So, for reasons that may or may not be me being a silly person, I feel like forcing myself to use all the optional themes. And by "all" I do mean "all". That said my first idea, playing as a sentient and very intimidating hotdog launcher in the hands of various parallel universe versions of an NPC that needs to stop the "player character" by making the floor slippery, is not an idea I feel like using. I'm not sure 64x64 is a good resolution for a silly physics tower defense game. If anyone needs an idea and disagrees, feel free to use that idea.

So instead, I came up with a less silly idea: a platformer about switching between 2 versions of a building that are very similar but not quite the same ("parallel universes"), in a stealth mercenary context ("infiltration"), carrying a big noisy science gun ("you are terrifying") that can also be used to do a mini-jump by shooting downward ("recoil"). The reason for it being a platformer is so the gun recoil matters more and cause it's easier to make wet floors matter that way ("slippery"). I'd also like to emphasize alertness among enemies, including whether they actually saw the player character and whether they saw the character disappear into the other world. I'll probably limit how much the enemies can do beyond shooting and running sideways though, so that I don't have to do complex pathing. However, when not alert, I'd like the enemies to appear to chat with each other and buy hotdogs ("hotdogs") from nearby futuristic vending machines ("life of an NPC"). I'm not sure yet, but I may also put in dodge rolls and simple executions ("you are the weapon"). I'm hoping that combined with enemies not being too far from each other will also encourage players not trying to ghost their way through to not stop too often ("always moving"). Lastly, and this is a bit of a stretch, but if I have enough time after all this complexity, I'll all some narrative bits that emphasize how it feels to be going back and forth between 2 worlds that can easily be confused ("it's not really there"), though I guess that theme could also be how the NPC's see the player character?

Regarding making the game, I'm going to use SDL2 with a bunch of modules I keep around as my preferred wrapping, while trying out Emscripten for the first time. I'd also like to put less emphasis on lower tech and what old games look like (as the examples of past jam games seems to do) and more on what freedoms low resolution graphics allow. As such, I'm thinking the game map should scrap the tiles and just be fully drawn as a single image. That would also make terrain destruction easier if that mechanic turns out to make sense.

So far, I've mainly coded some setup and typed up some technical plans, but I've also made these pics for just seeing how things could look:

(How the player character might look while shooting, a possible guard type being relaxed, and a possible way to show a hint of what's going on in the other world to help players play more quickly)

(what the back walls and sky could look like in the full map image)

With these ideas in mind there's several things I'm unsure of:

-- The thread on game rating mentions "sub-pixels". Is it going to get complaints if I use semi-opaque pixels to help imply details in pixel art, such as trying to show the player character's head being curved in the back?

-- Similarly, are smooth gradients going to make it feel less "authentic" when scaled upward? I'm thinking a good default would be 4x scaling, which I don't think would break the gradients enough to make them not look smooth.

-- If I have enough time to add in explicit narrative elements, would it be too disruptive to the immersion to use title cards so I have more room for text? (so reading a sign would cause the full window to just render text until the player presses a button)

looking great, good luck! Surely as long as you stick to 64x64 then antialiasing (your “sub pixel” ) is fine - it’s a standard pixel art technique after all 👍

Day Several

I'm still working on this, but since I'm only so good at coding and not doing the easier thing of using Game Maker etc. instead, it's taking a while to get anything worth devlogging. Part of this is because I've been just casually doing whatever parts I feel like rather than any sensible order. However, part of it is because RL suddenly got way more annoying just in time for the jam. This is why I prefer longer jams like this one.

Anyway, so far I've mainly been planning out how everything should be accomplished and throwing together code that seems like it'd work. I've also checked to make sure my usual toolchain for offline games works and attempted to work out how Emscriptem works so I can try to make a browser version. The former works; the latter not so much. I may need to learn more about HTML.

On the lighter and less technical side of things, I have now set up a pipeline-ish system for map creation that let's me use a single image editor to do everything from object placement to parallax backgrounds to cutscenes. Basically I just made the code read pixels and match them loosely with preset values. My hope is that I can get the rest of the code up and running in the next couple days and then have a full week to just doodle the actual map(s).

Besides that, I felt like drawing for a while yesterday, so now I have a bunch of sprites to use, even if none of them are technically finished (still need semi-opaque pixels):

I think I have code included that covers all of those, though I haven't put them in cause I prefer to test gameplay code initially with a still image of the character. I may still need a few more depending on how things go, though. Specifically, I'm not sure what visuals I'll use when the player switches worlds. The reason for having the green version of the character is because I'm considering making her glow green when in dark areas. It makes no sense, really, but I drew a portrait while brainstorming and liked how it came out:

I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to use that image in-game, but I'll probably use it for the game art or whatever it's called. (the thing to click on when to go to the game here on itch)

Day Several Plus a Couple

All the movement code is done and works. As such, all the current player sprites work sufficiently as well, even if they don't all look very good. It's a bit unfortunate that I totally forgot to make a death sprite and have since made it harder to do so by relying on sprite order for convenience. Oops.

Anyway, I've finished the main rendering and loading code as well, so I can now have the character run around a decent looking world:

On left is a view from the world that doesn't have the guards at the moment. On the right is a view from the world that does. Also in these shots is the layers of clouds. Currently the background gradient is always the same while 3 layers of clouds and buildings get parallax scrolling applied to them before the building the character is interacting with is drawn.

The next thing to do is to test that my particle and decal system works so I can add a bit of flair when the character jumps. Then I can work on the hitscan system and have the enemies die a bloody death when shot, leaving blood decals on the floor that make the floor slippery.

Day Something Something

I'm currently feeling the effects of pain meds due to unfortunate RL things that came up. I feel like I could satirize things related to that if only I had more brain power within reach.

The particle system works and I have all the programming for the obvious bits. However, I need to come up with good test bits to test them with, preferably that work well as levels. I've decided I'm going to just go for it, assume the things I have in mind will work semi-well, and just dish out a map to play.

Also, I managed to create a piece of music. It's not a good match, but it's the best I could come up with on the spot. I really don't like putting other people's creative assets in my games unless the game was a collaboration, but I'm only so good at music and sound.

At this point I very much doubt I'm going to be able to put in anything extra in time, including the ability to play it in a browser.

Day final

I gave up. As mentioned above, I fell ill. That combined with a heat wave my AC couldn't handle and my local health experts giving bad advice (the optional home remedy I was suggested did far more than the friggin' pain med I was prescribed grumble grumble) made working on my game impossible for a large portion of the jam time. As a concession, I submitted a build that at least shows what I was trying to do. The hp goes down, but it doesn't affect anything. The enemies don't shoot and don't work properly anyway. The glass windows that were supposed to be breakable were simply made background objects instead. However, the player can move around, shoot the enemies to see the sticky and slippery blood splats come out, and look around at the map I rushed through making.