Devlog 75%: Gamedev Groundhog Day
I missed a devlog cos it’s been too (pick your ending) depressing/ frustrating/ embarrassing. But I didn’t choose the skux life, the skux life chose me. So here it is. Gamedev reality time. Skip this section if you just like actual progress!
I’ve been sick: burnout fatigue, weird viral thing: brain mush, sleep 12 hours/day, feel like sack of wet noodles, no focus. I can barely hold my end up on the dev team. Other interwebs peeps tell of times where just getting up and showing up is a win, so I hope this is relatable.
Every night I take way too long to set up/ code the playtest scene with sellotape and chewing gum. The puzzle logic almost plays, but for one small thing. Every day something breaks it. Gitkraken. New scripts. New prefabs. Missing reference exceptions. Missing.materials. Team says change the layout. I make it again. Rinse and repeat. Here for your viewing pleasure is a sample of prototypes I’ve built.
I made a Hacknplan with stuff we need. Isaac’s doing hero assets, level design and puzzle design. Jordan’s coding required functions and effects. I’ve yet to make: environment assets, decorative features, UI menus, coding navagent functions. I haven’t done anything. So.. the game is beat the internal demons (self pity, imposter syndrome, inadequacy) and keep moving towards fun, learning and excitement. And..,,
Woo hoo! We done did a playtest. Here’s a video and the t-shirt to prove it (OK I am lying about the t-shirt).
The team all finished the game, and an actual, real live playtester found multiple ways to break it. Thank you @spritersblock, you champ!. Now we have exciting new problems. Should we allow the player to: :
throw away (or otherwise lose) the cube they will need to finish
and if so, how to provide them with a new cube?
jump down a level onto the button (and what should happen if they do)?
jump over the abyss, out of the game level and wander off into the environment? (and if so, should there be a way to get back in?)
Now that we have a playable game, I feel excited that we can make something really cool. More good news, we get an extra couple of weeks. Watch this space!