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The idea I'm interested in is being a village's resident alchemist. You'll use concoctions to help neighbors with their problems and discover new and exciting ingredients over the course of four seasons, like a slice-of-life sort of thing (though I'm pretty sure i'll get one season done max for the jam). Something very comfortable and warm and sedate, like a harvest moon sort of vibe. The ultimate goal will probably be something that needs a rare ingredient, like an important commission or an alchemical breakthrough or something, and progression will be finding new ingredients and opening new paths that ultimately let you get that prize.

Hazel Valley Alchemy Co - Devlog Day 5

Whoof, ok. I got a cold that had me stopped on progress in the game but im back on track now!! This log will be talking about what's new in the prototype version, and maybe I'll do another one tonight that talks about what I got done today. So anyway, here's that prototype! It's a lot more compared to the first screenshot, with full-fledged handling objects for ingredients, the brew you're working on, and progress through the process as a whole. I also implemented a framework for making ingredients with any combination of elements I want, and code that makes sure everything added to the potion in progress works with the rules by which the combining system is governed. What those rules are is something you'll have to figure out for yourself, but you can see one example of it right now if you try to combine a fire and a water crystal. This version is kind of kludged together, but I've already modified things to cleanly create another working lab instance wherever I choose. On the whole, things are going great! And I've got an idea for an alpha puzzle already. Can't wait to show that off soon :3

Hazel Valley Alchemy Co. - Devlog Day 3

I stayed up for way, way too long and finished the prototype I mentioned! I don't know why I'm the kind of person who has more willpower to write code than to walk four feet and go to bed, but w/e. Download it here. I'll do a proper devlog after I fall the Fuck asleep.

Hazel Valley Alchemy Co. - Devlog Day 1

Hi everyone! My name's Nell, and this is the first in-progress shot of Hazel Valley Alchemy Co., an alchemy puzzle game and my first attempt at GameMaker. I participated in this jam for the first time in summer 2016, but at the time I wasn't on anything at all for my ADHD and my project fizzled in the planning stage. I've got a late start this time thanks to MAGfest, but I've also got a working regiment of meds and plenty of time to take advantage! I look forward to sharing my work and making new friends <3

Like I mentioned, this is my first ever attempt at using GameMaker. I've got the professional edition of 1.4 from the recent humble bundle, but i've never even tooled around in it until now, so just getting my bearings was today's objective. I watched a whole bunch of tutorials (these ones, by Shaun Spaulding) and followed along to figure out the details of any tools that didn't quite make sense. Then I set out to make a little game environment of my own, the results of which you see above.

Everything in this room is a placeholder, of course, but all the code I managed tonight is solid enough that im proud of it. The playerdog moves according to a grid (which i learned how to do from this different tutorial) and can not pass through the walls I built around the room. That arrow under the dog represents its facing (since i didn't wanna make new sprites for each direction yet) and it updates just how it should based on whichever direction you last moved. I'm using the red crystal to figure out how interacting with other objects is gonna work; while the playerdog is standing on top of the crystal it lights up green, and you can press space to take it (which, right now, just means it disappears).

Tomorrow I want to figure out menus and inventories so the player can actually pick up that crystal, then if I have time before my meds wear off I'll start the basic ingredient processing mechanics. My first goal is a mechanics prototype, where you can pick up two things and combine them into a new thing. At this rate of progress, I think that will be here in two days or so. See you tomorrow!

Yesterday was a really, really good day. as y'all know, the jam's deadline was extended a day for the bunch of people who barely missed it, but even before that I could see i would take at least a week to finish. but i did get one important thing right in my last post: working since then has been Very different from the work experience before it. On my new prescription i'm able to focus, to muster up energy while i'm focusing, to in general work productively on a scale I hadn't thought was possible for me before now. all of a sudden, all the enormous struggles that had to be overcome to reach my goals (in my dev work but really in everything in my life that requires labor) seem so much smaller than before.

This is only two day's impression, but right now it looks like my future in the dev community is going to be bright. Thanks to everyone who made this experience what it was; even though I got only the smallest taste of it, the support and camaraderie and potential friendship and accessibility are EXACTLY what I want from my gaming community. Next jam, I hope I'll be doing my part to make this community as good for everyone else as it was for me <3

Idk if these forums are gonna stay open to posts after the jam winds down but if they do i'll be posting links to the public prototype and finished piece in this thread, maybe put a bookmark on here if you're interested

hey its 10 days since i last touched babel for various reasons i dont wanna get into. But now in the last 9 hours of the jam i have free time, a new prescription, a restful night's sleep, and the perfect motivational tool that is an Imminent Deadline. I definitely won't finish in this time frame, but my work so far has been setting up extensive planning so I think I can slap together a prototype release before midnight. If you were interested in this project back at the start of the jam, watch this space!

devlog day three: taking the day off, because until next may I'm dependent on my mom for my living situation, and she is of the opinion that my work is worthless and I ought to be more productive. Therefore, she gave me new tasks for the last couple of hours while haranguing me the whole time, and now I'm miserable and exhausted and will be going to bed.

:C

good morning everyone! it's the start of day 3 of the game jam and my sleep schedule is already irrevocably fucked. On the bright side! since i started working around 3am i've finished 1200 words of story, 500 words of planning documentation, and a color coding system! It's amazing how much easier it is to work on something I actually like, I can even keep my focus well enough to write when i'm tired, and i got ADHD! Well, i can focus well enough for a first draft at least.

So! here's the plan i put together in short: Tonight I completely mapped out the structure in scrivener. I'll be writing out my whole first draft there then transferring it to twine to see how it feels and wrestle with any tech troubles. Once that's set up i'd love to share it with anyone willing to beta my work! I'll use that feedback and my own conclusions to polish it until the time limit.

In terms of writing, I love the progress I'm making so far. Characters are starting to go from nameless representations of forces acting on the setting to actual fleshed-out characters! still nameless tho.

I feel like a devlog for what is essentially a writing project isn't as fun as devlogs for more complex games but only because it's hard to share my creation until the first draft is done. Sit tight for now, it'll be ready before you know it <3

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hihi, I'm Nell, im a 20 year old girl between college semesters and my greatest wish is to make a living creating incredibly self-indulgent games while surrounded by girlfriends

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

I'm joining fresh with this game jam! i didn't know about it when the first one went down, but I also didn't have the free time to make games then so I couldn't have participated if I did. I'm going into games as a whole because they've always been the most important art form for me growing up, both as entertainment and as tools with which to divine meaning from the world around me. I'd very much like to move within this artistic space and meet both my idols and new friends to become the next dev generation's idols with.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

A few of the games that most inspired me with this project are listed in the devlog page i made, but in terms of play time my favorite games right now are probably the Dark Souls series and Overwatch.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

Not even a little bit.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

im passionate about lezzin' out

I played With Those We Love Alive on your recommendation and GOSH. with inspiration like that and with how you're focusing on capturing a dreamy feeling im looking really really forward to this!!

The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they could build the city no longer.

What remains?

BABEL is the story of two lovers dealing with the catastrophic loss of their community in the wake of the divine intervention against the tower of Babel. The story opens with the player character's return to the city after weeks of searching following the sudden divine removal, because it was the only place they had a chance of reuniting with their lover. Miraculously, the two do indeed reunite, but soon discover that they no longer speak each other's language. In the months and years following their reunion, they slowly settle into their new life, building new communities, relearning how to communicate, and dealing with the trauma of the intervention.

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Hi potential friends, my name is Nell Evangeline and I love sinning and that is why i am making this gay ass twine game

It's the first game i've ever made but I have plenty of writing experience, which is why I'm going for something small and simple that my writing can carry. I don't intend to do anything especially ambitious with my coding, just figure out the basics of the system and use it to make something with emotional impact. A more polished deluxe edition could be fun, but not until after the game jam. I'll be shooting for around 5000 words and multiple endings, ideally 4, and after the first day's progress (some nice well-laid planning documents filled out) that seems like a completely manageable goal! :3

My biggest inspirations in games are Eva Problems, Kitty Horrorshow, Mia Schwartz and Aevee Bee, especially for the games i've linked in this sentence. If their work is of interest to you, I hope you'll find something to interest you about BABEL, too! And if you don't know their work, I'd highly recommend checking it out.