Thanks For Mining That!

Devlog 7 of my Unity Game

I’m finally DONE!

So I’ve mostly been working on other stuff, like #alchemize, #breadboard, and #jame-gam, but I was finally able to finish my game.

You can try the game out here:
Thanks for Mining That

It’s a web build, so no download necessary.

I didn’t really need to do much. I just did some small changes, some bug fixes, and I don’t really remember what else.

So yeah, that’s it for this devlog. Hopefully it gets accepted since I want a 3d printer. But yeah, thanks!

Personal Website

This is my first devlog for the personal website.

Features

The website currently has a home section, an about section, a projects section, and a contact section.

The project sections only contains a single project for now, and has a more info and a view project button.

The more info button takes the user into a new page with more info. The view project button redirects to the project link.

That’s basically it, hopefully it gets accepted, since I’m going to ship it now.

Thanks!

Thanks for Mining That!

Devlog 6 of my Unity Game

It’s been more than a week since my last devlog. I’ve mostly been focused on fixing bugs, polishing, and some other stuff.

For those who are new, I am making a very chaotic game where you have no weapons, but you need to mine resources, so you have to dodge enemies making them crash into asteroids, mining resources, and destroying themselves in the process. You can use tools to help you, but to craft tools, you need resources.

I now have three Hackatime projects connected to this game. Before, I had two, one tracked my Unity time, and another tracked my coding time. Now, for some reason, after I built the game for the first time to test stuff out, a new project popped up that tracks my Unity time, and my old Hackatime project no longer tracks my Unity time. Doesn’t really make much sense.

What I mainly worked on:

• Stats/End Screen
• Saving
• Sounds
• Black Hole
• Bug-fixing
• Other stuff

Stats/End Screen

I added an end screen to the game, where after you finish the game, it shows you all your stats, of the completed run, and all runs. You can click new run to create a new run, and play again.

I’m pretty sure someone had suggested this in one of my older devlogs, and it sounded like a good idea. The hardest part of all of this was the saving.

Saving

This is my first game I implemented real saving to. I have made some games before where I had a small amount of saving, but this time I really tried.

I created a whole another script called StatsManager which controls saving and the stats screen. It does not save your current game, and by that I mean if you were in the middle of playing, and leave, it does not resume where you left off. It just saves all your coins, tools, and other stats.

Sounds

I added some sound effects and also added the background music to my game. I still have to tweak some of the volumes since some sound effects are a bit too loud, but it’s good enough for now.

Black Hole

I don’t want to give away too much, but the black hole is the final tool, which you can only unlock after unlocking all other tools, and requires a lot of coins and takes a lot of resources to craft. It’s the tool before you finish the game.

Bugs

Quite a lot of bugs. I think I fixed most of them, but there are probably a few I didn’t notice.

Other Stuff

I finished making all the tool icons and their sprites in Aseprite. I added them to the game, but for some reason, they look much worse in the game than in Aseprite. Not blurry or anything like that, it just doesn’t feel right. But I don’t want to redo anything, so I just changed some stuff in the sprites and kept them how they were.

I also finally added the radiation zone sprite, and the barrier now deals damage and pushes the player away.

What I have to add

Below are a list of things I have to add to the game
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• UI Polish (Sounds and animations)
• Tools polish (Effects, sounds)
• General Effects
• Overall Polish

So that’s it for this devlog.

Any feedback appreciated.

The screenshot below shows all my tool icons and sprites I made.

Thanks!

Thanks for Mining That!

Devlog 5 of my Unity Game

It’s been four days since my last devlog.

Note: I had to redo the whole devlog because the site decided that if I post a devlog which is higher than the character count, it will get completely deleted! So my devlog may not be completely formatted very nicely.

I have also lost 8 hours because I have two devlogs that are fourteen hours. I can atleast understand the second one since it was my fault I forgot to post a devlog, so I had to combine two devlogs. But the first devlog was before the announcement about the 10 hour limit.

Anyways, back to the devlog

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For those who are new, I am making a game where you have no weapons, but you need to mine resources, so you have to dodge enemies making them crash into asteroids, mining resources, and destroying themselves in the process.

What I mainly worked on:

• Finishing tool functionality
• UI
• Title Pixel Art
• Bug-fixing
• Other stuff

Tools

I thought I had finished the functionality last devlog, but there were a few things to fix. The main one, was the Asteroid Forge, which took me like 3 hours to fix completely, and I had explained all the issues before my devlog got deleted, but I’m too tired to write it again a second time.

UI

I finished all my pixel art UI, and implemented it in game. It should look pretty good now. I had explained how I had created all of them, but it all got deleted.

Title

I made a title pixel art, look at screenshot to see part of it. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so it took much longer than it needed to, and I’m still not satisfied with how it turned out.

BUGS

A LOT OF BUGS. Especially with the asteroid forge, and also some in inventory and other stuff.

Other Stuff

I decided to make my own music, which I’ve tried multiple times with no good results. I’m using JummBox, and it’s going not good. I also forgot to record it with Lapse, so lost an hour of my work, so nine hours total I’ve lost. I’ve also only finished 10 seconds of the background music, after an hour.

I finished implementing the enemy type.

Made four tool icons, three were pretty good, one wasn’t that good

I also added some other stuff I can’t think of right now.

What I have to add

Below are a list of things I have to add to the game
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• Sounds & BG music
• UI Polish
• Tools art and polish
• Rest of the Tool Icons
• Effects
• Overall Polish

So that’s it for this devlog.

(Sorry about my repeated rants about the deletion, I’m just annoyed, especially with 8 hours not counting, and me forgetting to use Lapse to record me making music)

Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks!

Thanks for Mining That!

Devlog 3 and 4 of my Unity Game

It’s been more than two weeks since my last devlog. I was planning on posting devlog 3 a week back, but got sidetracked with my Frictionless mission project, and then forgot about it completely. So this is devlog 3 and 4 combined.
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For those who are new, I am making a game where you have no weapons, but you need to mine resources, so you have to dodge enemies making them crash into asteroids, mining resources, and destroying themselves in the process.
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The main things I worked on was the shop and the tools.

Shop

The shop is in the main menu, and you have to click a button called tools to make it show up. The game flow is the player plays the game, dies, uses coins to buy tools, and then plays the game again to try to survive longer.

The shop took me a long time to figure out how I should actually do it. A lot of time I was just staring at the screen trying to figure out how I’m actually going to do it. Looking back, I probably should have planned it out on a piece of paper or something.

Tools

Currently I have 7 tools implemented. I still need to make all the art for them, but their functionality mostly works. Below is a list of my tools.

1. Gravity Orb - An orb that creates a temporary gravity field pulling asteroids and enemies

2. Pulse Wave - An orb that releases a wave in all directions pushing objects away. (I might scrap this tool, as it doesn’t look that good and is hard to use)

3. Repulsion Orb - An orb that creates a temporary field that pushes asteroids and enemies away.

4. Asteroid Lock - An orb that if hits an asteroid, will lock it in place temporarily. (This tool is not working for some reason, so I have to fix it)

5. Grow Tool - An orb that when it hits an asteroid, will cause it to grow rapidly. (It can stack)

6. Asteroid Forge - An orb that grows an asteroid

7. Ship Decoy - An orb that shoots out a decoy that lures enemies away

So currently, these are all the tools I have. I will probably not add any more, except for the final one. The final one will require all tools unlocked plus a large amount of coins.

Coins

I noticed that I hadn’t explained what coins really were in the past devlogs. Coins can be earned when enemies and asteroids are destroyed. Coins can be used to unlock tools in the shop after you die.

UI

I created some pixel art UI and was playing around with it. It’s still not done and doesn’t look very well, so after I make them a bit better I will add them to the game fully.

Enemy Types

I added another enemy type, and I also made some art for them. They’re really similar, and just have some difference with linear and turning speed.

Environmental Hazards

I decided not to add any environmental hazards because I just couldn’t figure out a way to make them not make the player mad. Black holes were too annoying, and planets were just asteroid without ores, so I didn’t add them.

What I have to add

Below are a list of things I have to add to the game
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• Sounds (No sound effects)
• UI (Making it look better)
• Tools (Polish, art, functionality, and the final one)
• Crafting (Works pretty well, some bugs)
• Finish Inventory (Just some bugs and polish)
• Main Menu shop (Bugs and polish)
• Tool Icons
• Effects: Explosions, damage effects, etc
• Radioactive Zone (Doesn’t do anything, but effects have been added)
• Overall Polish
  ㅤ
  So thats basically it for this combined devlog. There’s not too much I added because I was focusing on my Frictionless mission project which I recently shipped. The game should be done in less than a week (My initial goal when I started this game was June 15th)

Thanks!

Text Fill

Devlog 3

(Made in Python)

 
It’s been more than a week since my last devlog. This is mostly because of me working on other projects, and also that there really wasn’t much to show. It was mostly just figuring out the syntax and bug fixing, so I decided to wait until I finished.

This should be my last devlog before my ship, and I have added something which I think is a great improvement.
 

Project Recap

For those who don’t know my project, it’s called Text Fill, and it is a tool that I am making in Python, where you can define shortcuts and phrases, so when you type in the shortcut, it automatically replaces it with the phrase.
For example, if you have set a shortcut to /email, and the phrase to [email protected], when you type in /email anywhere with the program running in the background, it will automatically replace it with the phrase
This is useful if you have to type a specific phrase very often.

My Big Change

(I use a mac)
I had shown my project to my brother, and he liked the idea, but just randomly mentioned that it would be cool if it would show up on the menu bar, where things like the time and wifi are. I thought it would be cool and did some research, and realized that it was possible. I chose to use a package called Rumps, which allowed me to do this, and I basically made a completely new version of my app. Luckily, the old functionality code could be kept, I just had to change the UI. I also made this version much more simpler and streamlined you could say, mainly because I wasn’t able to add half of the functionality using Rumps(It’s probably possible, I just wasn’t able to), and it just didn’t feel right having something piled with unnecessary features in the menu bar.

Two Versions

So now, I have two versions of the app. One supports Windows + Mac, and has it’s own separate window. The second version is on the menu bar, and it’s much more streamlined, but also only for Mac. So I made both available on my Github page as a Github Release which you can try out using the demo link.

Permissions

Unfortunately, my project requires a lot of permissions that have to be manually enabled by the user, which makes the Quick Start, not very ‘Quick’. I tried to make the process simple, but I couldn’t really do anything since devices don’t just trust random apps. So it takes a few more minutes then it would have without permissions, but I made sure to include a detailed README so no one gets stuck.

I’m going to ship my project probably by the end of the day, and hopefully it’ll get accepted.

Thanks for reading until here!

Belows a screenshot of how it looks in the menu bar!

Text Fill

Devlog 2

(Made in Python)

 
So it’s been a week since my last devlog since I was focusing on my main project, but I have made some good progress.
 
For those who don’t know my project, it’s called Text Fill, and it is a tool that I am making in Python, where you can define shortcuts and phrases, so when you type in the shortcut, it automatically replaces it with the phrase.
For example, if you have set a shortcut to /num, and the phrase to 123456789, when you type in /num anywhere with the program running in the background, it will automatically replace it with 123456789.
 
This is useful if you have to type a specific phrase all the time like your email, so you can set a shortcut to /e or /email or anything else you want, to make it fill in the phrase.
 

What I’ve added

So since the last devlog, this is what I have added:

• UI for everything using Tkinter.
• Settings menu
   
  Now though this isn’t much, it took me a long time as I had to learn Python in the process. The UI is still quite basic and uses default colors, and I might make it look better later.
   
  The settings menu contains the following options:
• Backspace Delay
• Type Delay
• Delete Speed
• Type Speed

More will be added in the future
 
I decided not to make a website, as I felt like an app felt better. A demo will probably be coming in a week or two, and I would appreciate any suggestions or feedback.
Below, there is a short video showing me using my tool.
 
(It works everywhere, not only in a code editor, I just did it in the vscode since it was open)

Thanks for Mining That!

Devlog 2 for my Unity game

So it’s been a few days since my last devlog, and I’ve been working on some of the art and also the inventory system.
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For those who are new, I am making a game where you have no weapons, but you need to mine resources, so you use the groups of angry enemies that are chasing you to mine asteroids while also destroying themselves in the process. You can use tools to make it easier for enemies to help you mine.
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I made the pixel art for the ores and the art for the player. Before, the player was more of a 2d triangular looking shape, but I changed it into a rocket.
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The only ores I currently have are copper, iron and gold. Their art is not the best, but it works. I use Aseprite for the pixel art, and it takes quite some time for me to make each one because I rarely ever make pixel art games, so for me, the current state of the art is good enough.
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I also made each asteroid show which ore it contains, so players can easily identify the asteroid that has the resource they need. I also made the asteroids deal a bit of damage to the player, calculated by the velocity and mass to make the game a bit more chaotic.
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And yes, my game is meant to be chaotic, though I may make it a bit easier to prevent players from getting annoyed. I’ll probably lower the enemy move speed a bit, and keep the turn speed how it is.

And now, let me talk about the Inventory/Crafting system. The system is still in progress, but I’ve gotten a basic framework for the inventory ready, so it’ll be easier to add crafting. I added a resources panel at the bottom, which shows total resources in the current run. The panel on the top right will be made invisible later, and is meant to give a message to the player that they got a specific resource. I also added a panel on the left, which will show the current tools, and how many the player has.
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How Tools Will Work

Tools can be used by the player to manipulate the environment, like a gravity orb, a repelling wave, etc. They are one-time consumables, though you can hold many of them. You need certain resources to craft them, so weaker tools will require copper, and better tools will require iron and gold. Usually multiple are crafted at a time, though some will be individual crafts. In the main menu, players can use coins(currency I have not implemented yet) to buy better tools, but they can only equip four at a time.

What I have to add

Below are a list of things I have to add to the game
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• Sounds (I currently have no sound effects at all)
• UI (The UI may be in pixel art, though I’m still unsure about that)
• Tools
• Crafting
• Finish Inventory
• Main Menu shop
• Coins
• Enemy types
• Enemy art
• Tool Icons
• Environmental Hazards: Black Holes, planets, etc. (Maybe?)
• Effects: Explosions, damage effects, etc
• Radioactive Zone art and functionality (The barrier surrounding the map)
• Overall Polish
  ㅤ
  So thats basically it for this devlog. I would really appreciate any feedback or suggestions, and below you can see a short video of me playing the game (and failing quite miserably).

Text Fill

Made using Python

I am making a text shortcut fill tool where users can set shortcuts which will automatically fill in when typed. This is for the Frictionless mission.

Ex: user sets shortcut ‘/email’ with the value ‘[email protected]’. With this set, while the code is running in the background, if they type ‘/email’, then it will automatically fill in to ‘[email protected]’.

I am using this project as an opportunity to get better at Python, as I am still a beginner, and am wanting to learn more.

I have also made a GitHub repository, where the latest code has been published.

What I already have

• Menu Manager
  • Add Shortcuts
  • Remove Shortcuts
  • Modify Shortcuts
  • Clear Shortcuts
  • Show Shortcuts
• Basic save/load system using JSON file stored locally
• The actual text fill functionality

What I plan to add

• Settings (A place where users can define certain values like filling speed, fill delay, etc.)
• UI (I want this to have UI, and I might even try to make a website)

If you have any feedback or suggestions please let me know so I can improve.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for Mining That!

Devlog #1

(Technically #2, but the first one doesn’t really count.)

(Game made in Unity)

It’s been over a week since my last devlog, and I’ve made a lot of changes. I changed my original game idea where you had a wrecking ball in space, because it didn’t feel fun.

My New Idea

Still space mining, but you can’t actually mine anything.
And to make it even better, hundreds of enemies are flying straight toward you, and all the resources you want are inside asteroids.

Fortunately, these enemies have ‘volunteered’ to help.
All you have to do is ‘convince’ enemies to crash into asteroids.
Enemies destroy themselves, asteroids break apart, resources are released, and everyone except you is doing the work. You’ll collect the resources and use it to craft tools, to help manipulate the environment.

Use coins you get to unlock more tools after you die.

What I’ve Done So Far

Here’s what I already have so far:

• Player Controller
• Enemy Controller
• Asteroids
• Main Menu & Death Screen
• Mini Map
• Enemy Spawner
• Asteroid Spawner
• Object Pooling System

More detailed explanation below

Player Controller

The player can use either Keyboard or Mouse to move. The game detects which one you are using and automatically switches.

Keyboard Controls

• A / D - Rotate left and right
• W / S - Move forward and backward

Mouse Controls

The ship rotates toward the mouse cursor with speed calculated using distance from cursor to player.

• Cursor close = slow
• Cursor far = fast (limited range)

Enemy Controller

The enemy behaviour uses:

• Max Speed
• Turn Speed
• Thrust

Enemies rotate toward player using turning speed.
Low-thrust enemies make wide turns, while high-thrust enemies make more accurate turns.

Enemy velocity is capped with max speed.

Asteroids

Health scales with mass and ore. Mass also affects movement speed.

Asteroids are assigned a direction when they spawn. Slowly corrects direction if pushed off course.

Game Loop

The current game loop:

• Main Menu
• Gameplay
• Death Screen

Game Manager handles main logic.

Mini Map

Added after realizing asteroids are hard to find.

Created using a secondary camera with a larger view. Camera follows the player and renders to a texture, displayed in UI.

Asteroid Spawning

Asteroids spawn from a list of spawn points spread across the map.
Every ~25 seconds, chance to spawn at each point.

Each asteroid has:

• A randomized size
• Random asteroid sprite

Enemy Spawning

Spawn points are attached to the player.
Every ~5 seconds, a random spawn point is selected and an enemy bunch is spawned.

Object Pooling

Initially, every enemy and asteroid was created using Instantiate(), which caused lag.

To solve this, I switched to object pooling.

The object pool creates a collection of enemies and asteroids. When an object is needed, it is activated and moved into position.

This improved overall performace.

What’s Next?

There’s still a lot left to make:

• Radiation Barrier
• Tools & Upgrades
• Ore Types
• More Spaceships
• Enemy Variants
• Pixel art
• Better UI
• Other stuff which I can’t think of

This was a much larger devlog than usual, but since I have changed so much, I didn’t want to skip anything.

Personally, I think the game is more fun than the earlier wrecking ball idea, and though the game is not finished, it still feels good to play.

If you have any feedback or suggestions, I would really appreciate them.

Thanks!

(Note: Some parts might feel a bit weird since I had to shorten it to fit it in the character limit)

Apollo Accord Update 3

What’s New

• Major refinements to UI. Found a way to combine in-world text (weapon ammo, etc) and on-screen text.
       
• Animations for walking, running and idling
       
• Wrote scripts for core gameplay systems, like weapon switching and character communication (putting alot of emphasis on the RPG mechanics this time around)
       

Next Steps

• Incremental changes over time for the shooting system.
       
• Getting started on the environment.
       
• Adding a core story.
       
• Finishing the UI/Load+Save systems
       

Thoughts

     
I’m trying to get things right the first time, so I’m putting a lot more work into my initial “draft” for the game. I’ll work on hud legibility, procedural recoil, and more afterwards, once the core gameplay mechanics are pretty tidy.
     

Quote of the Update

     
I really don’t like C#

I am making a game where you can control a magnet which attracts a wrecking ball in space. There will be enemies and asteroids in the environment. You can destroy the asteroids to get certain ores, which you can use for upgrades later on. You have to try to survive as long as possible, and collect as many resources.

I am currently not sure which path I should go:

1. Make it so each time you play, there will be an xp bar, which fills up as you defeat enemies. Once it fills up, you can choose an upgrade which will help you survive.

2. There is no xp bar, but instead, after you die, you can use the ores collected to choose permanent upgrades.

I would really appreciate any suggestions or feedback.