Blogs - Grahamcracker25

A lot has changed over the last month. I've decided to scrap the 2D JRPG. I've lost the direction of the game and have lost the urge to create all of the content in it that I desired. I'm going to remake it into a 2D platformer, that is more advanced than a normal platformer. There's a few reason for this, but ultimately, I'm not prepared to create as much content for this game as I desired. So I'm going to be going back, and recreating this as a platformer with Cowsins engine from the ground up. It's going to be an advanced 2D platformer. It'll still have a JRPG vibe to it, as there will be a basic story. However, this is going to be rebuilt from the ground up as a simple platformer, no extra modes, just a fun platformer with guns. I hope to release this game later in the year. This will be a free or very very cheap game. Like I'm talking a dollar if not just free.

My energy has shifted into my new game, the Murder Mystery with some horror elements. The name of the game is "The Mysteries of Beanville." All of the characters are based off of "Mighty Beans" if you recall those in your memory. I plan on releasing this game later in the year.

The Mysteries of Beanville has gotten off to a great start, with all of the my previously mentioned features implemented. Since my last devlog, I've added more levels, set up the scenes for the basic cutscenes, and begun sculpting the terrain for the large level, where you have to find clues to who the killer is and find the missing person in the woods. I also added a big river in the level however, there's no swimming and you won't cross into the water, it's purely for decorative effect.

I'm planning on adding in a weapon, and a part where the player is attacked and has to fight the friends of the killer. This will add some FPS type of play to the game. This will most likely take place in the scene after finding the players dead friend.

Ultimately, for now, we'll be rebuilding the 2D JRPG into a more standard, Platformer game. Along with, creating and developing the Murder Mystery game. I'm planning on releasing the platformer by the end of summer, and hoping to release the murder mystery game towards the end of the fall of this year.

A lot of progress has been made on the 2D JRPG. I created an entire Mode Selection Menu screen, and added all functionality to each button. From that screen the players will be able to go back to the main menu, or select to launch any of the 3 game modes. I'd like to add in a 4th game mode, to make it worth peoples time however I just haven't pin-pointed what I want that mode to be.

I also finished up adding in dialogue to each level. All the levels now have dialogues of the character talking to himself along his journey. Basic things like "Maybe I should jump" or "I hope I get there in time" etc. This also gives the player tips as to where they are and what they need to do. The other new addition to the story is that I completed the 3rd level. The story now has 4 levels and a bossfight level. I'm considering adding in a 5th level to the game as well. I'm also debating a cutscene intro, however I am now a great animator and would need to do some research to get that up an running. My focus for this game is content. And I realized I want quality content, not filler content. I think one good story mode, with the 3 bonus modes if perfectly fine. The Extraction Mode and BossFight MiniGame are basically done. I think no further changes need to be made, and they are accessible through the mode selection menu. I'd like to spice up the UI and create the 4th game mode before launching this. The other thing I would like to add is a save feature for the story mode. All I need is a simple save feature to start the player at each level they are on in the Story. I will be implementing that before launch as well.

In regards to my newest project, I added a bunch of assets, and started designing the frameworks for some more of the areas in the game. I haven't added any new jump scares or anything yet, I'm really just focusing on the level design and environment art at the moment. I want to refine the story and really draw the player into the games story.

A fair bit has been accomplished over the last week. However, not all in my 2D JRPG. I also begun development of another game. The new game is a 3D, Comedic horror-style game. It's mostly a maze style game, with jump scares, creepy laughs, weird noises, and clowns. I will be adding a fair bit of clowns.

So far in that game, which has yet to be named, I have made one entire level. I downloaded a basic First-person controller, and some other assets to the unity store. I get scripts functioning for dialogue popups, using TextMeshPro objects. Basically just when the player is in touch with a collider, it pops up a dialogue. Usually a hint, warning, or the character thinking to themselves. I created a panel with a rough typewriter style font to really give it a good aesthetic. I also added a flashlight, using a spotlight. All I needed was a script to make the light actually turn on and off, then I attached it to the player as a child. Overall, the gameplay of this won't be super in-depth. Mostly just walking, running, jumping, using the flashlight, and maybe adding in some sort of minigames?

The first level has two jump-scares, which I also wrote a script for. Pretty easy script as well, just a collision with the player, makes an object and/or audio pop up. Overall, this game has been pretty easy to create. I'm really focusing in on the story and the level design, as those are my strengths.

In regards to the 2D JRPG. I converted the same scripts for the dialogue system from that 3D game, to 2D scripts, and added dialogues to the Story mode of the game. The other thing I did, was I finally went back and fixed the pause menu issue I was having as well. So the pause menu is up and running, along with the dialogue adding more depth to the story mode. I also worked more on the school project I'm in a group with. I made a death panel for our player, so if they die the panel will pop up. I also assisted in adding more to our dialogue system, and created some other UI and Art for the game as well. Overall, a great week on my end for development and design.

Some more changes have been made. The Katana has been removed from the story, due to some issues arising from it with the framework. So, I've replaced it with another gun that can be picked up in the first level, following the first checkpoint. Levels 2 and 3 have been reworked completely. The design of each level is less cluttered and overall simplified, but still has plenty of action and content to enjoy while progressing through the level.

I'm still working on an arena mode, and the level has been designed. Still working on getting the code to work for it though so we'll see how that works out.

Not much has been done over the last week or so, except for some decisions regarding the creative direction along with some "decor" and fluff around the levels and environments. My main decision was to scrap the Melee only mode. As much as I want a lot of content to be in the game, I also don't want it to be filler content. So for now, we have the Story, which I'm pondering adding more to, the Extraction mode, along with the Boss Fight MiniGame.

Ultimately, I'd like the 4th game mode to be an Arena mode, however I was having a LOT of code errors and issues in regards to getting everything to respawn properly. So, we'll be looking into that in the future. For now, when I spend time working on this project my main goal is to get the story, extraction, and bossfight modes to has as much fun gameplay as possible. The Story will be adding a 4th level as well, so in total, there will be 5 levels to complete the story mode.

Additional improvements have been made. The Story mode has seen additions in the form of: an introduction of a third level, continuous weapons throughout the levels in the players inventory, and a new rifle for the player to pick up prior to the Boss-fight. The player goes throughout the levels with an SMG and a Katana, however in the 4th level (Boss-fight), they'll pick up a Burst Rifle from the ground, prior to fighting the boss.

The Boss fight has seen additions as well. A "Fire" or "Meteor" effect has been added through the use of prefab objects. This enhances the visuals during the fight. A tunnel has also been made in the ground underneath the boss. This gives the player more mobility to fight them. The player CAN still get hit through the tunnel, however they have even more mobility now to fight them. I'd like to maybe add in a platform or something where the player can't get hit by the boss. Maybe just like on section of the tunnel. In addition to this, the hitbox on the boss has also been adjusted, making it easier to hit the gigantic robot turret itself.

Using the Cowsins Platformer as my foundation has been awesome. It's a great product and I'd highly recommend to anyone to try it out. I did encounter an error. The engine itself provides the option of using the built in inventory system, or only a hot-bar inventory. I've chosen to only use the hot-bar inventory. This keeps this simple and straightforward. Plus, as I'm not utilizing the built in coins or food systems, I don't necessarily need more than 2 slots for each weapon. HOWEVER, I was getting an error after I deleted the UI for the inventory. I had to do some testing and trial and error to find out that I still need an empty object to fill that inventory slot, even if I'm only using a hot-bar style inventory. So, I added an empty object to all levels to get rid of that console error.

In addition, the game finally has a name. "A Wild Day" is the name. Each game mode, the skybox changes form daytime, to evening, to sunset, to night time. So, the title of "A Wild Day" references the story mode, where the player is introduced in a (yet to be made) cutscene, of the robots taking over the village. The player then has to save said village. This takes place over the course of a day. Therefore giving it the name "A Wild Day" seems appropriate. I often find it hard to name my games and projects however once I find one, it tends to fit pretty well.

The melee only mode has begun its production as well. This mode doesn't feature a story, and simply features platformer style levels that the player runs around in with a sword and battles enemies with. The next step for myself in this process is implementing a proper "Save" feature. As well as, deciding what is going to be in the game itself, and the demo. I'm thinking the demo will feature only the story mode, and if the players would like to play the other game modes, they can purchase the game. I'm only planning on selling it for like $2.99 so I'm not putting a high pay-wall on this game. This is simply to begin generating some revenue from my game development. It's been 3 years now and I think I'm at the point where I'm creating a product that a small fee can be charged. Again, this is a 2D Action-JRPG. I'm not putting a high price on this. I might even make it $1.99.

Some additional improvements have been made to the current project. For one, I finished another Extraction mode map. I'd like to have two maps at least (If not maybe 3 or 4) for the Extraction mode when the game launches. I think launching it with 2, then adding in more will give players something to look forward to.

Additionally, the Story mode has been improved. The levels have had some slight changes to enhance gameplay, and utilize gameplay features. The addition of the player carrying each weapon throughout all levels of the story has also been added. The second level has also been made a tiny bit larger in overall size.

Additionally, as much as I'd like an Arena mode, I just haven't gotten around to getting that up and running however I created a new game mode for the game: "BossFight MiniGame" This mode is basically 10 bosses, on a big platform. The player simply fights all of those bosses. The player can try to set themselves a time record by eliminating all 10 bosses and reaching the door at the end. This mode also features a big use of the grappling hook mechanic, allowing the player to jump around the bosses and fight them in a new way. The story mode boss fight has limited availability for the grappling hook use.

The other thing I've begun setting up is a training mode level. This will feature all of the weapons, targets, and a way to learn the movement mechanics. This scene will either be accessible from the controls menu, or from the main menu. I'm unsure as of now what I'd like to do with that. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself just yet.

Overall, I'm trying to bring as much content as I can to this relatively simple game. My first Steam game did well, however it was very limited. I want lots of content in this game, and replay-ability is overall a big focus for me with this project.

I've decided to utilize the blog feature on this website, not only as a way to practice writing more blogs but also to showcase my devlog for current projects I'm working on!

In this first devlog I'd like to discuss some basic things about a game I am working on and hope to release by this summer!

The game is a 2D, RPG-Inspired platformer, that also has some other fun things like guns, melee weapons, and parachuting. I've used the Cowsins Platformer asset as my base framework for this project, and have added some functions and designed environments based off the tools and tilesets in the asset bundle as a whole. Cowsins is a fantastic developer and I own all of their assets that they've published. They've even launched a partner program and one of my goals for the year as a developer is to get into their program.

A couple things that I added that are not a part of the base project are: a simple level boundary that reloads the scene if the player falls. The Cowsins platformer asset has a checkpoint system in it, that handles if the player dies to an enemy (which, are robot-like turrets). However, I noticed that I needed to add in my own twist, in the event that the player falls under the level. Especially because, this happens in platformers, often. I also added in a function to launch the next scene, when the player opens up a door. The door itself was a prefab, so I wrapped a box collider around it and wrote a basic script to load the next scene. I also adjusted the hitboxes on the prefab turrets themselves. Initially I thought there was a hit registry problem, turns out the hitboxes were just slightly smaller than I anticipated compared to the model. Personally, I think being able to adjust this is actually a really cool feature because, this could change up the difficulty. I very well could add in a "Headshot only" mode because of the ability to do this. Another thing I added that was not a part of the base project is my own pause panel and UI. The game actually starts paused and features the story (or objective) of the game mode you're playing. This is a great feature because, when you pause, you're reminded of what you're doing in the game. I think that can be important as well. I've made a handful of platformers over the last couple years, and this one is by far the most advanced and technical one that I've put my mind too.

I've added two games modes as of now. One is a basic story mode, that features the player navigating through two levels and then fighting a final boss. The first level takes about 15 minutes, the second is a bit shorter than that and the boss fight can take around 4-6 minutes, depending. If you die during it, obviously it'll take longer. The story is fairly basic. Robots took over the town, the player is the hero who destroys them and saves the town. This really is my first "Story" mode in a game, so I don't want to get to intricate with it, and I want to focus on gameplay and creating fun levels for people to enjoy while they play. The Story mode levels are far more than a normal "platformer" and have verticality to them, as well as tunnels, falling objects, and more.

The next mode is an extraction mode. The Extraction mode is simple: You go through a platformer style level, fight enemies along the way, and then capture a point for a period of time and then you "Extract" from the level. There's a time implemented, to encourage replay-ability, in the sense of players trying to beat their own high scores. I'd love to implement a leaderboard, possibly, in the future.

I'd also like to add in an Arena mode, as well as a Melee-Only Arena mode. These are the 4 main game modes I'd like in my game. I also think a Multiplayer Arena could come in the future and I'd love to somehow add that in, even if it is the "old-school" way of having players host their own servers for it. I think it'd be pretty cool.

I'm hoping to include some screenshots and such in my next devlog in the coming weeks! You can go over to my "videos" and see a video of some of the Extraction mode!