dreamcatcher devlog: may + june 2024
< part of the level i'm working on! >
it's that time again! i've been making some good progress on this game within the past couple months, and i'm excited to share some of it with y'all! i'll also be trying out a more organized format this time around instead of pure bullet points.
the main reason i didn't do a single devlog for may was because barely anything happened in may. since the school year was wrapping up, i had a lot of tests to take, work to catch up on, and an overbearing amount of stress on top of that. unfortunately, all that left me with almost no energy to work on dreamcatcher. the only thing i did was make a track for the game, which turned out good, but not much else to report.
i also worked at a summer camp for the first three weeks of june! this was my fourth year there, and the environment and community are still just as amazing. i won't disclose which camp it was for my own privacy, but i thought it was worth mentioning since it ties into the next point.
for the first half of june, i did a lot of work on the musical side of things, since it was the only thing i had motivation for at that point, and since i was working on music for the filmmaking class i was with at the summer camp i mentioned. i managed to get most of the soundtrack down, with only a few things i need to polish! i'll make it public once the demo is close to or already released. as of right now i'll probably put it on youtube, soundcloud, and bandcamp.
i've also been working on a custom audio visualizer on the side! i'll be using it for the yt music uploads when that happens
< still very much a work in progress >
i've been using masterplan for a while, and it's been working out great! i think this has helped me stay more organized than anything else i've used. huge shoutouts to @solarlunedev for making it :]
i mostly did a bit more organization and set up a reward system, which has worked out well so far!
< zoomed out; no spoilers here! >
< one pixel = a half hour of work, more on that in this post! also i had to substitute the brown for purple because the map doesn't have that color right now >
i started working on a new level a couple weeks ago (the one in the picture at the top)! it's been going great so far, especially since i came in with the strong motivation to make it.
on top of that, i made a debug panel and console! this doesn't affect the actual gameplay, but it's really useful for optimizing the memory the game takes up, as well as other important factors. the console's been a big help as well, since i can use those commands to test things instead of hardcoding certain things. in fact, i used the console to set up the camera in the picture!
< what the panel looks like >
right now, there's some parts of the visual side that are well off, but there's still quite a bit to take care of. the only art i did in these past couple weeks was for the tileset and background of the new level, and one frame of the player sprites i've been putting off. my main priorities here are:
finish player sprites to a basic level at the very least
finish character references, especially since art fight is in less than a day
make emojis for the discord server (which i'll shamelessly plug again)
speaking of art fight, i'll be doing some art for that too this year! i'm on team stardust, and i might not be too active but i'll put some character there. here's my account btw
right now there's just some art block i need to work through, but once i'm past that i'll be back and better than ever!
i'll keep this part within bullet points, but for the next month, i want to:
do all the things in the art section
finish the level and start a new one
finish the masterplan maddy
if you made it this far, wow! this is the longest devlog i've made by a big margin, and it took me around an hour and a half to fully put together. if you're interested in this and want to support me, then please consider sharing this blog with your friends or giving this an rb. it would mean a lot to me <3
