Back: [[TJ's Game Dev Journey]] Next: [[TJ's Game Dev Log - August 2024]] **Newest dev logs are at the top!** **2024-07-31:** - I've had some nice words of encouragement from people checking my game out on itch and I really want to finish it now so that people can legit *play* it - Set up a blank testing project to test out the new TileMapLayers because it says TileMap is being deprecated. **2024-07-30:** - Checking out lots of entries from other people who entered the jam today :D - Started writing some ideas for a [[stealth platformer concept]] - Someone bought/supported my unfinished game with $5 🤯 **2024-07-29:** - Tried following a [different tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX34wvT5vLE) for drag & drop but ran into an error following it and wasn't sure how to continue. - I'm really feeling the finish line pressure and I know that I've got a really busy week ahead with people coming in to do repairs on our kitchen (it will be so nice to have hot water and a functioning sink again) - I'm gonna stop here for this jam and wrap things up! - Polished GDD - Exported game and uploaded to itch - Finished itch.io page for Gold in the Shadows - Submitted entry to the game jam and gave myself a pat on the back for taking part 🥳🎉 https://tjtrewin.itch.io/gold-in-the-shadows **2024-07-28:** - Finished the drag & drop to a state where it's functional but there are still some issues with it. Now I need to learn how to merge things :D - Got a merge kiind of working but it's bugged as shit 🤣 With just 3 days remaining, should I spend time trying to fix it or try and move on to the next step? I think I should push for **finished, not perfect**. ~~this is going to be *far* from perfect.~~ - Tried to progress further but drag & drop is really *really* broken... **2024-07-27:** - Learnt that taking a break and sleeping on it is important because the solution for disabling the button was super easy 😂 - Learnt how to make an object bigger and return back to normal scale on hover - Followed a [tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhgswVkYp0o) on drag & drop but there are some bugs with it if you spam click and I'm not sure how to fix it **2024-07-26:** - Learning about scene instances to try and get my button to spawn sprites - Took several hours to solve it and align it to my grid, but the button now spawns 12 lead when clicked! Now to deduct 1 player_gold and disable the button, but first, lunch. - Set player gold to start at 1, it deducts by 1 when the button is clicked. Still need to disable the button if 0. **2024-07-25:** - Learnt about buttons in Godot - Had some trouble adding sprites of the lead and gold on top of the button and making it move down on hover - got it sorted in the end! **2024-07-24:** - Finished rough sketch pixel art assets for the floor rune tiles and added them as layers in my TileMap and set them to not enabled (hidden). Later I'll need to figure out how to show individual tiles when gold items are merged on a tile 😬 I know how to do `set_cell` now though! - Made some suuuper rough 32x32 assets for the thief, lead, and gold. **2024-07-23:** - Learnt how to use custom fonts in Godot - Started creating assets for the floor rune tiles **2024-07-22:** - Finally got the tile hover working 😂 and then I had to figure out how to align the cursor to the tile more accurately and make the hover tile stay within the grid - Added the logo above the grid, I think I'll add instructions and UI elements on the left/right sides of the grid **2024-07-21:** - Now that I've started to try and make things in Godot I understand why having a detailed design document is really important. I was reading through it again this morning and realised I hadn't decided on *so many things* (like: how does the player place resources on the grid? where from? what action is performed to merge 3? what about 2? is it drag & drop, or double click?) - The more YT tutorials I watch, the more I feel like I should just spend this entire game jam making a fully fleshed out design document in really fine detail so that I can structure my learning 🤔 - Made a [[Gold in the Shadows - mechanics|list]] of the mechanics and what features I need to set up - Felt overwhelmed and needed a break from thinking so I made some pixel art for the logo/title of the game and started putting banner images into my GDD and itch.io page - Watched a video from [Brackeys](https://youtu.be/d_NA_yTXOOQ?si=TXQu2jJsDOz5LdVW) about 'How to Game Jam' and realised that my scope is probably too big! The jam is only 2 weeks long, I have other commitments in my daily life to balance, and I'm a beginner at this! 😁 I love being a noob again. **2024-07-20:** - Read through some more of the [Godot Docs](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/getting_started/step_by_step/index.html) - I'm feeling a bit lost on where to start. Do I follow some tutorials and eat into my game jam time if it turns out they weren't relevant? Do I poke around in Godot by myself and make rookie mistakes? Probably both. - Set up a project for *Gold in the Shadows*, went through the settings and figured out how to add a custom cursor - Created a pixel art cursor, it looks like trash but it's okay and can be polished later 😂 - Watched several YT tutorials on tilemaps - Created tile assets: `blank_tile`, `selected_tile`, realised the borders looked really thick so I made even more assets, then realised that's a lot of files so I learnt how to export Aseprite layers into a single sprite sheet - I didn't have the entire day set aside for learning as I'd hoped, but for the vast majority of it I've been looking for and trying out solutions to making the tile change texture on mouseover. - Next I'd like to finish designing the layout for the UI so that I have a better idea of what I need to build and where it needs to go. **2024-07-19:** - Created some initial concept art for the aesthetic of the game - Refined the core loop for the MVP and updated my GDD with a pitch / game summary - Settled on the name: ***Gold in the Shadows*** as a working title **2024-07-18:** - Added some more notes to my ideas development and the core concept of the game is starting to take shape. I feel like I'll have a solid idea ready to write the specification for a MVP on the weekend. The game will be a casual puzzle merger to keep things simple for my first time using Godot and making games. - Updated my design document with some inspirations. **2024-07-17:** - The theme was voted on by Twitch chat from a two polls of 5 options, in the end there were some close calls so the final poll was between *shadows*, *alchemy*, or *both*. The theme with the most votes is: both **Alchemy and Shadows** - Wrote down [[Gold in the Shadows - development of ideas|some ideas]] on my lunch break **2024-07-16:** - The [Pirate Software - Game Jam 15](https://itch.io/jam/pirate) starts tomorrow. I don't know what the theme is yet, I've never participated in a jam before (do I even *have* an itch.io account?) I haven't even opened Godot yet and I have no idea what I'm doing. Gonna join anyway. - Found [my old itch.io account](https://tjtrewin.itch.io/) & updated details 😂 - Joined the game jam (also joined some others that start after this one ends) - Set up just the headers of [my first game design document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PDc868QL0bXfh2UfTQZ4gcHFdK5G7BPWXiv3qLdawqY/edit?usp=sharing) in Google Docs ready to fill out tomorrow when the theme is revealed. I'm excited to be a noob. **2024-07-15:** - Continued where I left off and completed the introductory tutorials to learn GDScript on GDQuest. I feel like I need to revise / learn a bit more about how `where` and `for` loops work because I got a bit lost, I'll definitely need more practise with most of these basic features. I felt familiar with arrays though thanks to my experience writing formulas in Google Sheets! - Downloaded Godot! - I started reading through the [introduction to Godot](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/getting_started/introduction/index.html#toc-learn-introduction) in the documentation and saw that they recommend following the [CS50 open courseware](https://cs50.harvard.edu/x) from Harvard University. I'd like to try some simple Godot tutorials first, though. - Stopped here: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/getting_started/step_by_step/index.html **2024-07-14:** - Started a list of childhood games I really enjoyed and what genres they are. I think a good starting point would be to pick something simple and learn how to make it (or parts of it). - Decided that Godot is a good engine for me to start learning. I know I have an interest in 2D games but if I ever want to dabble in 3D then this engine can do both really well. Plus I'm working on a laptop right now and Godot sounds lightweight enough for it to handle! - Started working through my first tutorials to learn GDScript https://gdquest.github.io/learn-gdscript/ - Thought it would be neat to document my journey so I made this note. Hopefully I'll remember to keep it updated! **2024-07-13:** - Started researching what goes into a [[Game Design Document]] and found some great videos by [Tim Cain](https://www.youtube.com/@CainOnGames/videos) who created Fallout and worked on Outer Worlds. Started thinking if I could make my own version of a Setting Document just for worldbuilding, akin to World Anvil's meta. **2024-07-06:** - Checked out https://develop.games/ - Took a look at the [example game design document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vl7BMvzUOhbunJrI_X1gUc6x-LAp3aaBiPwHUf27B70/edit) linked - Checked out https://roadmap.sh/game-developer, felt overwhelmed and bookmarked for later - This week I've been looking at a lot of comparison videos of [GameMaker](https://gamemaker.io/) and [Godot](https://godotengine.org/) - I don't know which I'll begin with because I haven't decided what to make yet. **2024-06-??:** - [Pirate Software](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMc-GKv5olA)'s YT shorts invaded my feed and I have been tricked with the masses to begin my game dev journey. I feel really inspired to give it a go after he explained to plan a project with a game design document, then figure out what engine to use, and *then* learn the language you need to code. Somehow I'd always heard that you need to learn a language first and it was always confusing as to which one.