Starry Scramble
By
@lantyrn
- 6 Devlogs
- 27 Total hours
A cute WarioWare game inspired by stars and constellations
7h 8m 6s logged
Devlog #6
More minigames! After my first ship, I’ve decided to expand my game to include more constellations and to incorporate mythology-inspired minigames for each constellation.
✨ New stuff ✨
- Level selector scene that allows the player to pan around a map-like screen to find the constellation they want to complete.
- First new constellation: Draco 🐉!! I’ve started with a “Protect the golden apples” minigame for this one, and it’s looking pretty good! Now that I’m not entirely new to Godot anymore, creating a minigame is pretty quick.
Something I’m tryna figure out… 🤔
Even though I’ve been doing art for a loooong time, digital art is something that’s really new to me, so I chose to stick to simple pixel art for this game. Something that’s been bothering me is how crude this game looks right now. I know pixel art games can look awesome when done right, so maybe it’s just that I’m not good enough with the medium yet.
If you guys have any suggestions for how I can make my game look more professional (apart from just to practice drawing more 😭), I’ll be happy to receive any tips!
Ship #1
Starry Scramble 🌠
Starry Scramble is a short game where the player races the clock to restore the big dipper.
Minigames 🎮
- Catch the stars: use arrow keys to move the player around the screen, catching the stars in their bucket
- Pin up the stars: click on a bucket to pick up a star, and click on the appropriate spot in the sky to pin it up
- Connect the stars: use the mouse to drag and draw a line between stars, reconnecting them
Challenges 🧗
This was my first time building a game in Godot, so one of the main challenges I faced was getting to know the game engine. I often had to go back and fix things when I found better ways to do something (such as creating a theme for the game’s buttons, as I mentioned in devlog #4), and I sometimes played around with different ways to do something (like managing the music) before I decided on one that suited the project best.
What I’m proud of 🌱
It seems overly vague, but I’m most proud of just being able to create a playable game that I can share with others. I’ve messed around with making games in the past, but never found something that I managed to stick with, so actually finishing (somewhat finishing, as it’s still basically a demo) this game and being able to post it is a big step for me.
What’s next 👀
This game is completely playable, but also on the shorter side. I’m looking towards adding more minigames and different difficulty levels.
6h 44m 26s logged
Devlog #5
Last devlog before ship!
With the music done, the game was basically finished, so I worked on setting up the itch.io page and writing a better readme.
Setting up the itch.io page 🎮
This isn’t really a part of making the actual game, but it still took me a while. I was going through three different options for the background of my page, and they all looked…just not good 😔. After an entire afternoon of just drawing the background, I forced myself to choose one. I attached images of them below, along with the cover image I created.
Next steps?
…none? I’m basically done now, so I just need to ship the project. I’ll play it a few times, do a last check for bugs, read stuff over for typos, but that should be it. I’ll see you soon, when I ship this game!
5h 9m 11s logged
Devlog #4
I’ve been working on a lot of the art, and now most of the graphics are done!
Making the buttons ✅
The art for the buttons was quick and easy, but while implementing them, I realized there has to be a faster way than manually doing it for every button. So I figured out how to make a theme, and attach it to the scenes so all the buttons behave the same! Also…this made me realize I’ve been scaling up all my art to 2x scale, when I could’ve just scaled the viewport size down. I could’ve just kept it, and continued scaling everything up, but it bothered me so I went back and rescaled everything to their original size 🙃.
What I’m working on now 🎶🎵
The game looks pretty complete, but I need to find sound effects and bgm for it. It’s so time consuming, trying to find the right music that fits the theme. Wish me luck!
2h 3m 24s logged
Devlog #3
I added animations!!!! Now the player looks so much better (look at how the stars fall into their basket 😁)
Some other things I’ve added…
- 3rd minigame! It’s a work in progress, but I’ve figured out how to allow the player to draw lines between stars by clicking and dragging.
- Proper bucket/basket/backpack (i should really decide on one) for 2nd minigame. Also animations so you can see the stars emptying from the basket.
Next steps
- Finish 3rd minigame (mostly just the art)
- Create proper assets for the timer and hearts
2h 16m 40s logged
Devlog #2
Looking through some different projects, I feel like my devlogs should include a bit more information. So this time I’ll try being a bit more organized, but bear with me, I’m still getting the hang of this :)
Updates ⭐⭐
- Polished up 1st minigame, making it so that players can now see the stars they collected piling up in their bucket/backpack
- Implemented the main feature of the 2nd minigame, which allows players to hang the stars back into the sky.
Main Challenge 😔
Signals in Godot took some time for me to figure out and implement (ex. how to connect signals, signals that multiple nodes can emit, etc.), though I feel like that’s because my code is a bit messy right now. I’ll have to go back to reorganize the overall structure.
Next Steps 🖌️🎨
The previous chunk of time was spent coding and implementing minigame 2, so I think I’ll now go back and try to implement some art and animations (notice the placeholder godot logo in the video 😐).
Ah shoot, this devlog seems a bit wordy now…anyways, enjoy the short video of the second minigame (I’m so satisfied with the way the stars seem to just click into place 😁😁)
3h 39m 58s logged
Devlog #1
Finally started making a game in Godot! I finished the guide and have the basic levels created, now I’m creating art and modifying the minigames to fit an overarching story.
At this point I think I’ve spent more time creating the visuals than actually making the game (…the clouds in the background…I tried so many styles and finally settled on this one, but I’m still not completely satisfied with it. Also maybe I’ll make them move around, they look more like rocks right now 😭)
Anyways, here’s a little video of the first minigame.