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10:58am - Geez, I just spent an hour on Twitter for no good reason. Just couldn't put it down until I reached the bottom of my stream for some reason. Alas.
Anyways I'm up now and I've got a lot more game to make. I'm having a big 'I don't wanna do it' moment first though. Wahhhhh.
...
Oh well. I set myself the task and I should probably do it.
The game I'm trying to make features a single spaceship that travels to planets or space stations and delivers care packages.
I'm thinking that each level will feature a wave of enemy ships trying to take your care packages, followed by landing and giving your packages, then you travel to another system and do it again.
The problems with this design are progression and challenge. I can make enemy space ships that attack you but then you've fought some enemy ships and what do you get? And how do you defeat more enemy ships later on?
That's puzzling for me. I'm not sure what to do.
In the past for game jams I've done 2D platformers, and they're pretty simple. You make interesting jumping courses mixed with encounters with a couple different types of enemies.
I suppose I could make different types of enemies instead of just increasing the number, but the difficulty would still go up pretty quick and there's still the question of progression.
And frack but I'm still tired. I was only in bed for like seven hours. I woke up early and it always takes me a while to get to sleep so I probably had less than six hours last night.
Maybe I'll go think about the game while taking a short nap.
2:58pm - Longer nap than expected but I feel better now. That said, I still need to figure out what game I'm really making. I spent yesterday just making the spaceship and camera move around using the fancy reference of Harvester. I need to make a different game though in the end or there's no point.
So far in my head I'm debating between individual levels as 'encounters' where you have to defeat a certain set of ships, then deliver your packages, then get moved to a new scene with new enemy ships to defeat and on until the end. The other idea is to make it a small open world with a few stations or planets or whatever floating in space that you navigate to using a map, and there are patrolling enemy ships you can avoid or fight.
Ahh, with that latter one, what if I place everything pseudo-randomly, with procgen? Then it's a different game every time you start! Now we're talking.
Okay to do that I need at least two different enemy ships, I need to put weapons on the player ship and enemy ships and make them able to hit one another, I need to make the stations to visit, and I need to make a map screen to find everything.
Alright I think I'll flesh out the player ship some more first, since it's going to be the basis for enemy ships as well.
3:09pm - Feeling the anxiety creeping in. Gonna try to fight it.
4:07pm - Still workin' on the guns.
5:05pm - Guns work.
That's two hours for guns. I guess I shouldn't be surprised or disappointed at that rate of work but I'm not sure I'll be able to complete the game at this rate. Well we'll see.
I'm also pretty stressed out already from all the work. I'm not sure what to do about that.
6:12pm - An hour of dicking about later, I figure I should get back to work, but now that I have the guns working I need to decide what comes next.
I think I'll make the basic enemy next.
7:16pm - Made some progress on a Small Enemy Ship but I've gotten fed up and need to take a break.
3:55am - I did some more work between seven and maybe ten? I didn't record it properly. Then I took a 'nap' until now. I guess I'll continue...
5:16am - Going back to bed, will continue later.
3:39pm - Alright I think it's time I faced facts, I'm not going to finish this game by the Jam deadline.
I'm going to keep working on this project, I tell myself, but I'm not sure yet. At any rate I've decided to go to DnD tonight, so that's an extra four hours gone.
Well, I'll do what I can.
4:06pm - I was planning on doing some more now, but I just can't seem to get started. I'll work on it more tonight, I think.
Anyways I'm up now and I've got a lot more game to make. I'm having a big 'I don't wanna do it' moment first though. Wahhhhh.
...
Oh well. I set myself the task and I should probably do it.
The game I'm trying to make features a single spaceship that travels to planets or space stations and delivers care packages.
I'm thinking that each level will feature a wave of enemy ships trying to take your care packages, followed by landing and giving your packages, then you travel to another system and do it again.
The problems with this design are progression and challenge. I can make enemy space ships that attack you but then you've fought some enemy ships and what do you get? And how do you defeat more enemy ships later on?
That's puzzling for me. I'm not sure what to do.
In the past for game jams I've done 2D platformers, and they're pretty simple. You make interesting jumping courses mixed with encounters with a couple different types of enemies.
I suppose I could make different types of enemies instead of just increasing the number, but the difficulty would still go up pretty quick and there's still the question of progression.
And frack but I'm still tired. I was only in bed for like seven hours. I woke up early and it always takes me a while to get to sleep so I probably had less than six hours last night.
Maybe I'll go think about the game while taking a short nap.
2:58pm - Longer nap than expected but I feel better now. That said, I still need to figure out what game I'm really making. I spent yesterday just making the spaceship and camera move around using the fancy reference of Harvester. I need to make a different game though in the end or there's no point.
So far in my head I'm debating between individual levels as 'encounters' where you have to defeat a certain set of ships, then deliver your packages, then get moved to a new scene with new enemy ships to defeat and on until the end. The other idea is to make it a small open world with a few stations or planets or whatever floating in space that you navigate to using a map, and there are patrolling enemy ships you can avoid or fight.
Ahh, with that latter one, what if I place everything pseudo-randomly, with procgen? Then it's a different game every time you start! Now we're talking.
Okay to do that I need at least two different enemy ships, I need to put weapons on the player ship and enemy ships and make them able to hit one another, I need to make the stations to visit, and I need to make a map screen to find everything.
Alright I think I'll flesh out the player ship some more first, since it's going to be the basis for enemy ships as well.
3:09pm - Feeling the anxiety creeping in. Gonna try to fight it.
4:07pm - Still workin' on the guns.
5:05pm - Guns work.
That's two hours for guns. I guess I shouldn't be surprised or disappointed at that rate of work but I'm not sure I'll be able to complete the game at this rate. Well we'll see.
I'm also pretty stressed out already from all the work. I'm not sure what to do about that.
6:12pm - An hour of dicking about later, I figure I should get back to work, but now that I have the guns working I need to decide what comes next.
I think I'll make the basic enemy next.
7:16pm - Made some progress on a Small Enemy Ship but I've gotten fed up and need to take a break.
3:55am - I did some more work between seven and maybe ten? I didn't record it properly. Then I took a 'nap' until now. I guess I'll continue...
5:16am - Going back to bed, will continue later.
3:39pm - Alright I think it's time I faced facts, I'm not going to finish this game by the Jam deadline.
I'm going to keep working on this project, I tell myself, but I'm not sure yet. At any rate I've decided to go to DnD tonight, so that's an extra four hours gone.
Well, I'll do what I can.
4:06pm - I was planning on doing some more now, but I just can't seem to get started. I'll work on it more tonight, I think.
