Gloomy Ghost Dev Log

solo indie developer - starting from scratch; interactions may come from @maybeprint - that's me

[gloomyghostdev]

Hi! I'm Gloomy.

I'm a solo indie game developer, and I am starting from scratch. By that I mean: I don't know what I'm doing.

I'll be learning to program, how to use game engines, how to make assets—everything, from nothing. And this blog will record it all.

Like most beginners, I have a big idea and no clue how to make it happen, but that's what I'm doing here. I'm figuring it out. This blog is more for me than anybody else, but if you want to, come along with me! The road is long, but the final product is worth it.

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

It's not anything impressive, but here's the "tutorial" area I've built as I learn dev. I never managed to work out combat the way I wanted, but after playing The Last Campfire (incredible game) I learned that you can actually make a fun exploration game without combat, so I'll be focusing more on that.

All assets were found on itch.io:

Tileset by 2bit

Animated chest by Crumpaloo

SFX by HZSMITH and Nox_Sound_Design

Music by Pizza Doggy

Enemy sprite by David G

Player sprite by Penzilla

Parallax background by Free Game Assets

Sprite effects by BDragon1727

Font by Nimble Beasts

Interface by Toffee Craft (not in video, but used in an accessible menu in-game)

NOTE: I've added all these links from my phone and using my memory for which assets I used. I'll have to check later on my desktop that I've covered all the SFX. If you somehow catch something I missed, please let me know and I'll update the assets list.

[molombo]

Where's the African mythology?

The Kickstarter is live now!

[noxether]

Goblins Without Green Thumbs by Ether

The neighbours' garden looks so much better than yours, and it's not even the biggest of your problems.

The neighbours' garden looks so much better than yours, and it's not even the biggest of your problems!

Here's a very tiny visual novel I made using the Narrat engine for the NARRAT JAM 2025, with delightful art from @tootkin-art!

It features 5-10 minutes of mid-stakes gardening actions with goblins, a few consequence-free choices, and one ending.

You need a keyboard and a mouse to play the game, and it displays two zoomed-in, unskippable pictures of bugs.

Let me know what you think!

[gloomyghostdev]

Mini Days?

So like, I'm not recording this journey as "25 days" or whatever from a particular date, but instead as "25 days I've worked on this project." And the thing about that is that sometimes I get a few consecutive days (like now) where I can only manage like 10-20 minutes of troubleshooting and it just doesn't feel like enough time to be worth recording as a full day.

So anyway, I've been slowly working my way through the myriad of bugs enemy combat currently has in my game. I've mentioned before that I'm chronically ill and that can make work like this slow even if I spend all day doing nothing but feeling like garbage. I also have a toddler, and good god, y'all, even really easy toddlers (like mine) still take SO much energy out of you.

I'm hoping I can get more legitimate work done tomorrow, but I wanted to take the time to write something out tonight because I've been slowly fixing the combat issues entirely by myself, without the help of tutorials or anything, and I'm really proud of that, even if I can only manage it in short bursts.

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/31/25, Day 23 - Sick

I am a lot of things, and among them, unfortunately, is chronically ill. Today was yucky. Also I watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and cried about 83 times, so there's that. I didn't get a lot done today, obviously, but I did spend some time troubleshooting enemy movement because apparently adding an element of aggression is difficult? Somehow?

I'll figure it out tomorrow, probably. There's always a way, I just haven't found it yet.

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/30/25, Day 22 - fine-tuning

I had a hell of a time today working out how to get my system to update weapon type so attack type could be processed, but eventually managed it. Turns out it does actually matter what's on what side of the =. Also, a global/game manager script will make your life easier.

- set up Game Manager script for easier communication between scripts

- set up weapon_update function for specifying weapon type

- set up a more precise deal_damage system

- got stuck on enemy aggro and accurate death sequence of events (sprite still moving and dealing damage)

tomorrow's GOALS: work out the aggro and damage/death, poke around with "portal" creation

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/27/25, Day 21 - finally, combat

I did it y'all, the thing I've been saying for literal weeks that I was gonna do next: combat. Not a lot of time today to devote to development because I'm not feeling great today, but I feel good that I got even just a little bit done.

- created an attack zone on the player sprite, set it to enable only during an attack function

- did a bit under the assumption that there would only be a single type of attack, realized I was incorrect

- went back to fix it, it's midnight

tomorrow's GOALS: finish setting up attack type code so I can easily work in new attacks further down the line, implement damage exchange with the current spawned enemy

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/26/25, Day 20 - will

Where there's a will, there's a way, or whatever. I've been struggling for days with this one item spawn; I don't want items to be a big deal but I want this one specific spawn and I want it a specific way and I've spent hours and hours trying to work it out. And I finally did it.

- start morning still stuck on getting the one particular item to spawn how I want

- spent vast majority of the day doing literally anything to avoid sitting down to work

- finally decide on an approach

- create an entirely separate chest scene just for this one spawn

- spend way, way too long trying to get the animation right; finally manage

- game crashes ever time the player interacts with the chest; fix that

- item doesn't spawn when the chest opens; fix that

- item doesn't register player's body on collision; fix that

- item registers and is picked up but doesn't auto-equip; fix that

- attack animation is too slow and the sound effect doesn't match the movement; I'm not sure how to fix this without making an animation player dedicated to this one action, which I suppose I'll probably have to do anyway.

tomorrow's GOALS: maybe figure out sound effect timing, player can already take damage so start on dealing damage

Genuinely falling asleep at my desk as I write this. I didn't even really do that much but I'm completely wiped.

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/23/25, Day 19 - breathe

I was right. It took me about ten minutes to figure out how to do what I wanted. I had to write the code completely myself, but it was 23 total lines of code split between two scripts.

There's two hours left in the night and I could probably make some progress on my next task, but honestly, I'm fried and I just want to relax tonight, so I'm going to.

I'd like to be able to just call it good and move forward with remapping the area, but I'm still agonizing over the combat. There's an unlockable treasure chest and I've been trying to figure out how to spawn an animated sprite the player can pick up and auto-equip as a weapon (for story purposes). I have absolutely no idea how to manage it. It seems like the answer is in an item array for loot, but I can't make heads or tails of how to get everything I want out of a resource.

To manage what I want, I need:

- The item to spawn automatically when the chest is opened

- The item to present as an animated sprite

- The player to be able to pick up the item

- The item to auto-equip as a weapon

and

- A printed message with a story-related comment

And, like, in theory this isn't hard. I've seen stuff like this in countless video games, I know it can be done. And I'm mostly sure this isn't difficult to execute, but I'm just completely lost as to how. I don't want to write like six new scripts all dependent on each other just to manage this one thing, because I don't want chests and loot to be a big part of the gameplay. Or at least, right now that's not what I want.

And I could probably just drop this for now and move on, and come back to it later. Combat is also not a major part of what I want this game to be, but I think a platformer completely void of combat would probably be kind of boring. I want the game to feel satisfying. I want every win to feel earned.

Other things I want to incorporate into the game are almost certainly a thousand times more complicated than this, and I dunno, maybe that's what's making it so frustrating. I know there's a relatively straight path forward here, but I'm just not finding it. And I need to find it, because outside this weapon-equip and a very basic hit/hurt exchange with an area enemy with 4 health, I just have to remap the area and make the "portal" to the second area. If I could figure out this fucking loot spawn I could probably be "done" within a couple of days.

And I mean, "done" is just being able to screen-record a walkthrough of the gameplay for this opening bit of the game so I can show my dad, and then after that keep working on the game as an entire beast and not just a tutorial area.

Anyway. I'm tired and I don't want to look at any more code today, so I'm not going to. I'm gonna go play a game and mind my business for the rest of the night, and come back to this tomorrow.

Thanks if you read this. I'm just using this blog to track progress and complain and share thoughts, I guess. Like screaming into a void, except I'm the void and sometimes I scream back.

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/22/25, Day 18 - a step back

I spent the entire first half of my day staring at code, moving back and forth between different scripts and trying to figure out what I did wrong. I got frustrated. We went out to spend some time with friends and when I got home with a fresh set of eyes, I sat down in front of Godot, looked at the five (5) item management scripts, and asked myself:

What the fuck am I doing?

I mean, like, I know what I'm trying to do. I know what I want to accomplish and the thing is that I've gotten so wrapped up in trying to set up systems that make later development easier. And that's great, I am one hundred percent on board with figuring the complicated shit out first so you don't have to go back and do it later. But when I really asked myself what I want this game to be as far as items go, I felt really, really stupid, because it's this:

Two collectable item variants, and an on-screen UI to track how many the player has picked up. That's it.

So, I come back to the question: what the fuck am I doing?

I'm positive I can set up what I want with a single script and probably less than 25 lines of code. It absolutely does not have to be as complicated a system as it is right now. I just want two animated sprites the player can pick up, and a number that will rise on the screen for each of them. These items don't even do anything, really. One of them is for lore purposes and the other is a type of currency, so what the fuck am I doing?

So I took the evening off. Drank some water. Played some Hollow Knight.

And tomorrow, I'll try again. I'll wipe the five (5) scripts and focus on what I need for the purposes of the game I am trying to build right now, not some super-complicated imaginary future game. This isn't hard. I know it isn't hard.

Tomorrow, I'll try again.

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

[gloomyghostdev]

08/22/25, Day 18 - a step back

I spent the entire first half of my day staring at code, moving back and forth between different scripts and trying to figure out what I did wrong. I got frustrated. We went out to spend some time with friends and when I got home with a fresh set of eyes, I sat down in front of Godot, looked at the five (5) item management scripts, and asked myself:

What the fuck am I doing?

I mean, like, I know what I'm trying to do. I know what I want to accomplish and the thing is that I've gotten so wrapped up in trying to set up systems that make later development easier. And that's great, I am one hundred percent on board with figuring the complicated shit out first so you don't have to go back and do it later. But when I really asked myself what I want this game to be as far as items go, I felt really, really stupid, because it's this:

Two collectable item variants, and an on-screen UI to track how many the player has picked up. That's it.

So, I come back to the question: what the fuck am I doing?

I'm positive I can set up what I want with a single script and probably less than 25 lines of code. It absolutely does not have to be as complicated a system as it is right now. I just want two animated sprites the player can pick up, and a number that will rise on the screen for each of them. These items don't even do anything, really. One of them is for lore purposes and the other is a type of currency, so what the fuck am I doing?

So I took the evening off. Drank some water. Played some Hollow Knight.

And tomorrow, I'll try again. I'll wipe the five (5) scripts and focus on what I need for the purposes of the game I am trying to build right now, not some super-complicated imaginary future game. This isn't hard. I know it isn't hard.

Tomorrow, I'll try again.

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/22/25, Day 18 - UI

Good god I am so exhausted. I keep refining the systems to be better, more comprehensive and modular for later programming, but holy shit it means that every single day I mess something up and have to rebuild from scratch. Which is fine because it's usually better when I've finished, but it's just so exhausting to be constantly revising, breaking things, and then having to go back and puzzle them out. The more I add the more complicated things get and I have to pay closer attention to how scripts interact, which IS good, and I'm learning a lot, but I also spend every day frustrated. Two steps forward, one step back.

- majorly fucked up my code first thing in the morning trying to correct overly-complicated code written the day before (closely following the direction of the guy that wrote the code in the first place)

- managed to put things back the way they were and decided not to touch for now

- overlooked combat again because I'm still not 100 on how I want to do it

- focused instead on on-screen UI for tracking collectables

- got the UI designed then got stuck on the update code

- had to modify existing scenes to fit in the Item class, which is fine and I would have had to do it anyway, but the game won't accept those scenes as Items because their scenes are packed

tomorrow's GOALS: idk probably rebuild the two scenes from scratch so they'll work

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/21/25, Day 17 - spawn

I'm going to have to start taking active dev notes or something. The days are starting to run together and when I hit the end of the night and try to remember what I did, it's hard. Anyway:

- finalized item spawn and acquisition

- modified code so the interacting component doesn't shit itself when it touches a collision shape not labeled as interactable (this was genuinely such an easy fix I'm embarrassed it took me so long. just make an "Interactables" group and stick in a discriminatory if statement in the area_entered function)

- fixed an issue where colliding with the spawned item crashed the game

- fussed more with the 2D sound of an object farther back on the map, the code of which I adjust literally every single day because every new day the previous day's fix doesn't work. it worked tonight when I finished up for the night, but I would bet money it won't be working tomorrow morning

tomorrow's GOALS: dealing damage

later GOALS: remap the entire scene to something legitimate instead of just random stuff for testing

Cheers.

[gloomyghostdev]

08/20/25, Day 16 - items

I feel like I'm finally starting to get where I want to be with the game mechanics; a lot of the basics are set up and I'm rapidly approaching legitimate gameplay, which is super exciting. Part of that is discovering every single day that I have a new system or method that has to be set up before I can manage the thing I'm trying to do, but it's all progress and I'm happy with that.

- partner helped me set up a backup system with github, easy to push and pull updates, which is super awesome

- got stuck on the "loot" array portion of the interactive chest

- found a resource to build an inventory and a system for item acquisition, did that

- as a pleasant aside, pretty sure I found a way around an issue where the player's interactive collision shape was crashing the game every time it touched a couple of items not marked "interactable." I can fix that tomorrow.

tomorrow's GOALS: for the millionth time: set up basic combat

[gloomyghostdev]

08/19/25, Day 15 - menu

I took a couple days off to stave off incoming burnout, and I always hate doing that because it feels like I'm wasting time, but it really did help. I felt a lot better today and was able to get some more things done. I took a break today from the actual gameplay to focus on UI stuff.

- put together a very basic in-game menu with working buttons

- built a "how to play" panel accessible from the in-game menu

- spent probably two minutes adjusting the chest script to accomodate changes I made to its tree a couple days ago

tomorrow's GOALS: weapon spawn and equip

later GOALS: finish and animate the in-game menu panels, work on combat animations and health interactions (losing and restoring), design on-screen collectible counters and health tracking, enemy sounds?, portal to level 2

[gloomyghostdev]

08/17/25, Day 14 - headache

I don't like technology, and technology doesn't like me.

- spent several hours trying to figure out how to switch between chest types without needing a million different scripts

- gave up and found a tutorial

- spent a long time setting up the script and array

- abruptly lost over an hour of tedious progress and couldn't see a way to get it back or to replace it

- almost cried

- managed to get the progress back

- decided now would be a good time to set up a backup

- downloaded the github plugin

- made a github account

- tried very hard to get the backup system working, godot won't let me enable the plugin because the SAVE PATH IT CHOSE won't open

- almost cried again

- it's one in the morning and i'm pissed off and tired and frustrated

tomorrow's GOALS: figure out the fucking backup, work on loot spawn, don't kill anyone

Cheers.