Hello. This is my devlog for the game I'm gonna try and make. Gonna try and post updates once a day, or two days maybe.

I'm using Gamemaker to do it because I know a few basics of how to make stuff move about in it. Not sure if this game is gonna be super long or good but I'll give it a go.

Game might be called Nice Cat Story. Not sure if story about nice cat, or nice story about cat. Maybe ambiguity will help build up a sense of mystery. Maybe game will be called something better.

My initial idea is this game will involve a cat climbing a tree. This tree will be the greatest of all trees ever known to cats, very tall. Not sure if it will have to get back down again, think probably not as most cats just stay up trees don't they until someone rescues them. Dunno. Never had a cat.

Will post updates to art and sound and coding and ideas when I make them. Cheers.

Day 3:

Did loads of stuff today which is good because I have work all next week. I gave the cat a jetpack for a bit, but it isn't as fun as moving the arms so it might be temporary. I made some spikes which hurt the cat, though can't decide whether it should trigger the level restarting, not sure if I want it to be that challenging. Also made some rainbow rain for effect. Not sure what that effect is, but it's certainly there.

Challenge now I think is to decide on a main mechanic and improve that, make sure it is fun, then add in extras. Also make it feel like you are progressing through the game, either by notching up difficulty, adding more elements, or driving forward some kind of visual narrative. It helps that you are always heading upwards I think, as that gives the game natural momentum, and a feeling of moving towards something.

Update:

I have been at work all the time and not done much game-making. So much for doing something every day. One thing I did do was have a bit where the screen rotates while you go up, making it a bit more dramatic and cool. I thought this would be really difficult to implement, but I just googled it and it's literally just one line of code. So that's easy. This isn't really a proper update at all, except to state that there are no updates to the game of note.

I spent a day trying to make new 'enemy' types. Although they aren't really enemies, so maybe hazards is a better word. I wanted each one to look different but more importantly to act differently and make the player react in a different way. The first one was a spiky ball which just fell straight downwards, so the player could predict where it would be, and where they needed to be to dodge it. Then I made a goo ball that, when triggered, goes directly towards the player. This mean the player has to actively respond to them, and when there's more than one of them it can get a bit tricky. I also added some floating furniture or random sizes which spin in a predictable way, but don't move position. Next I'm going to try some more random hazards, to make the player have to react more quickly.

One thing I'm not sure about is what the consequences should be for getting hit. At the minute there aren't any, but I could make the level reset after a certain number of lives, or maybe the cat gets points all the time it isn't hit, and loses them when it is. That sounds better to me, because it wouldn't interrupt the flow of the game so much. Not sure how to make score work, or make numbers appear on screen, but I'll try and figure it out maybe.

i kind of like the mish mash of themes and objects for this game aesthetically--it feels kind of abstract and pop art-y. i'm curious to see this game in motion--if you get the chance to record gifs or video i'd love to see the mechanics in action!

i'm not familiar with gamemaker but scores are generally saved as variables and then if the program supports text drawing that as a string or text to the screen/ui. there are probably some explanations for that in shmup style game tutorials.