Draw2Game Devlog – Today
Today was all about making Draw2Game feel less like a prototype and more like a real game. I also realized that trying to add huge systems at once usually made the game worse. From now on, I want to build on what already works and improve it one feature at a time.
One of the biggest decisions I made was to remove the online/community direction. While it would be awesome someday, it added too much complexity and distracted from making the game itself fun. Draw2Game is now focused on being a local game maker where players can create, save, edit, and replay their own games.
I also simplified the main menu. Instead of lots of confusing pages, the game now centers around four simple options: New Game, Games, Settings, and Log Out. The Games page now holds both completed games and projects that are still being worked on.
Gameplay also received some improvements. I expanded the number of handcrafted maps and decided that the future goal is around 100 quality levels instead of relying on random generation. This should make every game feel more polished while still giving players lots of variety.
Health was added back into the game, making mistakes less frustrating and gameplay feel more like a traditional platformer. I also improved the player animation system. Instead of requiring players to draw multiple animations, they now only draw the normal player sprite. If they want smoother movement, they can press Add Walk Frame, which copies the previous frame so only a few pixels need to be changed. Players can create up to five walk frames, but the feature is completely optional.
The art editor became much more powerful today. I added a Line Tool for drawing straight lines and a Select/Move Tool that lets players select pixels and move them around together, making the editor feel much closer to a real pixel art program.
Another change was replacing Theme with Area. Instead of typing anything they want, players now choose from common settings like Forest, Mountains, Castle, Space, Robot Factory, Jungle, Volcano, Desert, Cave, Haunted, Candy, and more. Each area now generates its own matching background, helping every game feel unique without requiring extra work from the player.
Overall, today helped solidify the vision for Draw2Game. My goal is to make something simple enough that a five-year-old can understand, but polished enough that older kids and adults still enjoy creating games with it. The next steps are expanding the map library, improving backgrounds, making levels adapt better to the player’s art, and continuing to polish the editor so creating games is just as fun as playing them.