Heyya! Sardines here. I'm making a game about a ladybug that's trying really hard to get to its friend! Ladybug is doing its best... but it doesn't quite understand that sometimes, you can't just run straight towards someone. If there are obstacles or secondary goals, you might have to take a detour or go around.

This will be a simple maze game where you help Ladybug reach its friend, even though Ladybug might accidentally make that difficult. I will do my best to work a little every day and post daily updates.

Today I didn't get to work much, but I drew some sketches to get ideas:

I also did the first bit of coding. I only have placeholder sprites so far, but this is Ladybug running toward its friend:

I also tried making a bit of music! I learned some about how to put music together, but I don't think the tune I came up with will be good for this game.

This is such a cute idea omg... It also seems like it could potentially be pretty challenging too! Good luck!

thank you octo :3

Today I got the ladybug to follow the mouse (this was shockingly fine) and made walls (also surprisingly fine, hooray for object inheritance). I squashed a bug with collision (the "ladybugs" rotate to face each other, but initially I forgot to check if this would cause a collision). So the game now looks like this: 

(I definitely need to get to sprites next, haha!)

I also made some music to play in the background. I tried to get it to sound a little silly. It's actually pretty ok!

https://soundcloud.com/user-299333562/ladybug

I'll count today as a success :)  Mostly I have art and level design to work on now.

awww i love these sketches so much and this idea is so wholesome! also this is really great so progress so far omg. the theme is also really cute ;;v;; great work!!

Short update today since it’s late and I didn’t have time to do as much. I worked out musical issues with the first three quarters of the song (the rest I’ll finish tomorrow), and I doodled a LOT of ladybugs to figure out how to do my sprites. Unfortunately those were all in a notebook I leave at school, and I forgot to take pictures. I’ll be able to post some of those in a couple days. 

Weekdays are busy for me, but I’ll keep trying. 

EDIT: I felt bad about not really posting anything so

(if it's before 5 am does it count as yesterday)

:0 This is turning out so cute!

I only had a bit of time again. Weekdays might just be busy. 

I finished up the music bit, I think (I'll refine later if I have time but it's ok as is). The new version is here.

Also, I didn't end up being able to use the sprite I made earlier because I needed a top-down view. Oops. I made a new ladybug sprite (it's not animated yet, but I've looked at how ladybugs walk). I also made a bush sprite for  square obstacle! I still have to make a longer obstacle sprite though. I'll expand my bush tomorrow. After that my first level should be much prettier!

(These sprites look really small, but they get blown up a bit in the game, haha.)

I'm cheering ladybug on TmT

the foliage sprite is gorgeous!

I'm sad I haven't updated more. I got busy and also lost some motivation. I think I'm back on track though! Gosh, looking back on my last update I realize I've made a lot more progress than I realized.

Ladybug got a sprite upgrade, complete with shading and animation! Bush got a downgrade. I needed the bushes to extend in any direction and I couldn't make it work with the pretty sprite I made. I ended up with a functional but unshaded bush sprite. So sad. Hopefully I can restore bush to its former glory... soon. I also made a really ugly background that (god willing) will be replaced by the next update. 

I set up some tutorial levels and even made some text boxes to explain the controls. They size themselves! I'm very proud. Also, if you finish a level you now actually go to the next level.

Pictured below: Sad bush. 

Final problem for this update: I own the version of gamemaker that will only export to mac, and apparently you can only distribute mac applications if you pay Apple $100, which I'm not doing this week. I basically can't publish my game, oops! Alaris is going to try to help me out with a windows export. What an angel.

Goals now are: design some interesting levels and make a stick sprite.

ouch, I hope the export goes well! and the textures are looking so cute??? It's such a pleasant pattern to look at 

really quick update because it’s late and I need to sleep. I don’t have time to share much, but I’m excited to announce that as of tonight:

• Everything works! All the important parts of my little ladybug game exist, and none of them are broken. It’s incredible. 
• Bush has been rescued! I didn’t get it looking quite as good as it did before, but I did my best and gave poor bush the love and attention it deserves. There’s been great improvement. 
• I have a nicer background. (Thanks for your kind words, though, zaraegis.)
• I added some more levels. 

In summary, my game is now pretty playable! I won’t be around on Sunday or Monday, which means I’ve gotta get this in tomorrow (and I won’t be able to play all these other games right away, such sads). Hopefully I’ll have time to try to make a more challenging level, or at least do a cute animation for the closing screen. 

I’ll update tomorrow with the link to my completed game! Keep an eye out ;)

Heya! My game has been finished, successfully exported, and submitted. You can play it here:

https://itch.io/jam/my-first-game-jam-winter-2019/rate/371602

Please leave me comments and feedback! I hope you guys enjoy it :)