devlog 2 gmtk gamejam

this will probably be my final devlog as well since i have a flight in about 2hours

me and my friend have been working on it non stop for the past 16 hours or so from 18:00 yesterday to 13:00 today

okay so theme is “Countdown” you’re playing as a Count- down(cas in count dracula with down down syndrome /j) and your health is literally counting down the whole game.

like i said in the last devlog every shot you take is you spending your own life time to kill things, and every round survived you’re racing against your health which is counting down so you have to be very carful with managing your ammo & health while trying not to die to the enemies. so the whole game is one big countdown, both narratively and mechanically.

anyway progress since last time:

• added a proper round system, enemies now spawn in waves and get progressively harder the longer you survive.
• difficulty scales up exponentially so early rounds are chill and later rounds are chaos
• enemy size is now tied to their health, bigger guy = more health, and as you shoot them they visibly shrink down until they die.
• 2 new enemy types on top of the original shooter/melee one’s rarer so it feels like a mini event when it shows up
• xp + leveling system, you kill stuff, bar fills up, level up gives you a choice between 2 upgrades (faster shots, more damage, more speed, extra iframes, etc). each upgrade also has a tradeoff so you can’t just stack everything for free (like shots costing more or more cooldown.
• sound design hurt/hit/spawn/death sfx for player and enemies, all pitch-randomized so it doesn’t sound like the same clip on repeat 50 times a minute (i hope)

ui is still rough (told you), spent basically this whole devlog cycle fighting Godot’s AnimationTree over a damage-flash animation that just Would Not Cooperate, and also had a very annoying bug that deleated my whole friends work for the past 4 hours or after i merged my code with his too us another good 1 - 2 hours to fix that too lol.

the whole art and theme is very very silly as you can see, we didnt have time and its pretty funny. the sfx are just me and my friend doing random noises and the art is just low res photos with ms paint over them.

my flight is really soon so i wont continue working on this projcet but my friend is cooking up some music in FL and will and some finishing touches ill be sure to update you all once i get back

Devlog #18

The Final One

###my project in short to those who havent seen it yet
My project is a “beeper” with an e-ink display. It features three low-profile mechanical switches, an ESP32, a battery, and a 3D-printed case to tie it all together. I built two of them and gifted one to my GF for her birthday!

so this is it, the last devlog for Ebeep.
i finished the Blender showcase animation, check it out ⬇️⬇️⬇️

took way longer than expected since I’ve never really used blender for anything like this before, but I’m happy with how it turned out. (or kicad)
as for the PCB, the design is fully done, routed, and ready to export to gerbers, but I decided not to actually order it right now. the perfboard build already works and does the job, and the PCB was mostly a “because I can” side project once I started documenting everything (devlog #16 lol). might revisit it in the future if I ever want to build a v2 or make more of these, but for now the current build is what’s shipping as “done.”

looking back

this project went through basically everything a project can go through: missed deadlines, a broken 3d printer, a bug that silently deleted my girlfriend’s messages for a week without me noticing, failed prints, finals eating my motivation and somehow it still came out the other side working, on both devices, doing everything I wanted it to do.
if I had to do it again I’d probably:

• start the PCB earlier instead of perfboard + rework
• set up proper MQTT retained-message handling from day one instead of patching it in later.
• budget way more time for the case than I did CAD alone ate multiple redesigns and i still needed help from my friend to finish it i really need to work on my CAD skills

but honestly, for a project that started as “let’s port some code to an esp32 I’m scared to solder,” I’m really proud of where it landed.
whats next?
id really love to keep working and making it the best i can (the 3d render is really rough as i had to finish it TODAY and some of the code is still messy), but realistically, nothing planned this is the ‘finish’ line. maybe a better PCB with a good showcase with cleaner code and a case that actually houses the PCB someday, maybe not. either way, thanks to everyone who followed along since the start.

TL;DR
finished the showcase render, PCB design is complete but staying unbuilt for now, and the project is officially ‘done’. thanks for reading 🎉

devlog 1

im trying to makr this really short as i have a flight in a couple of hours and the game needs to be done

its a top down shooter where you are a vampire your health is your gun ammo & your health so make sure you dont runout of it!

currently only 2 enemies one that shoots and one that walks and hits you uhmm nothing much yet the ui look pretty awfu but maybe i will get fixed i dunno well see

Devlog #17

pcb is done and showcase animation

my project in short to those who havent seen it yet

My project is a “beeper” with an e-ink display. It features three low-profile mechanical switches, an ESP32, a battery, and a 3D-printed case to tie it all together.
I’ll be building two of them and gifting one to my GF for her birthday!

i finished the pcb and refined it!
yesterday ish i had like an idea to make an animation in blender to showcase the device for the final devlog so i started working on it nect devlog will be the final one! (i think)

Devlog #16

documenting (and accidental PCB?)

my project in short to those who havent seen it yet

My project is a “beeper” with an e-ink display. It features three low-profile mechanical switches, an ESP32, a battery, and a 3D-printed case to tie it all together. I’ll be building two of them and gifting one to my GF for her birthday!

so i finally sat down to start documenting my work, but while doing so… i might have gone a little over the top and started designing a custom PCB for the project ;-;it’s pretty fun ngl, i’m really enjoying working on it!

ohh also, i fixed a MAJOR bug in my code. i have absolutely no clue how i didn’t notice it earlier, but when i was trying to fix bugs last week, i accidentally introduced a new one that deleted messages the exact second they arrived.
so yeah… i didn’t get any messages from my girlfriend for a whole week lol. oops.

and if anyone here knows how to make pcbs please help me i have no clue what im doing thanks!

Devlog #15

Small changes

my project in short to those who havent seen it yet

My project is a “beeper” with an e-ink display. It features three low-profile mechanical switches, an ESP32, a battery, and a 3D-printed case to tie it all together.I’ll be building two of them and gifting one to my GF for her birthday!

• i a couple of issues with blackjack:
         * can now display around 11 cards(more than that is extremly unlikely so i didnt bother)
         * dealer no longer draws cards if u bust 
        * now the split looks much much cleaner

• now even if one device is disconnected the msg will be stored and displayed when the device connects to the wifi

• some other stuff i forgot

Devlog #14 - The project is compleated!

(if there arent ane new bugs)

my project in short to those who havent seen it yet

My project is a “beeper” with an e-ink display.
It features three low-profile mechanical switches, an ESP32, a battery, and a 3D-printed case to tie it all together.
I’ll be building two of them and gifting one to my GF for her birthday!

what did i do?

• i added connect 4 & blackJack both of em should work now

• i fixed a problem with the wifi connection

• made new art for the connect 4 & blackjack to replace the place holders.

i have already gifted the other device and shes probably reading this devlog so hello and sorry it took long

all i have to do is finish up the docs and the github page and then were ready to ship

Devlog #13

The project is completed (mostly)

my project in short to those who havent seen it yet

My project is a “beeper” with an e-ink display. It features three low-profile mechanical switches, an ESP32, a battery, and a 3D-printed case to tie it all together.I’ll be building two of them and gifting one to my GF for her birthday!

Just finished building my second ebeep device! The good news are it came out SO much better than the first one, It might not be super obvious from the photos but trust me the difference IRL is HUGE.
The Type-C connection actually fits properly this time! and the two devices are communicating great, and I even managed to run multiple rounds of Tic-Tac-Toe.
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As for the bad news, It seems like every other day I encounter a new issue usually related to Wi-Fi or server connectivity. hopefully my janky code i wrote so far successfully patched them out.
I’m trying to squash as many as possible before I gift one to my girlfriend later this week.
If I have time, I’ll try to finish up Connect 4 as well and i think ill give up on the poker game i dont want to delay it any longer lol.
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Also, for those who were wondering, we landed in 30th place (out of 36?) at the FRC competition

Devlog #12

THE FIRST ONE IS DONE

my project in short to those who havent seen it yet:

My project is a “beeper” with an e-ink display. It features three low-profile mechanical switches, an ESP32, a battery, and a 3D-printed case to tie it all together. I’ll be building two of them and gifting one to my GF for her birthday!

I soldered everything up, crammed it into the box, and it works now. hooray!
The only issue I had was that the negative terminal on the bottom of the esp32 disconnected when I tried to fit it into the box.

I’m now in the process of testing and ironing out bugs. So far i found two the battery readout is weird but it works, and the battery runs out way too quickly, so I’m trying to fix those issues.

unfortunately, I don’t know when I’ll be able to finish the second one since the 3D printer broke down (I literally bought it last week )

It took me a while to finish this one since I had an FRC competition to attend and couldnt finish everything in 1 day.

Devlog #11 we are 80% there!

my project in short

my project is a “beeper” with an eink display, it will feature three low profile mechanical switches, esp32, battery and a 3d printed case to tie it all up.ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday!

what did i do?

i finished the CAD (i hope), and started soldering everything together with the help of my dad(hes the best)
the electronic plate is coming together nicly its not done yet but its mostly done!! and i will probably finish the first beeper TODAY!

Devlog #10 i missed the deadline :(

(failed print after failed print)

my project in short

my project is a “beeper” with an eink display, it will feature three low profile mechanical switches, esp32, battery and a 3d printed case to tie it all up.
ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday!

Her birthday was yesterday, i missed the deadline and my motivation is at an all time low.
The code is done (i hope) but the 3d case is so horrible.
its way too big and wastes so much material on useless spots and way too little on places in places that need it.
the whole thing needs a redesign and I’m working on that but unfortunately ill have to postpone it by at least two days since i have 1 more final exam i need to take.
and i just feel awful that i have to give her the birthday present with a week+ delay

TL;DR

i missed the dead line and I’m really down, the case needs a major redesign and im yet to even start soldering the code probably is done

Devlog #9 (1 day until GF birthday)

TL;DR: finished tic tac toe, added icons to show if the bepper lost internet connection and updated the 3d model

my project in short

my project is a “beeper” with an eink display, it will feature three low profile mechanical switches, esp32, battery and a 3d printed case to tie it all up.
ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday later this month!

what did i do?

• online tic tac toe works now
• icons to show if the connection is lost and automatically reconnect
• updated 3d model to actually use M4 screws

how do they talk to eachother?

i made a comic to demonstrate it cuz ik yall aint reading all that but if u want to read it in more detail:

• the first player sends to the other a message “TTT_JOIN” in /games
  then start listening to /games/TTT (channel where all the game communication will happen)

• the second player will receive that message and will get a notification that someone is waiting to play tic tac toe

• then if he wants he will join the the game and send a msg on /games/TTT that he joined

• both screens will update and show the tic tac toe board.
  each player will take his turn and send a message in /games/TTT with a
  row and a column of the place he chose to play and the screen will update accordingly.

• when the game ends they could request a rematch and will start this whole process again

Devlog 8 (3 DAYS LEFT UNTILL GF BIRTHDAY)

CAD IS DONE

what did i do?

• finished the cad hopefully will start printing on sunday when my new 3d printer arrives (and hopefully wont have to change anything bc i have 3 DAYS LEFT )
• I REWORKED THE ENTIRE MQTT CODE (made the beeper talk to each other differently in order to make games possible)
• almost done with the online tic tac toe (the more indepth devlog will be the next one)
• fixed like 4 bugs and another 2 popped up kill me

whats next?

• finish EVERYTHING before my GF birthday on Tuesday

(sorry for this short devlog dont have much to say about the cad model the one on the code will come tmr hopefully)

Devlog #7

Its a big one

what did i do?

• added a way to set the wifi password from your phone
• made the beeper actually able to talk and send messages
• fixed a lot of bugs that popped up after the switch to esp32
• added a way to scroll faster for convince
• me and my friend started designing a case we will 3d print

whats next?

• finish design a 3d printed case
• maybe finish one of the games

side notes:

i added a short video with a demo of everything working together would love to hear your thoughts about it
background music: In the pool by kensuke ushio (forgor who made the piano cover im using)

update on me:

physics finals is in 3 days and I’m so cooked might not be able to design the case for a while

Devlog #6

my project is a “beeper” with an eink display, it will feature three low profile mechanical switches, esp32, battery and a 3d printed case to tie it all up.
ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday later this month!

what did i do?

the esp32 arrived yesterday its much much smaller than i expected and i have no clue how im going to solder it later ;-;
anyways so i worked on porting my current code from arduino to esp32, its seems to be working as intended. now i just need to add all the missing features like the mqtt protocol and wifi portal.

whats next?

• add the wifi portal (so i wont have to hardcode the wifi credentials in the code)
• make the esp32 work with the mqtt protocol
• design a 3d printed case
• finish the games (not really a priority right now)

update on me:

more finals soon yay :/

Devlog #5!

to those haven’t seen my project yet in short:
my project is a “beeper” with an eink display
ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday later this month!
it will feature three low profile mechanical switches, esp32, battery and a 3d printed case to tie it all up

what did i do?

i was bored since i cant really work on the project and have to wait for my esp32 to arrive >:(
so i went on a side quest and added the game select menu, nothing major

i also need to design the icons since they are just place holders from google

whats next?

• wait for esp32 to arrive >:(
• actually make blackjack and the other games
• ask my friend to 3d help me 3d model the case

update on me:

sorry for the long wait i had a bunch of shit 2 do
and war with iran ;-;

Devlog #4!
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to those haven’t seen my project yet in short:
my project is a “beeper” with an eink display
ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday later this month!
it will feature three low profile mechanical switches, esp32, battery and a 3d printed case to tie it all up

what did i do?
.
i tired connecting my current setup to the MQTT broker and make it actually able to talk to other devices
BUT IT DIDNT WORK i spent hours debugging it, only to come to the conclusion that i CANT do it with my current setup and i NEED the esp32
to continue coding or at least it will be much easier
every day that passes i hate AliExpress even more it should have arrived 4 days ago ;-;

the only useful i did is figure out how .gitignore work so now i dont need a hotspot lol

whats next?

• wait for esp32 to arrive >:(

update on me:
.
nothing rely new from yesterday
.

• side note i just noticed ive never actually shown you how the UI i made previously works. so i attached a short walk through

Devlog #3
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to those haven’t seen my project yet in short:
.
my project is a “beeper” with an eink display (like the name suggests).
ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday later this month!
it will feature three low profile mechanical switches, esp32, battery and a 3d printed case to tie it all up

what did i do today?
.
today i added Wifi!
since i still dont have my esp32 (damm you AliExpress and your slow shipping), i wont be able to use the cool web UI library i wanted to use…
so i changed my phones hotspot to the most boring name & password i could think of and hard coded those credentials in (i dont know how to hide sensitive info from GitHub and didn’t want to add my real wifi lol)

edit: i also added the little wifi ui thingy you see in the picture

whats next?

• i will research more about the MQTT protocol my two devices will use to communicate

• add end to end encryption (both devices will have a hard coded secret “password” they will use to encrypt and decrypt the messages)

• if esp arrives soon (WHICH IT SHOULD) ill connect it to the bread board and change the code accordingly

• and much more just later on

id love to hear what your thoughts in the comments :)

update on me:

today was my computer science finals and it was 5 hours. i was pretty burned out after that so didn’t do that much today either :/
the next couple days are packed with personal stuff and more final exams so u might not hear from me soon…
ill try to work on this project at least an hour every day so if u do it will be small changes unfortunately

Devlog #2
My project Ebeep is starting to take a bit more shape!
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my project is a “beeper” with an eink display (like the name suggests). ill be building two of them and gifting one to my GF on her birthday later this month!
.
i rewrote almost the ENTIRE UI since last time the code i wrote was pretty bad and it had terrible UI.

hopefully tomorrow i could work on actually connecting it to the internet and work on basic end to end encryption (maybe?).
also i really hope ill get my esp32s soon so i could actually test my code on that instead of my arduino and design my 3d case for it.
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today and yesterday werent very productive since my CS finals are tomorrow! so wish me luck!