My goal for this week was to complete the basic version of all enemies for my game and cut any that weren't completed on time. My design philosophy for this was to review the attributes of my existing bosses and build basic enemies around single or multiple attributes. At the same time, I'm endeavoring to keep the game simple. These are the bosses I'm working with:
- Giant:
Pushes forward and attempts to corner, stomp, or punch player. He's a gimmick boss that forces the player to take advantage of the destructible environment.
- Abominable Toad:
Hops around and across the stage and attempts to damage the player through contact or dropping bombs from overhead.
- Patchwork Cat:
Missing its front legs, the enlarged Patchwork Cat sits back on its haunches and directs a spear through the air to stab the player.
- The Alchemist:
Attempts to strike the player with a bladed staff weapon and throws knives.
From these bosses, I brainstormed and cut down to the following list:
- Spikey:
Hurts the player on contact, but doesn't otherwise react to anything else. - Hopper:
Hops from one side of a floor to another. Oblivious, like Spikey. - Dummy:
Wanders back and forth but cannot jump over gaps. Tries to hit the player when in range. - Hunter:
Much like the dummy, only can jump and will pursue the player at a faster speed. - Mournful Frog:
Much like the dummy, only will explode if the player gets too close instead of attempting an attack. - Vengeful Frog:
Hops around the stage a bit like the Hopper, only will try to throw bombs at the player. - Blade Thrower:
Throws knives whenever the player is in range.
I cut the potion mechanics I originally wanted when I realized they weren't adding enough to the Alchemist to justify the time investment. This cut several other enemy ideas immediately. Yet more potential enemies were cut due to assumptions on the complexity of implementing them, but I may've cut a little too hard. I finished these 7 enemies in 3 days with only the barest of implementation hassles.
The last 4 days of this week have been far less productive then those first 3. I immediately decided against implementing additional basic or boss enemies. Instead, I started trying to define and implement all that remains to be implemented. And, in all honesty, I'm not completely sure how much is left.
I knew I needed a way to move between floors and to fix the camera, which I wanted to only follow the player on the Y-axis under certain conditions:
- When climbing stairs between floors.
- When falling down between floors.
I did this because I think it's weird and disorienting when a camera follows the Y axis of a jumping player.
Camera follows player's Y:
Camera doesn't follow player's Y:
However, after implementing these basic fixes, I found myself at a loss for what task specifically I should take on next. I took one entire day off to indulge myself after finishing all of the basic enemies, and by Friday I was continuing to find it difficult to stay on task. This is despite taking action after a similar directionlessness settled on me last weekend.
Working from home on anything is challenging for some. For me, it's the working on the same machine I use for gaming that's a challenge. So, for anyone out there who might be lucky enough to have the resources or material lying around to try the following strategy, I recommend it:
What you're looking at in the photo above is an old college laptop connected to power, a USB keyboard, a wireless mouse, an extended audio cable running to a pair of speakers (gotta have that music, yo), and an HDMI cable. The cable connects to an HDMI splitter (the small black box with 4 cables plugged into it on the top shelf) which helps route video from my laptop to my monitor.
This is basically the janky home solution of plugging a laptop into a docking station. The important part is the video output, which isn't built-in standard on all laptops but should be possible for quite a few out there.
I don't have the space to physically separate my work and play areas, and I'm assuming most people don't either these days. However, I've had plenty of experience over this past year using my day-job laptop to mentally and emotionally separate my "work" from my personal desktop play/work space in my cramped little room, and so long as I can stay self-directed I find the approach extremely successful. This approach very much helped me to finish those 7 enemies in just 3 days of working 7 hours.
Problems arise when I lose my sense of direction. Sometimes the results can actually be beneficial. The day I took off this past week gave me the opportunity to try the Dark Souls board game. The Dark Souls board game is not good, but the process of learning how to play it gave me some inspiration on directions I might go with the implementation and design of my game. More on that next week, if all goes well.
However, most of the time when I lose direction I end up spinning my wheels, burning out my eyes, losing sleep, and getting nowhere. Playing the Dark Souls board game and letting myself in on the hype surrounding the release of Elden Ring in February of 2022 (so soon!) prompted me to install and play Dark Souls 3. I used Dark Souls 3 as an excuse to avoid thinking about what all I have left on Piecemeal Jack, and I got almost nothing done yesterday as a result.
I view this behavior as demeaning of someone who wants to value himself and his work. So, today I tackled the piece I've been most worried about: implementing a save system (working directly with files on user's computer's always makes me nervous for some reason). I find writing about one's struggles can be helpful for overcoming them, so I've written them here and met my weekly blog quota at the same time. Woohoo.
I'm going to take the rest of today to write out a basic, probably incomplete or incorrect, list of everything I have left to do on Piecemeal Jack. Tomorrow, I return to my day job. I'm expecting progress to slow down alot.
Until next week.
