#Everything is finished! Game is uploaded onto itch.io, and more mechanics have been added other than the levels.

Everything added since the last devlog:

• Choice of difficulty
• Ability to go back to menu after death
• A total of 4 playable levels
• “Bonus” content after beating the game on any difficulty

For the last time this project, more details below.

1. Difficulty chooser

I’ve added an easy mode and a normal mode, with the easy mode having the rate of time slowing far less than the rate in normal mode. In both modes, the difficulty of platforming is the exact same. Easy mode will only give you more time to complete it, but the game is meant to be fast paced. The start button will also not appear until you choose a difficulty.

2. Ability to go back to main menu

Originally, before this, there was no way to go back to the main menu after you clicked start. Since I added a difficulty menu, I wanted people to go back if they were deeply struggling and died many times, causing me to add that button. However, I decided to delete the options button on the menu since I wanted to finish this project as soon as possible.

3. The levels and bonus content

This was actually the easiest part, as it required no technical parts, and I just had to play the game to see how difficult it would be for the average player. After finishing the four levels (with some having some unique gimmicks), when you start back in the first level you will have infinite items and infinite jumps just because you played it.

No more goals to add for the future! I really enjoyed this project, and I’m ready for more games in the future. You can play it now on itch.io and the repository is there with the project. The game is finally over, and I hope you enjoy.

Last devlog before shipping this project. Added music, a life system, and changed how death from time running out works.

What I’ve done since last devlog:

• Added background music that plays throughout levels
  • Pauses when dying or needing to restart
• Added a life system starting with 3 lives
  • If you lose these lives, you start all the way from level one again
• Converted level one into a tutorial

If you’ve seen the other devlogs, you probably know that I’ve been putting that last task on a devlog every single time, and I’ve only finished it now. As always, more detail on the big tasks below.

1. The background music

I used some more royalty free music, this time being from pixabay with the artist being MFCC. I’m really thankful these are here, as they allow me to finish the project quicker with nicer details. This part didn’t take too long, with the main part being converting the audio player into a global part for Godot and writing a script to make it play. This did require adding around 3 more variables into the global script, however.

2. The life system

If you’ve seen the other devlogs, you probably don’t remember me adding this as a goal. This is because it wasn’t, and I just wanted to make it for some reason. What it does is that if you fall into the void or run out of time, you lose a life and get sent back to the beginning of the level. If you lose all 3, you are presented with a big button saying try again, and you get sent back to level 1. This took most of my time, as there were many bugs that appeared attempting to make this work how I wanted it to.

My final goals:

• Finish creating the levels
• Upload the game and finish the repository
• Possibly make a victory screen with benefits for winning

These last goals seem to be the easiest, however I do say that every single time and they do not get easier. These don’t really require code, and I believe this will take around 2 hours max, depending how I’m feeling. This will be the last devlog, no matter how long it takes as there isn’t much more to report with tasks and it would get a little much talking about half of an unfinished task. See you guys at shipment.

I’ve currently finished adding the dynamic background, added animations for the different items, and adjusted the time mechanic along with the vignette to make it feel more balanced. Next devlog should be the last.

Exact things that were finished:

• Added a background that moves slower than the camera
  • Credits to cityvector91 for the royalty free background
• Gave more designs for the items (specifically the level end)
• Added animations towards the items to make them look more alive
• Edited the time mechanic to end the game quicker along with the vignette
• Added extra comments to the code

I’m not going to go too in depth with these, but I will mention the important parts.

1. The dynamic background

I mentioned last time that I wasn’t able to finish this last time, but it was actually simpler than I thought. After going in with a fresh mind, I was able to finish it, and now it moves slightly slower than the player to show how it really is a city far away. I’m not changing the platforms, however. Those seem fine.

2. New designs and animations

These usually take the longest amount of time, since I’m not the greatest at art, but I made a stopwatch and that was pretty simple. I would attach it, but I don’t know how to put multiple images in, so the image is how everything actually looks in production. I also made the coffee item and next level item move up and down using AnimationPlayer, making everything seem much smoother.

##The last goals:

• Add music and sound effects
• Think about what to do with the adrenaline item and possible sprites
• Finish making the game in general
  • I really don’t want to do this as it is the most boring part of the entire process

I really hope that this will be the second to last devlog before I upload the game. The remaining goals seem so simple, and I’m thinking of putting all the credits in the description or just replace the options button with a credits button. Either way, hopefully the rest will be finished in less than 3 hours. See you guys next devlog.

Currently made a HUD and revamped many of the designs!

COMPLETED TASKS:

• Made a functioning HUD that appears on start
• Added animations for jumping, idling, and running

There was another task that I attempted to do, but eventually scratched (more on 3.)

1. Making the functional HUD

This was actually one of the easier parts of the entire game, and I was able to finish the basics in around 30 minutes, but then spent around another 30 minutes making it look slightly nice. I only need to add something for the options button (maybe add a credits button as well for outside music and possibly art) and a background and the HUD will be fully complete.

2. Making animations (the hard part)

I am not an artist by any means, so it took a long time attempting to make something that I thought would look good. Worst part about that is that I wasn’t working directly in the program to work on those so I lost around 90 minutes that went unlogged. i did make some designs that I do like, so I think animations are overall done!

3. Background attempt

I really wanted to make a scrolling background or something similar, with a city scape that moved when the player moved. I was, unfortunately, unable to do this after around 30 minutes of trial and error, so I scratched the idea and will probably make a static background instead. I wanted to just get this devlog out there and focus on creating other tasks instead since it has been 3 hours unlogged, and I wanted to just get something done so I can list out future tasks that I will follow.

TASKS FOR THE FUTURE:

• Revamp level 1/make it into a tutorial
  • Also need to finish making the other levels
    • Most likely the final step
• Add a working background
• Add options
• Add music and credits
• Design other final sprite

I did believe that this wouldn’t take too long after finishing the last devlog, but it turns out that it may take longer than I wanted it to. The music, sprite design, and options will be the easiest as they don’t require code, so the part that I’m most worried about is the background. Again. Hopefully the next devlog will be the last one.

I’ve finished the two goals I wanted to do in the last devlog. After 4 and a half hours that felt way too long.

The two goals I’ve discussed last devlog were:

• Adding the visual that changes when the character gets tired
  • The visual below is the inverse, when the character has a lot of adrenaline and is going faster than normal
• Fixing the coyote time and double jump bug

The first one took around an hour, which made sense since I never learned shaders before making it for the border.

The second one, however, took 3 hours and 30 minutes and I still don’t really know how I solved it.

(Sorry for so much bold text, it’s the only way to separate paragraphs that I know)

1. The Visual/Vignette

Overall, the main problem wasn’t with the visual, but with making the visual a smooth transition from dark to light. When using an item, I wanted it to transition from black to white smoothly rather than being instantaneous. The main problem was using a while loop.

While loops can be helpful, however they run during a single frame in the function I was attempting to use in Godot. It also crashed my program. If you ever need to make a transition like this, I would recommend against a while loop because of what happened, unless you’re stubborn and don’t know much about other loops like me.

I put the loop within a separate function with a timer in it to fix this problem, and it works great now! I think that’s all I’ll do for that, and that is also theoretically the hardest part of the entire game since I needed to learn many things for that. It still took a lot less time compared to

2. The Double Jump Bug

This was very strange and was there since I had implemented coyote time into the game. For those unaware with game design, coyote time is extra walking time when moving off of a platform, making jumps more lenient and making it feel less like the game is unfair when failing a jump.

The problem was when jumping during this small coyote time, it would make an ultra jump and prevent the player from using their double jump. This was super unintentional and made the game much more difficult when testing out the level.

It took a very long time, but I added an extra timer, completely revamped my system with double jump (changing it from a boolean to an integer that counts the number of jumps you took), and added ANOTHER boolean that would help count when double jumps were used. It took a long time, with so much trial and error, but I was finally able to figure it out after around 3 days of thinking and attempting. I had to take many breaks in between because of how frustrated I was with this.

For now, I’m happy it’s finally completed, and I will no longer touch this code in fear something will break again unless it’s absolutely necessary.

My Remaining Goals:

• Make a background and get visuals for the items
• Revamp design of main character
• Make a main menu
• Add a death screen and make level 1 harder/change it into a tutorial

Overall, I doubt these goals will take over 5 hours combined unless something else comes up. These issues took a long time, and I believe the next longest thing will be the art as I am not that great with art if you couldn’t tell with the screenshots.

I may decide to add cutscenes in order to learn more about Godot, but that depends how long the other goals take. See you in the next devlog, and I hope it will come out sooner than this one.

I’m continuing a platformer with a time mechanic that I started during Summer of Making! The main mechanic constantly slows down time, and your (sleepy) main character has to collect items that will keep them awake, such as coffee and pure adrenaline for some reason.

Currently, I have:

• One level built
• Coffee item designed and working
• The HUD that counts how many of an item you have (I worked mostly on this today)
• Adrenaline item with no design but still works
• The killzone, which is necessary for almost every platformer

Everything except for the HUD was made before this year, and I mostly just tested the game again. The image below shows the HUD in the top left corner, and, although it’s not shown, it does work but doesn’t reset when you fall off. There needs to be a better way or better visual for the game over, since it isn’t really that great currently.

MY GOALS FOR THE FUTURE:

• Make a visual to show the character getting tired
  • Edges would progressively get darker and darker as time goes on until it fades to black
• Fix the Coyote time and Double Jump bug
  • When coyote time is active, jumping uses both double jump and regular jump to make a mega jump which is very much not intended
• Design the adrenaline sprite and redesign the character
  • Main character design is currently a placeholder
• Finish making the 4(ish) remaining levels
• Make the main menu

These are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of priority, but now that I’m looking at all these goals together it doesn’t seem like it will take as long as I originally thought. Hopefully I will spend around 2 to 3 hours the next day coding, and I’ll make another devlog discussing what I’ve accomplished. My main goal for tomorrow is to fix the first two goals that I’ve put down.