Day 1

For this game i'm using Game Maker

At first i didn't really know what to do, i imagined a kind of game where you control a kind of "catmaster" who controls cats and use them like pikmin or something ?? I don't really know myself, i wasn't sure about what i was doing, but that's still where i started.

So i used this thing i did as a basis first. That was when i was learning how to use game maker (spoiler : i stopped after that and didn't get back into it until this jam).

Unfortunately i don't have footage of that first version, but i still have the sprites i made, here are some of them:

this is the placeholder i planned to use for the catmaster

this is one frame from the walking cycle

and the idle sprite

After finishing animating the catmaster and putting it in the game like in the video i realized i wasn't going anywhere, and decided to start from scratch with something else.

Why not making a kind of fighting game with cats ? So i started making sprites using the same color palette and screen size than the NES because i think this is easier to make. I managed to control the paw of the cat with the mouse and that's it, well i tried to make the head of the other cat move but it didn't end well...

aaand that's it for my first day i think.

ooo the mouse + paw movement is coming along well! this is a really good foundation for a game!

I need to tell you that I keep on coming back to this thread if only just to see that gif of the cat's head just freaking out, I love it. In all seriousness though, I'm really looking forward to seeing the progress on your game! I really like how you control the cat's paw and I can't wait to see more!

Day 2

Did a lot of things today, well basically what i was trying to do was to make a collision effect when the two paws encouters, and create a sort of "defense response" when you approach the head of the other cat, my first attempt didn't end well:

I tweeted this gif earlier in the day and it got a shit ton of notes because it was retweeted by Alec Holowka, apparently a lot of people like the idea.

Anyway, i continued to work on this and the defense response worked as intended:

Then i started working on what happens when the two paws collide, it was the hardest part of what i did today, but thanks to the help of the community on discord i managed to get what i wanted.

I then recorded and added some sound effects, you can hear them (don't pay attention to the crappy video quality):

(You can also see what happens when the paws collide).

Btw, here's what the hitboxes look like:

The adversary cat wins when its paw touches your head and vice versa. When your paw enters the green square the other cat pushes your paw.

I also started working (a bit) on what happens when someone touches the head of the other, but i need to use an alarm and i have absolutely no idea how to do this, i don't understand the doc nor the tutorials i find on internet.

Oh and the game is unplayable in fullscreen, the mouse is too sensitive, and when the other cat touches your head you disappear. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm gonna scream these are my favourite gifs in the world. I can't believe these cats know martial arts moves omg. Dunno what you mean by your first attempt not ending well in the first gif, that is a superb total defence.

Day 3

Sadly, i didn't have a lot of time to work on the game today. The only thing i did was making and adding some (bad) music (just a constant clave sound, and a more intense and quick sound when one cat's paw touches the other cat's head).

I didn't take the time to thank you all for commenting here in the last entry so here it goes: thank you all for the kind messages !

hahaha i was really excited seeing that gif a couple times on my tl the other day it's so good!! good luck with your progress going forward!

Day 4

Today i wanted implement new things as much as possible because i know tommorow i won't have a lot of time to work on the game BUT today was also a day where i felt lazy as fuck and just wanted to chill, but i said to my self "no ! you have to work on the game !" so i did.

The first thing i did today was adding head shaking movement when one cat was hit, for this i had to use alarms, i think i kind of understand how alarms works now ? Anyway, at first it looked like this:

As you can see the head didn't stop shaking, it wasn't a major problem tho and was resolved quickly. I just made a gif of it only because apparently people on internet prefer looking at broken games.

Then i started to add new visual elements. I started drawing (on Paint, i forgot to mention that i drew everything on Paint, and also did the music on the trial version of FL Studio, and used Audacity to record the "pshow" sound effects) paws icons so you can see how much health you and your opponent had left (at first i wanted the cats to only have on life, but i quickly realized the game wouldn't be interesting enought in this state so i gave them 10, and as i'm writing this i realize i should've put 9 lives instead of 10 but who cares.)

Then i added a "screen shake" effect when one of the cats recieve damage, and a less intense shaking effect when the two paws touch.

I alsto started drawing a kind of "tail" radar that was supposed to be on the up-right corner of the game and that indicate the state of your opponent's tail, so you could guess its mood. On paper it's a good idea but on practice it wasn't very intuitive so i quickly abandoned that idea.

So, i only added the life bars. Now the game looks like this:

I should've manipulated instances for the HP icons but i thought it was too complicated and i didn't know how to do it. So each paw is a different object lol.

Next time i plan to add a nice visual feedback when one of the cat looses, i have to admit i have no idea of what it will look like. I just don't want it to be "the cat who loses just disappear and then "you win/you lose" appears on the screen written in a generic ugly font". I also wan't to add a menu and a title screen so the game won't start directly with the fight. (we will see latter for the addition of cats). I also wonder if i should make the cat more agressive because i think the game is too easy in this current state.

Anyway, i'd like to thank the people who helped me on Twitter and Discord for the alarm thing !

Edit: i forgot to mention that i added 5 frames of invincibility

Day 5

Didn't do anything

Day 6

Made the blue cat more agressive

Improved the UI

Made something happen when you/the other cat loses

Published the game. You can download it here

Tbh i'm kinda tired and i don't really want to work on it more. I don't know if i should submit the game now or wait untill the last day (if maybe i get the motivation to work on it more, but i don't think so).