Post 6

What I've Accomplished

I've programmed a starting menu and  implemented a save system. I also added sound effects to various things like jumping and attacking, Lastly I have programmed health and enabled both the player and enemies to be killed when they take enough damage.

What I Have Planned

I've learned a lot about game development these past weeks and feel able to give a presentation on the process. At the beginning I set a goal far too lofty to be achieved in such a short time and by myself. I won't finish this game and will start to work on other personal projects, but this has been an educational and important experience.

Post 5

What I've Accomplished

I drew a tile set for the floor and walls that the character and enemies walk on and can't move past. I programmed the camera to follow the character, and chose its size. Also, I created screen transitions for when the character enters or goes to another room or screen.

What I Have Planned

I want to make menu screens, make more transitions for those menus, and also implement screenshake.

Post 4

What I've Accomplished

Enemy idle sprite

I've programmed basic enemy states for one enemy, so now the player is able to hit and do damage to the enemy and vice versa. I made sprites and hit boxes for the enemy, and I've removed the player's ability to attack upwards as I've deemed it unnecessary.

Upward attack states have been removed.

What I Have Planned

By the next post I want to have created and implemented tile sets, have the camera move with the player, and maybe make screen transitions.

Post 3

What I've Accomplished

Basic Attack Animation (Probably not final)

A lot of time was spent animating the protagonist's sprite. I was unfamiliar with pixel art and thus spent a lot of time with it, unhappy with how it initially worked. I've programmed an adjustable jump height based on how long the player holds down the jump button, and created animations for all the directional attacks as well as movement. I've begun coding player and enemy states, and established hit boxes for the character's attacks.

What I Have Planned

Some Code, Mostly Key Establishment

Looking back at my goals last time, it's clear I was reaching a little too far, only getting about halfway there. By the next blog post I want attacks to be operational and at have at least one set of enemy states programmed.

Post 2 - Getting in Practice

Stepping Back

Despite watching some videos to help understand the functions of GameMaker Studio 2, when attempting to implement my own ideas, I soon realized that I had little idea how to use the tools. I decided to gain a better understanding, I should go through all of Shaun Spalding's tutorial videos and make the games alongside him. Since he hasn't finished his series on action RPG's I only focused on the platformer based videos, including the "Complete Platformer Tutorial."

What I've Learned

While little progress was made on my own game, I learned a lot about GameMaker Studio 2 and what I can do in it. I've learned how to implement gravity, program enemies and attacks, make all kinds of abilities common to a platformer like wall jumps, etc. All while I've been doing this I have also been writing down any idea that comes to mind and I settled on one game. 

Plans for Future

By the end of this project I want to have created a beta version of a game, likely containing the first area and maybe the story's opening. By my next post I want to have created the parameters for the protagonist, walls, enemies, etc and potentially start on creating sprites and tile sets.

Week 1: Introducing Myself to the Program

Finding a Development Tool

To begin working on my game, I first had to find a program that I could understand and use. I tried out multiple tools. By Wednesday I ultimately settled on GameMakerStudio2, a video game dev tool meant for the creation of 2D games while being easy to comprehend. To learn how to properly use this program, I watched the YouTube videos of former Ubisoft employee, Shaun Spalding. His content was super helpful in acquainting myself with the functions of this tool.

Coding the Player's Movement

When making a platformer, the most important part of your game is how your character controls, and the options available. A functional platformer builds itself to be complete-able with these controls, and a great platformer builds itself around the controls and how they can interact with the environment in a satisfying way.

The player code.

The remaining time I had left to put into the game's creation has been dedicated solely to programming the character controls and testing to ensure that the player properly interacts with the floors and walls. Before working I had already sketched the primary abilities of our protagonist out. They would be able to glide, wall jump, boost off of some obstacles, and have a close range attack.

Sloppy sketch of player abilities.

While I did not have time to finish my programming so I can not procure footage of the player in action, this weekend will be dedicated to finishing that. Next week will be primarily coming up with and testing different obstacles and level aspects that well fit the player's capabilities for satisfying game play.