Tag 2 development log #1

Game

TAG 2

2 years ago

Tag 2 development log #1

Honestly can't believe it took me so long to make one of these for the game.

For the 3 of you that don't know what Tag 2 is by now , It's a game that I've been working on since the release of the my last big game, Super Boiboi.

It's a sequel to one of the first games I ever made(TAG!), but it takes the redesigns from it's remake.(Tag Remake) You play as one of four characters on a (somewhat) top down plane, and you need to avoid the little "taggers" that are trying to get you. Each tagger has a simple movement pattern that gets faster as you go, so you'll need to act quickly in order to get the fastest time.

I initially planned for it to be a short project, since all it was basically gonna be was a refined version of Tag Remake, with a little more bells and whistles, and that story mode I teased(but never got to actually making) in the last game.

...So imagine my surprise when I'm still working on the game almost a full year later!

The main reason it's taking so long is because I've:

Lost interest in working on the game(it happens)
Ran into bugs and awful code that stopped development

and the biggest issue..

i'm lazy as fuuuuucccc-

I mean, I've also made 2 games, 300 comics , and a whole script for my animated show since then, but that besides the point. I've gotta finish this game soon, so what's a better way to do that then make frequent devlogs again!

So with further ado, here's everything I've done for Tag 2 since 2023 began.

Complete code overhaul

If you'd played the demo, you might recall the game being a bit...simple, and the menus being sluggish. If you were even a decent Scratch programmer, you could easily tell I was using glide blocks for almost all movement, which doesn't look to good for someone that's been coding for about 3 years.

(screenshot of old (STINKY) menu)

So in January, I decided to rework the entire game, to not only improve on the visuals and presentation, but to fix the games god awful code. I've (apparently) gotten a lot better at coding since finishing Blow 'em Away and Cookie Clicker Mania, because I had a lot of work to do.

The menu needed a complete overhaul, I tweaked the timer and jumping code (took awhile but I finished it), etc. Honestly, the current state of the game is much better than the demo (hey, might even release a demo 2 so you guys can play... maybe...)

(Screenshot of new menu)

New stage(s)

In the demo, there were four stages. Ugly Gym, Court, Down Town, and Hallway. It's a pretty modest amount for the series, (that's like 3 more than usual lolz) but I'm going have at least 6 in the final game. The newest stages I've added are the cafeteria and the backyard.

The cafeteria is well... a cafeteria, and the backyard one involves you going between two fences, which is a nice shake up from the other stages. It currently has some layering issues and I had to scrap the ability to jump over the fence for some boring door, but with time, i'll make it work.

(Both of these settings, backyard especially, are a W.I.P)

Power ups!

I've finally added a couple power ups to the game: The Pitcher's mitt and the energy drink.

The mitt give you the ability to throw up to 3 baseballs at the taggers(at the cost of disabling your jump). Doing this will send them flying in the air, and outta your hair for a couple seconds.

The energy drink can do either 2 things: slow you down, or speed you up. Being slow can actually help you in some ways because it lets you control yourself more easily and being faster is good because... y'know.

(I can't actually show you an image that can properly telegraph movement so here's this close up of the energy drink model)

The items can be disabled, though, so if you want, you won't have to bother with them when the game comes out.

Story mode in development!?!/1!?1!/(REAL)(NOT CLICKBAIT)

I've finally started working on this game's story mode.... Kinda. I been seriously reworking the few things I've thought about for it, and if I had went with what I was previously thinking about, this game wouldn't come out for another year.

So after thinking it through, the story is gonna be very simple compared to what I initially intended:

You play as Protag, who moved during the summer and ended up at a new school. He encounters Redd, the most infamous Bully in the school, and after he humiliates Redd in front of everybody, Redd snaps and says he's gonna beat the crap out of Protag at the end of the week. The rest of the mode will follow Protag on a day to day basis, as he makes new friends, and tries to prepare for the end of the week.

I know it sounds a little generic, but I'll add my sense of humor to the game and make it stand out from the million other recess/school plots.

Where we droppin' boys?

For Tag 2, I feel that at this stage of development going well (and with me abridging the story mode) it'll definitely come out before the end of the year. Now that the end of my school year's on the horizon, its gonna be the second Summer in a row I work on this game, and hopefully the last.

When the game drops, I actually want to continue making Tag games in the near future. Not a Tag 3 or anything huge just yet ,but some spin offs that use Tag 2 engine to save time, or maybe even animations!