Logs

Week of 4/24

As the first week of development began, many of the basic sprite assets had to be created before any game production actually began, as they act as the fundamental basis for said game. Thus, the first few days of production consisted mostly of creating basic sprites usable for testing. One immediately obvious issue was the lack of fonts, as GameMaker Studio 2, the program of choice, was not able to import fonts, and a day was instead spent designing a font to match the game.

After creating some enemy sprites (pictured above right) simpler things were done, such as the addition of a health system and a basic user interface. Many other sprites for later additions were also prototyped in this time, like a temporary power-up for the player (pictured above left).

For the later part of the week, the foundations for movement were coded and implemented, as well as experimenting with potential power-ups, an example being a triple shot weapon (pictured above). So far, we would have a very rudimentary but functioning model of our game to build upon.

Of course, the game also needed music to go along with it, made utilizing Cubase and FL Studio. The most that was done was simple blueprinting of song ideas for the game, mainly a couple bits and pieces of potential level themes. By the end of the week, we had decided on two out of the bunch for use, patently named “Level 1 Theme” and “Level 2 Theme”.

Week of 5/1

Because the core layout of the game was produced last week, this week could be dedicated to more creative aspects, in order to polish the game to be both distinct and diverting, as well as to create a working blueprint for the coming weeks. Early on, we discovered the camera was actually nonfunctioning, and so our first objective was to build another camera system from the ground up, to focus on the player during movement.

Some other basics unfinished from last week were also brought over to this week, like creating particles, backgrounds, and a game over screen (pictured above).

The player health system (pictured above in red) was now more apparent and obvious, and with that was the addition of an energy system (pictured above in blue). Currently, it is still unknown what we plan to do with energy, but much has been drafted to be developed and tested in the future.

Some characters were designed, being one main player character (pictured above right), a deuteragonist (pictured above left), as well as a primary antagonist (not pictured). With this came programming a dialogue system, as well drafting a short story to enhance player experience, and to act as the groundwork for a tutorial sequence. The dialogue system would actually take quite a while to complete, as it was loaded with its own difficulties. A huge thanks to Peyton Burnham and his helpful 2.5 hour long tutorial, it would not have been possible without him.

Eventually, a credits sequence would have to be made, so ahead of time, a draft of such was drawn out with some music written out for the credits at the start of the week (pictured above left), which then grew more until its final version (pictured above right). As we can finally began to implement individuality to the game, the focus now is to develop the ideas planned this week.

Week of 5/8

For this week, we planned to add more to the game, and complete anything that was started last week, as we fixed an error with targeting, as prior, the auto-targeting system would not activate in line of two enemies. Afterwards, an enemy wave system was also created, although not long after, several flaws were realized and then fixed over the days, allowing us to then customize levels easily and putting us closer towards finalization.

It was in our plans to add a second playable character since early in development, and that was one of the first things implemented this week, as the first half or so involved creating the ship (pictured above) and projectile sprites for character two, who was originally the friendly bee deuteragonist created last week. Power-ups were also finalized; the “Bombo-Gun” is one such shown above, a weapon that disperses heat-seeking bees. Several other power-ups were also implemented, like the triple shot weapon that we experimented with early on in development.

By this point, the soundtrack would mostly be done, as this week marked the completion of the first drafts of the tutorial and main menu themes, both of which were initially thought up in earlier weeks. For the coming week, only some minor tweaks were necessary.

Any action game is incomplete without some sort of boss, and so we dedicated the latter half of this week towards the production of a climactic final fight. We sort of knew the direction and overall design of the boss fight already from prior discussion, as we focused on creating a battle that was distinct from the other levels, but easy enough for the average person. We decided on a tank sprite to represent the boss (pictured above left), and prepared a decent foundation to work off of next week, with concentrated ideas and production of an intense battle theme (pictured above right).

Week of 5/15

Being the last week of production, most parts of the game were set, and anything else necessary had already been drafted and planned extensively. Polishing player movement and implementing any potential bug fixes was also in store for the week.

First on the list was the long awaited tutorial, and now that all the assets and scripts for dialogue and player control were ready, putting together the tutorial was not of much difficulty. After a proper tutorial though, we would look towards our play testers, sending out the premature game version in order to absorb any criticism from our peers. A common issue seemed to be the first character, with his awkward movement patterns and difficult gameplay. Some things were done to counteract such though, as the ship turning speed was greatly increased, as well as improving some other quality of life aspects mentioned by the testers.

With several levels, an upcoming boss battle, and now two different tutorials, it felt appropriate to create a level select screen when creating a main menu. The selection for the tutorial for Wire (pictured above) can be seen, which is the main character of the red ship shown in prior updates.

Finally, before the end of the week, the boss battle (pictured above) reached its final stages of development, and the game was essentially ready for public presentation. With a few final mixing touch-ups and other changes to the music, the last task of this week now was the production of a short credits sequence, concluding the project as a whole.