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Update #4

We now have a movement mechanic!

I remembered this old idea I had but never got around to actually using in a full game. It's reversed and tweaked a bit here, but it's still based on the same idea. The original concept was that gravity was flipped 90° in the nonexistent Z direction to swap between a platformer and top-down game, but I decided I didn't like falling off the background walls and dying so I just made it so that you can grab onto walls. It's pretty fun to use, and I think it could make for some interesting level design. It also didn't give me a million bugs while I was coding it which was nice. Now that this is done I can go on to make levels... finally. 

Congratulations! This game looks absolutely amazing, I can't wait to rate it. I'm impressed how much detail and amazing art you managed to make and fit in the 64x64 resolution. Have a good holiday!

Mistakes were Made

So, this isn't really an update. More like a down-date. But I wanted to share my mistakes anyway.

Everything kind of fell apart a couple days ago. I was working on making a powerup that would be one of main movement mechanics. Work was going really slowly I think because I was tired from the week – but i'm not going to use excuses, I was doing a really sloppy job. When I got a semi-usable prototype working, I realized something very important: it wasn't a good movement mechanic. It wasn't fun, it was boring, and in addition it had some horrible bugs I had no clue how to fix. The other movement option I'd planned also now looked like a pain to code and I wasn't sure if It would be usable either. So I'd wasted a whole day and found out that I needed to seriously reconsider what the point of the game was. I'd also already made all the objects, which are centered around difficult platforming. I could theoretically turn it into a metroidvania/puzzle platformer, but I don't have a thought-out plan for that. The other option is try to think of and code a fun movement mechanic today, and rush to get all the levels and music and sfx done the rest of the week. I'm not sure how I managed to get so little done the first week considering the time I spent. There's also in reality only like 5 days left for me because I can't get much done on the weekends, aside from thinking and planning, which I did lots of the past 2 days. I never came to a decision as to what to do.

This is why you don't do art and objects first. I should have learned this lesson by now, but the first step should always be make a prototype of the core of the game and see if it's any good. Then add content, art, music. No matter how good ideas seem in your head they could actually be unusable. I hope you can take something helpful away from this.

...I guess I'll update tomorrow or the next day what happens. Hopefully I can get something done. Good luck to everyone on the final week!

Thanks!

Yeah, I would not have thought of the new title design if I hadn't made this rushed one. I forgot that iteration is a huge part of making something, thank you for reminding me. I do really like the multiple themes because mixing them leads to so much potential, more so than the typical 1 limitation 1 optional theme. 

Update #3

I have not done the title music yet, but I decided to wait because I want to redo the title screen. Shouldn't have rushed to get it done; I think it could be a lot better.

I did however implement a level-loading system and made the first 2 levels (mostly.) I tried first to make a far fancier system for level transitions but it didn't work out and I didn't want to spend a huge chunk of time faffing with it, so I settled for the very basic and technically drop-dead boring room switcher here. 

The game was really lacking in visual depth/interest which was fixed with a simple but (in my opinion) wonderful little lighting system that adds a lot to the feel of the environment. I know this kind of changes the theme a little bit but I think the off-track deviation is worth it for the result. This was completely unplanned and it took up quite a bit of my time to get it "polished" and working properly, however. Tomorrow we'll continue with the plan...

Oh, and as per Darenn's suggestion I added a flower to the player to denote facing direction more clearly.

I absolutely love the reactive plants! It adds so much to the feel of the world.

You're making incredible progress, wich I could develop at that pace. Earthworm is a great character, lots of possibilities for getting places other animals can't. Really enjoying watching this come together, keep up the good work!

Thanks Darenn! 

Good catch, I'll see if I can make it a little more visible.

Update #2:

Didn't get as much done today, but still made some progress. Somehow completely forgot about walljumping during original movement coding, so added that. Also finished hazards, so only a couple more "objects" left to make. Main thing I did though was the title, which though I was lazy and made it simple was a nice weight to get off my back. Last thing is another fun 4x4 background tileset.

Tomorrow, plannng on making the level loading + transition system, plus the title music which I'm both excited and scared for (I'm not very experienced at making music, but I know some theory and I try my best.) Then I'll be ready for the fun part – levels.

Don't worry, you'll do fine. Jams are a good way to practice and improve. This is my first real jam too; you're not alone :)

I second,  don't be too hard on yourself.

The gameplay concept looks cool, and I like the theme you're going for. Looking forward to seeing how it develops!

I really like the idea of light as a resource, clever thematic reason to not see the whole map. It looks sweet too. Really enjoying watching this game's progress, a city builder in 64x64 is a unique challenge what with space restraints. Keep up the good work!

Thanks! Glad it looks like I won't have to redraw it; I used a kind of convoluted method requiring 3 AnimatedTexture resources to make the flames out of sync since I use a tilemap for them.

It is quite the challenge; I keep spending like 15 minutes on each 3- or 4-frame animation trying to figure out how to communicate what the thing is haha.

I'll do my best to keep the log up to date :)

I've been on a bit of a weird schedule, but managed to get some progress done. 

The day before the jam started, I did some brainstoring in preparation; I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to make but then I saw the themes and got a much better idea. It's a platformer (I adore platformers), with hopefully a little aspect of metroidvania mixed in. Plants as Tools produced some interesting movement upgrades, and works well with Kill it with Fire to make a world scorched by fire (which is where the name comes from) with you as a plant trying to find a way out of the flames. 

The first thing I did was get the player movement sorted out. I originally wanted 8x8 sprites but halfway through tweaking the platforming code I realized 8x8 rooms weren't going to cut it (I wasn't going to have any camera movement aside from room transitions) so I redrew the player to 4x4, changed the movement code, and finally made a little 4x4 tileset to go with it. I've never working with such small sprites before, but making the tilesets is really fun and goes fast. Once the movement was done, I started on fire-spikes and checkpoints. I ran into a lot of problems with collision but it was mostly because I'm a little rusty with godot/also don't know precisely how some things work. Eventually I got it figured out, along with a (I think) satisfying little death/spawn animation for the player and another tileset.

I also planned out the rest of the stuff that I wanted to add, and started working on a couple more hazards that I'm keeping secret. I tried to keep the scope really small since I've been stuck in a cycle of starting and cancelling projects that are way too big, but there's a chance I won't be able to finish in time because there's also music, sfx and backgrounds to deal with. There's still a lot of time left though, so I'm not worrying yet. Progress so far:

Let me know what you think of the fire; I might have to redraw it.

I love the graphics and the concept! However, I may have gotten myself softlocked..

 I

10:01

so close

28:41 first time. Great game, really interesting movement and platforming!

It wasn't too laggy, though the lag was there. part of it was the sensitivity I think- I was playing it on web.

Yeah! 

It seems hard to add a modular loading system! It was laggy outside the lab though.

Wow! This is really cool! It’s pretty laggy, but that might be my computer. Good job!

Thank you

Thank you! I'm glad you like the movement, it's my first platformer! It is pretty difficult. I'm hoping to learn more javascript and make better games :)

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. However, I coded this in pure vanilla javascript so I'm not sure how to add sound :( I'll look into it for snaze 3 though, thanks!

This is an AMAZING game! I love that it’s actually kinda difficult to make the lemonade, the different steps involved were clever. I kept forgetting to place the pitcher :p 

Very nice game! Good job!

Thank you! I had tried to make a smooth platformer several times, but the code never worked right. I then just started playing around and came up with this. If you’re decently comfortable with JavaScript, it’s pretty easy to mod too! 

I liked your entry, it was cool! It was just a little laggy.

This is an amazing puzzle game! It makes you think. The best game I've rated on this jam so far. I look forward to seeing more levels!

Thanks! The block that you can go through is intentional-it's a shortcut i put there, and i colored it very slightly differently. Thank you though! I definitely will check out your game, it looks cool!

Thanks! I’m working on Snaze 3, which will have better player physics and a scrolling map. 

Thank you! I’m glad you like it.