds (i'll talk more about this later, but i'm still deciding if i want to try and make my own or go for open source)
• not wake up at 3pm!! and not get dragged to family meetings! (progress was slow today because i was dragged outside and then my nephew came to visit. he's a really cute kid, i can't not watch over him.)
• gather up the courage to speak on the discord server if i have trouble!!

i made some concept art today too, but i think i'll wait and show you that in a batch, so that's it for today's log! thank you for reading!

I'm happy that there is an update, I like the idea of enjoying things that one used to like but now like in a bit different way. Lovely concept art! 

Amazing Art! 👍🏾