itch.io

The music and the light blue colors make me feel so relaxed.

I like it, and there's actually something about the "placeholder art" that I find endearing. Very good job getting random levels. I think I'd like to see it go even faster.

The scenery is so pretty. Looking forward to seeing more of the nestle.

Took me a second to catch the objective (should have checked the game page first), spent a while trying to shoot the turrets, hah. It's actually pretty good single player even though MP was the intention!

I'll admit, I can't get past stage 3. But I do like what I see.

"a spin-off of Luigi's Manision and Castlevania, with a good helping of Miniguns"

I didn't know I wanted this in my life until now. I'll buy five.

This is a fascinating premise and the gameplay itself looks interesting.

I can relate to the joys of seeing something finally work after some tedium. I guess programming isn't quite like art or music, but the thrills of creation are there all the same, you know?

Of course, there's also the similar feeling: the uneasy feeling when something works but when you examine the code you aren't sure why it does...

A 'tech demo' of wandering and interacting is still impressive work, especially for a week's time and learning your tools from scratch. You should be pleased with yourself.

I don't know how interesting this would read to some people but I decided it'd be fun to go over what I had to do while working how to implement this feature.

I decided for a bit of flair to add an effect when you click on the bouncing things. After staring at the animation tools for a while I decided instead to spawn a particle effect, which would also have a bit of randomness to where the sparks fly.

My first attempt ended before it ever really began: I attached a particle node as a child to my Bouncing Thing instance, gave it a test and... no particles. When a Bouncing Thing is clicked, it adds points and promptly destroys itself. When a node is destroyed, it destroys all child nodes along with it, meaning the particle child node is created then immediately destroyed along with its parent. Tragic.

Turning off the Bouncing Thing being deleted, though, shows the particle works fine and dandy...except far off from the actual Bouncing Thing's sprite, and anchored-yet-offset to it, so it a was moving and bouncing around in tandem a few inches away. Not quite desirable.

I figured the easiest way to solve this problem would be to make the particle effect not a child of the Bouncing Thing at all, but rather, the Node2D that contains the nodes for all the stage nodes (and also works as the spawner in a moment of perhaps poor judgement). This gave me a particle effect that was stationary, but was stuck at the very top-center of the stage. Still, it felt like progress, and all I had to do now was work out how to move it where I wanted it to be.

To do this, when the Bouncing Thing is clicked, it makes a variable whose value is set_pos(). I then create a second variable that actually loads the particle node instance (not that it's just loaded and not actually assigned as a child yet). I use the first variable to set the particle's position, then add it as a child to Node2D.

Success! Except the particles are spawning forever. No problem, I added an extra line saying that the particle spawner should only emit particles for about 2 seconds. While I'm pretty sure the particle nodes still "exist" in the game, I doubt this is a performance issue for something this simple. At least, I'd be pretty sad if I somehow caused things to dip below 60FPS in a game this simplistic, especially since it only really runs for a minute. Just to be safe, I added a Bouncing Thing-destroyer off-screen at the bottom to clear out anything the player misses instead of keeping them loaded forever. Seeing the object/node amounts in debug mode along with FPS counts make me feel okay.

The net result of all this is here: http://webmshare.com/play/d13qO

All-in-all, it took me a bit over an hour to work this out, including googling and browsing docs to find what I need to do and how to do it. This is probably a bit of a sloppy implementation, but finesse is not the name of the day here. As long as it works, right...?

I tried using Stencyl but I couldn't wrap my head around its lego-block "coding" system, which made me sad since it seems like a pretty solid tool. Kudos to you for powering through it.

A square detector seems like a perfectly fair way to go around it. You need a way to confirm "is there a thing in front of me?" A box in front of you that detects if there's a thing seems like, well, the solution.

Your trees seem... upset.

Looking good so far. I was eyeing LOVE but decided maybe learning LUA from zero while also learning how LOVE worked was maybe more than I felt like trying to handle within a bit over 2 weeks. How is it on exporting to executables?

Well by now I have a finished Game. I'm able to export it into .exe and it runs in WINE (the Linux export is confusing me and doesn't seem to get me anything playable). I'm a little disappointed in it after seeing what everyone else accomplished, but I managed to do it with an engine I picked up like 2 days into the jam itself, so that's exciting.

The title screen is this delightful thing that helpfully tells you all the point values for the Things:

The time limit works, but it shows eight billion digits and I'll have to do a little adjusting to make it only show what I want it to show (I think I'll just do some cropping on the label node and call it good). The game saves your "high score", but it's only for that session - saving a score locally sounds beyond my grasp and I can't imagine any hardcore Thing Clickers going for 7-digit awesomeness or anything.

This webm shows the game ending, that it knows my last best score, and sets up properly to play another round: http://webmshare.com/play/d1G0O

I could definitely submit it at this point and call it a day, but there's a part in me that isn't very happy and wants to give it more polish. I'm not really sure what I could do with it left, though. The timer elements are definitely ugly so I need to work out a way to make those prettier perhaps. A more complicated scoring system like bonuses for clicking the same type of object in a row would be cool, but that's more UI I'd need to work out on how to display that, and more importantly working out how to do it. Hmm.

How I did score was a global script that's set to autoload (somewhere in the game preferences). The script holds the variables I'll need over multiple scenes, and when I need to read/modify them I get_node("global_script_location").variable which seems like a sloppy way to do it but the important thing is It Works

Of course the instant I post a devlog, Pokemon Go and real life happens so I barely work on my game at all.

Godot's scene/node system is pretty interesting and I feel like once the documentation gets some work done (and maybe a couple more versions of the program) it'll be really really good.

After about an hour or so of finangling, I got a scoring system in place. I'm not very happy with how it looks and all that, (it's just a label node with a panel node for visibility), but it works and is fun. Also I made a "stage" that right now is just black and white.. If I want extra stages I'll need to think about what they could be like since I kinda like this one.

i also drew a couple sprites like a hamburger and cogs and a book for more things. My pixel art is not the best, so I'm not optimistic about being able to make a cool stage, but it worked enough for these. I think some objects like a cat or a boot would be funny to add (and help replace the card suits) but I don't think my art is up to snuff to be able to draw those in a recognizable way.

webm: http://webmshare.com/play/PGJJx

imgur didn't make it into a gif and instead an mp4, but it's over here: http://imgur.com/a/i8e5L

Notice how the things display over the score. I need to work out how to make it not do that. A timer won't be too hard, I think, just do what I did for score but instead of checking a global score variable, have it subtract from a global time variable, then if time == 0 send you off to a different "round over" scene.

By the way, hamburgers give the most points at 175, just like in real life.

(itch's posting system really annoys me)

I'm karythina and I doubt I have much interesting to say but I'll make a devlog anyway.

I like, and wanted to make, an old-style RPG like the wizardry games of yore, or a BBS-esque game. This game is none of those.

While I was messing around not really having a 'what' or 'how' for the jam, I tried a bunch of engines and either didn't like what kind of games they'd make, they needed some creative skill i have none of, or just felt bad to use.

I settled on messing around in Godot because it ran on Linux and it seemed like a good idea at the time. After a hilarious 2 hours of failing to do something incredibly obvious (you mean I have to DRAW collision?), I got the basic physics working.

watching stuff bounce around I thought was hysterical, so the rest of the day was spent letting you be able to click things, and to make a spawner to create more things to fall from the sky. clicking on bouncing things, the engrish-y title came kind of naturally to me afterwards.

I made a gif of my game in action, complete with a horrendous eyesore of a background that will not be in the final product.

Things I still need to do:

• Scoring system, maybe with something complex like chaining multiple symbols?
• time limit so you don't just click forever
• a proper 'stage', maybe multiple you can pick from?
• splash title screen with 'push butan to play'
• stuff like a killbox to unload things that fall off the bottom, maybe get a song to play while you click bouncing things
• maybe other stuff if someone suggests something idk

I forget who linked this and where but this rules:

http://rpg-maker-games.tumblr.com/post/14667279926...

Kenney has a lot of tilesets and other graphical assets: http://kenney.nl/assets

1. Hi I'm Karythina. I'm an agender wish-I-was-a-golem-fantasizer who has self-destructive tendencies and severe problems with interpersonal relationships. Great start, now to make a game.

2. I joined the last game jam and made a command-line mini RPG in Python. I'm proud of it because I coded it from scratch and learned as I went. I'm embarrassed by it because it's really really awkwardly coded and kind of lackluster compared to what other people made. I'm not sure what I'll "do better" this time just yet, I'm still debating what and how I'll be doing anything at all.

3. I have been always fascinated and inspired by ANSI and ASCII games. I just love the abstract and yet sorta minimal-ness of simple symbols and colors representing various things. ZZT was one of the earlier games I played on a computer and its level creator blew my little mind away. Nethack and roguelikes are other favorites. BBS games like Legend of the Red Dragon, Dwarf Fortress. For more gameplay inspiration, the Wizardry and Etrian Odyssey series are some of my favorites too, I love a good dungeon crawler.

4. Well, I made that thing in Python, but I wouldn't say I have too much serious game dev experience outside of that. A couple tiny Twine games, some as a joke.

5. I'm very bad at talking about myself so I have a hard time describing my passions. I like numbers and stuff. Artificial beings are pretty cool and so is the whole philosophical aspect of it. I do like philosophy too for whatever that's worth.

Well, everyone should have saw this one coming. I wrote one at the start and at the middle, and everything gets a trilogy nowadays. We're at less than 12 hours left, so it's time to finish up, and I saw a tweet for an exit poll. I don't feel the radio buttons really speak for me, though, so I'm submitting my own poll entry (and closing thoughts) this way, because I like to use 80 words to express something instead of 8.

> Itch.io username
Hi, I'm Karythina.

> Link to your game/prototype/work in progress
> If you decided not to submit, leave blank.

> Gender

cloudhime/@yurigods made references on Twitter a few times about hoping the jam made games more accessible to people, making gaming more diverse. I have a suspicion asking only for this singular bit of personal info is related to that, to see if the hopes became real. I'm not sure why only this in particular would be asked for, otherwise.

[Edit: These probably come off more cynical towards them than I really feel. Both lysandre and cloudhime have been great to talk to and did some awesome work hosting this jam.]

> Game engine

I coded in Python.

> Did you finish your game?

I don't know how to answer this since I never had a finish state in mind. I'm done working with it, so "finished" in the sense that I did what I wanted with it and therefore I'm done. It's not really a game with a conclusion or ending, though, it just cuts off partway through, so in that sense it's not really a finished product.

> How was your experience?

Overall, I think it was a good experience. I learned a lot and had more good times than bad.

> Did you accomplish your goals?
> If not, what do you think you could have done differently? Would you have set different goals or gone about accomplishing them differently?

Going back to my first post where I shared my goals..

1. A combat system with a couple different techniques you can do (not just "you hit it. it hits back" forever).
Mostly done. You have a combat system with different skills you can equip to do different actions. Monsters don't do anything but hit back, but there's some work in there to allow other actions to be added easily enough.

2. A "hub town" - more generally, something the player plays with that doesn't involve to the combat system
Done.

3. A means to make your character stronger, such as a store to buy gear, or a way to enable a new combat move.
Gear is there, upgrading base stats is there, so done.
Perhaps I should have been a little more ambitious and focused on making a complete game experience rather than using the jam as an excuse to faff around with code. On the other hand, maybe not - it might not seem as impressive compared to a full graphical game or whatever, but this really is what I wanted to do. It's not too far off from what I envisioned but getting the final steps for a real match to my "ultimate dream game" will involve a LOT more effort and work.

> What worked for you?
> Preferred tutorials, processes, ways of learning, solving problems? What about the game jam and/or its format helped you?
> What was frustrating?
> Any tutorials or resources you would like to see? What about the game jam and/or its format was difficult or frustrating?

Pooling these together as one answer.

Most of the resources the jam itself linked to weren't extremely relevant to me. That's not really the jam's fault, though - the game making engines didn't seem like they were a good for for making what I wanted, so I set out to try and do it myself instead. Invent With Python and Program Arcade Games proved useful when starting out. I had some help from a few good friends both on mundane coding issues ("what sort of angle should I approach this problem from?") and making a suitable dev environment.

> Was two weeks an appropriate amount of time for a game jam centered on learning?

More than fine. Honestly, I did some heavy work the first week, met all my goals strictly speaking by then, and spent the second week busy with real life and doing minor tinkering/additions for flavor and fun.

> Would you encourage others to join this jam?

Yeah, I'd say so. I'd do it again if I went back in time, at least.

> Any other comments?

I regret not engaging too much with the rest of the jammers. I'm not super-sociable even online, and admittedly I'm a little self-conscious about my work compared to others, but all it really ended up doing is leaving myself at the outskirts and not really getting in with the fun everyone else was having. This sounds pretty bad, but I honestly don't know anything about any of you, and at the end of this I'll probably end up going my own separate way afterwards, having made no connections. I should have been more involved with

In terms of creating, I set out to do something, and I did it. I even started learning a useful skill while I was at it. I'm pretty happy about that.

In the future? I'm definitely going to continue learning Python, it's already proven handy a couple times over January outside of using it to make something for the jam.

As for making games? I don't know yet, but probably not for a while. Once I learn more about coding I'll take another stab at it. No real ETA for it, but probably by the time summer rolls around, if I keep reading and playing with Python on the side, I might give the mythical "project 2" a shot.

I wrote a blurb at the first 24 hours that was basically congratulating myself (and everyone) for actually just STARTING the adventure of game dev, and how much fun it is to see an idea of yours get created, with a little extra did-it-myself garnish. Well, now that the honeymoon has long passed, how are we all holding up?

We've jumped into the pool, we're learning, we're working, we're have low points and high points. At times when I was feeling especially down about myself and my progress, I'd check out the twitter hashtag and see what's been submitted, or browse a few posts. I felt some kinship in seeing other people puzzle out how to do what they wanted to do, feel happy someone got something major working, or had a bit of a laugh at someone's latest "guys this is broken" glitchy gif. I wasn't alone. That felt great. If anything, that's one of the best things the Jam is doing for me: doing something alongside others and sharing in what it's like.

I've learned a couple things so far in the week. The biggest one being that there's a lot of mundanity that goes on behind the scenes of a game that needs painstakingly worked out. As it turns out, developing isn't quite as easy as waving a magic wand and poof, the graphics on level 3 get tightened up or that move gets nerfed or a whole new upgrade system is in place. I've sat down to work out loops for combat. I've agonized trying to figure out WHY ON EARTH I have to quit the game several times before it finally quits. I've got my game stuck in an infinitely-looping reward-screen hell of exponentially-increasing gold rewards, as though defeating the first enemy converted the world into a Midas Universe where all turns to gold.

As for my actual working-on-game, I've reduced it to a bit of a spare-time routine, adding small bits here and there when whimsy takes me, sometimes sitting down for a couple hours straight to work on something I'm highly geared to. I'll admit some motivation troubles, and it's a little discouraging to see what I actually have versus what I imagined: where I had cool ideas of a fancy ascii/ansi-based RPG adventure, I instead have a dippy little game with no color with simple gameplay that outputs in a terminal.

But, so far, I think I'm coming to terms with that. My idea didn't have much behind it: some math, outputting some text, and some loops, and everything after that's been expansions to the small target I set myself. Of course it'd turn out simple in practice. And, in fairness, I started from knowing very little and I don't think anybody ever gets the first project looking like their masterpiece. So, I have my pile of functions and loops and plus-and-minuses and if it doesn't end up as a good game, it at least stays as a good learning experience. I wouldn't frame it and put it on my wall or anything, but I feel okay about what I've pulled off. Maybe hang it on the fridge. Fridge seems like the best spot for it.

I feel that thought is worth exploring deeper. Some of you, you might be like how I am, you're looking at what you've actually created and feel "meh" about it. That's okay. It's just like anything else. Making games is almost a meta-skill, something that takes so many other skills, and yet is also a skill all on its own. I'll risk guessing that most of us don't have much if any experience in it. Be unskilled. Make it messy. Celebrate what you HAVE made and what you HAVE gained from making it, not all the things that you haven't. It can be frustrating to have a vision and not see it come to life, but don't let it hurt you, let it drive you.

After all, there's always the sequel. Right?

I'm bad at being motivational, but I wanted to get this out there but I've been thinking about it.

So as I'm typing this we're past the 24 hour mark on the jam, and while there's still a long way to go, a lot of us have done the monumental step of beginning the process, and I just want to say that's pretty incredible in and of itself.

Anyone else know that joke of "The Ideas Person"? The one that doesn't have much else but The Idea For A Game and execution is entirely someone else's problem? I've been like that. Maybe you have too. Maybe like me you have some ideas you've thought out so much you could do an imaginary playthrough in your head. Dozens of little scenarios you think would be so cool to show up in your game. Maybe your tastes, like mine, can be a little picky, so you have this idea fine-tuned into the exact sort of game you like to play.

But it never happened. It stayed in my head. Maybe one or two musings on how to do it before giving up. Maybe just not having the know-how was a turn-off immediately. Maybe creating things was something other people did.

I saw the Jam and joined, and honestly as the clock counted down to beginning I was regretting it. What am I doing? I don't make things. Making things is what other people do. Then it started and, well, here I go, I guess. I asked some questions. I read some tutorials. I started to get to work, thinking the entire time "this is going to be a stupid mess".

I ran my stupid mess and was surprised at the sheer excitement I felt. I played with it some more, learned new things, found a trick and immediately rushed to apply it in some way. By the end of this Day 1, I had some basic frameworks laid out, and I was having so much fun just messing with it. Someone joked I should add something, and so I did, then tested it and see it come to life. I was having a blast tweaking this and that, adding something for a touch (Oh, just had a good idea, I'll put some stuff in now when I get around to making it), sitting back and actually being able to play a miniature chunk of my "stupid mess".

And here I thought creating things was something other people did.

But I'm creating. I got past all the initial hurdles and now I'm in it. I've taken a step beyond Ideas Person, I'm actually going out and taking the action of creation. No longer just pie-in-the-sky ideas, they're potential goals and upcoming features now. I'm making a game.

And you're making one too! You're doing it! And we should celebrate that, whatever little bits and pieces that you have put together right now, you made them. That's your stuff right there. And that's pretty cool, don't you think?

Well, my goal is to make a game with, at the least, the features I want in it regardless of how much content I have. I've always loved the old style RPGs and text games, and remember spending way too long playing Legend of the Red Dragon on a BBS (remember when those were cool?), so for this jam my dream is to make something in that vein: a text-based RPG.

I am learning Python almost from scratch to do this because I couldn't find a utility to make the sort of game I described. I figure learning a programming language is a good investment of my time anyhow, and Python was highly recommended to learn by people I respect.

My goals in making the game are:

1. A combat system with a couple different techniques you can do (not just "you hit it. it hits back" forever).

2. A "hub town" - more generally, something the player plays with that doesn't involve to the combat system

3. A means to make your character stronger, such as a store to buy gear, or a way to enable a new combat move.

Of course I need to have at least something for a game, but I'm wanting to focus on the learning more than the finished product here: if I can manage to code in all those things, even if there's just 1 enemy, 2 choices in town, and 1 enhancement, I'll consider it a success. Of course, if I can add more on top of that, so much the better.

I'm not sure how tall of an order this is (or even if I'm undershooting), especially with my starting-from-zero position and learning Python as I go, but on the bright side I don't have to mess around with sprites or sounds or collision detection or anything like that...