Introduction

Hello, this is Naga and Juu speaking! :D We are not native in English so first of all, sorry if we made a grammar mistake in our conversation. :p

Anyway, I'm (Naga) a total newbie at game designing. I've been playing many type of games since childhood and I'm gradually interested at the designing aspect itself. I'll be doing the arts on this game. My partner (juunishi master) is a seasoned game programmer at Night Spade game company. She never tried a game jam before and thought to help me make a game together. She will handle the programming.

Since this is our first game jam, we thought to make a simple and entertaining game. Any thoughts or comments are welcomed!

Synopsis

You played as a young cat who took a part-time job as a food/beverages seller at a local bus stop. How many can you serve before the bus arrives?

Gameplay

At random, a passanger would call you to buy something. You should stock what the passanger needs in your box and approach them to make successful transaction.

Visuals

Simplified cartoon.

Program used

Unity.

Goals

- I could learn what assets would be need to make this kind of game

- Juu could learn more about Unity

- Finish the game's early stage prototype

(Bonus) The Team

Let's see, from left to right: Juu (the programmer), Yin (the animator; she doesn't have an account here), and me, Naga (the illustrator).

Pleased to meet you all! :D

-edited-

Thanks to all the supports! ^^ We have finished the rough prototype here:

http://juunishi-master.itch.io/quick-before-the-bu...

See you next game!

This is the draft for the game.

And a doodle for the main character (not final):

His design based on real life snack seller I seldom see at bus stops: shirt, jacket, and hat. Don't worry, they also wore pants :p The protagonist didn't wear one because he's a cat.

Today's update:

Sorry it's not in English; but basically, Juu and I had a brainstorming session about the best way for the cat to get his item from the main box. She come up with button choices at the main box for restocking item, and I think the best way for showing the item on the cat's possession.

Although putting individual item on the box is the most visually appealing, I didn't think I would have time to finish it (also, looks like it would be quite a pain to animate and programming them). So I thought to use dialogue box to show what the cat has in his inventory at the moment.

And this is the design for the "stage". The orange way is the indicator where the cat would move, green for the passengers, and yellow for the passenger placement. I'm not quite satisfied with the design though ... so perhaps it would undergo some changes. (Also I need to change the "drive safely" into "check your belongings" since it's more fitting that way. :p)

I planned on trying some scripts I've made yesterday by putting Naga's sketch as placeholder.

And then my Unity editor just acted up. I couldn't open the Console window, even after I tried to close and reopen the editor.

Hi, guys! Sorry for skipping update for a day (thanks to Juu for got it covered). There's a slight problem at my office so it kinda tires me a bit, but I got a good news! Another friend informs me that she interested in this project too. If she did enter, she will take position as the animator (and general art supervisor, since like Juu, she also works at a game studio, thus she has more practical judgement at this sort of thing).

Also, you guys won't have to see lots of crappy animation by me. :p Too bad.

Today, I learned the importance of flipping the sprites horizontally. The problem with 2D sprites is, well, we need to see them flipping a lot of times. d: So by turning them, you could see what is not working at the left/right stance, and fix the problem asap. (The best example is the bat; the sketch one looks kinda goofy if you flip it. So I redo a few things and now he could turns without worrying how he looks from both sides.)

Also ... I gave the cat a pair of pants, but my friends thought he looks cuter without it. So the accepted middle way is ... the cat wears no pants, the bat's too, and the dog lost his shoes. His job deems well-clothed employee, mind you. The lady changes into skirt just for animation convenience. :p

Anyway, how's your progress? Best of luck for you guys! ^^

Hi everyone.

Today's updates are ...

I'm doing the countdown, but since I'm too lazy to make it into gif animation, I just screencap the whole Unity Editor. :P

I still need to fix something with the UI text.

The main character animation!

I think that's all for now.

I begin to forget my own to do list after the latest depressing Sunless Sea playing session (out of fuel, out of supplies, accept help to bring the ship to dock and lose my ship, now have "a ship in a size of dining table", what option do I have now except set sail for the last time with that crappy ship). :v

I shouldn't play games on weekdays. :|

Especially during a game jam week!

Today's updates are not really visual.

• Add the cat animation and set-up the animation state for idle and walk
• Fix the timer position
• Did some math for the cat's movement
• Start working on the commuter's script
• Naga is working on background and I think Yin is working on the commuters' animation, we don't have much discussion on Line today

The not important updates:

• The cat's name is Felix. I write his complete name as "Felix Feliciano" on my note, just to differ him from Felix the Cat.
• The dog's name is Kenny.
• The bat's name is Robert.
• The hippo lady's name is Ms. Tammy. She is a teacher on an English course place. I came up with that background story after Naga called the hippo lady as "Ms. Tammy". I always relate "Ms." with English teacher, I don't know why.

Alright~ that's all for today.

Hi everyone. I'm really sorry for lack of updates lately.

• A lot of assets: background, the commuters, and timer holder. :D
• Put the animation in Unity.
• Put the commuter script and the collider.
• Change the timer font, but when I started the countdown, the numbers are misplaced as you can see on the screenshot above.

This is Kenny Canine. Your typical office worker.

Say hello to Ms Tammy Ippo!

And finally ...

Robert Battyson! He is a college student or so I think.

That's all updates until today. :D

Latest update:

- I currently stuck in a place where internet connection is bad. Yesterday, I got problem downloading the remaining asset from my email. orz Dunno what I should do if I can't upload the game.

- I miscalculate my time management, forgetting how language course (it started in halfway of the game jam, the 2nd week) would hindering the progress.

- Naga has finished 90% of the asset and sent it to me.

I'll take a nap for now. It's 12 midnight in my current place.

I somehow manage to finish the rough playable prototype in the last hours.

And submitted it. The internet is still bad, but the game is uploaded.

Phew.

Moral of the story so far; at least from my side:

• I won't ever underestimate travel anymore. I always think like this: "Oh, I'm going to go to [some other city] at [date]. I can just bring my laptop and continue working there." NO. In my case, I should never think like that anymore. The place I stay has bad mobile phone signal and even when I use the best internet package available by my provider, it's not something I can rely on. Besides, it's just wrong to stay longer in the room than outside the room when in this occasion.
• I slack off too much. There are 2-3 days I didn't touch the code. It doesn't mean I'm going to spend more hours writing codes and no play at all. I will still need a break now and then, but a little bit of work at the end of the day won't hurt. At least entering one or two sprite animation or do some programming notes.
• Sometimes I think too much about parts that's not perfect, spending too much time in there and in the end making myself feel frustrated, which is not good.

Hi, this is Naga again! Thanks for all the support we are getting this far! Without you guys, we probably wouldn't finished this at all. ;___;

Anyway, sorry for lack of updates for more than a week (thanks to Juu for the fill!). The afternoon work turns out chipped quite a chunk of my stamina. At some days I was about to committed myself into visiting all threads, but when my head touches the bed, all I could think is, "Wow I could use some sleep for a minute". When I woke up, it's already morning. :(

But, I have promised to visit your threads, and I will do so! Just ... give me a little bit time to settle things around first. ^^;

As for this game jam, I learned a great deal from this project--and I hope you too! The game we made turns out to gain a little backstory by itself--so it's holiday time, and Felix (the cat) wanted to save money for his journey home. How much you could get him to sell his stuff will determine the ending his get! There's only two 'ending' though :p the failed and success one. Initially I wanted a special ending--but it's kinda complicated and I don't have time for that. ^^; Maybe if we could commit to polish this game, you could play and see through it! Could you help Felix visit his family at home? It's all depends on you! XD

So, there's to that. I hope we could see each other again at some other time--and at that time, I hope to have time to talk with you guys some more! :) See you next game!