I'm working on a sequel to The Shining where you get stuck in the haunted hedge maze on the way to your job at the Overlook hotel. Can you commute to work?!

I've been laying some foundation before the start of the jam: I've got a content pipeline set up where I use PX9 to compress the map and the sprite sheet (and whatever other images I end up needing). I've also borrowed the block pushing system from the Zelda+Sokoban fusion idea I've been poking at, and the conversation system from Bouncy's Winter Solstice Ride. This put me at 3248 tokens before November even starts. But it's okay because I haven't started on the game itself yet!! Right?!

You're not stuck in hedge maze traffic, you are hedge maze traffic!

Spent way too much time debugging my content pipeline, but here is a proof of concept putting together all the components I talked about in the previous post: compressed map and sprite sheet, Sokoban-style block pushing in a Zelda-like open world, and the conversation system. Current token count: 3482.

These two new interactions ended up a fair bit fiddlier to implement than I was hoping for -- no surprise that my first pass at the free movement/grid movement blend has awkward bits, I suppose.

Token count: 4343

Found a bug in the particle system

I've noticed that I'm avoiding level design, which tells me I'm nervous about being able do it or possibly just unsure how to start. For Gordy and the Monster Moon I found a good balance of adding a feature and then building out a region of the map that used that feature, but for The Shining 2 I'm just doing feature feature feature.

For example, this ghost follows your tracks in the snow in order to give you a big hug and it won't let go until your shift at the hotel is over.

I'm gonna try doing a rough sketch of the whole map soon. Maybe iteration will be easier than blank slate creation.

(4869 tokens.)

Collecting items and an interface to select them. 5131 tokens.

Chug one brand of whiskey to rewind yourself and a different brand of whiskey to rewind the grid. 5443 tokens.

This game is going to need a content warning for alcoholism, isn't it? 7628 tokens.

Title screen and introductory dialog tree. There's an ending dialog tree too, not pictured.

I've hit Pico-8's token limit so I'll stop giving you the running token count and start telling you how many tokens I've code golfed to make new code fit. So far it's about 350!

Here's what the map currently looks like in the Tiled editor. I'm pretty satisfied with the size/scope of this map, and the map/image data is 98.2% full -- though there's plenty of physical map space I could expand into, and I could dial back the dithering on the title/cutscene images to reduce the compressed size. It feels like a fairly complete end-to-end experience now. 

~400 tokens saved so far -- and after fleshing out the dialog trees I've hit the compressed code limit too, so I've had to cut back on comments significantly. Who needs 'em?

The double-edged sword of the Pico-8's constraints is that they're there to force you to keep your game's scope manageable, but you can push past them if you're willing to suffer.

When you're at max tokens, you get into this feedback loop where you write some code, try to test it, realize you're out of tokens, do an optimization, try to test it, realize you still don't have enough tokens, repeat, then once you get under the token limit you have to debug every change at once.

I code golfed probably 150 tokens (~580 total so far) in order to add axe-door particles. Probably eight individual optimizations that each need to individually be tested. It adds way more QA risk than usual to any new feature. Normally to ameliorate this sort of extra QA load you add something like a regression test system. Unfortunately that would require tokens!

Here's the payoff though: 

Just implemented save/restore. I wasn't sure I was going to, but the game has grown big enough that it feels like a requirement.

The game is pretty dang close to done. My todo list is all nice-to-haves, even fixing the bug when you're slipping on ice that gives you a too-high velocity and warps you to a bad room, because Tony can help you with that.

Submitted! You can play it here on itch: https://twinbeard.itch.io/shining-2

Or on the Lexaloffle BBS: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=145599

Splore 'em if you got 'em!

Final token count: 8191, with ~875 code golfed. PX9-compressed sprite/map memory 99.8% full, compressed code memory 99.9% full.

Since I submitted (three days ago) I've fixed two crash bugs, fixed three level design soft-locks, redesigned one puzzle from scratch, and also made various minor content tweaks.

In retrospect, I only shipped at that time because I was at the nadir of a cold/flu-type thing, hadn't slept well and wasn't thinking straight.

I keep doing it to myself! I code golfed a bunch and hand-deleted a bunch of less interesting pixels from the dithered images make this fit: