Today was a productive day. I got quite a bit done. The weird thing is, I didn’t stream, make a video or post a demo as I have every other day. Still, lots got done. Lots of interesting things. Since I didn’t make a video I’ll talk about them briefly here.

1. Menu is now at 90% completeness - The menu in Reach is rather advanced for a jam game. It has a really fancy transition between frames and is interactive. I’ve spent almost a full day of development on it and when you only have 7 days that is a lot of time. Still, it’s come along nicely. I’m still missing the Game Jolt signin page and may have to forgo highscores if I can’t get that working. Or I might try something else.

2. Truly dynamic physical movement - The gooball I like to call Billy Blob is compossed of hundreds of circles all bound together with a complex spring physics system that is generated at runtime and ensures no two experiences are the same. The thing is, the system is extremely weird to work with. Imagine if cats used springs like boxes. That’s Billy Blob. I’ve worked out most of the game breaking bugs and the others serve to help make the game quite interesting. Things like stress breaking an arms grip as well as the arms having mass and momentum to themselves. All of this makes for a hilarious amount of physical weirdness.

3. Interactive puzzles - On day 2 I reworked how Billy Blob grabbed ahold of objects allowing him to grab and stay connected to moving objects. This meant that he could take the laser faris wheel without being left behind. Now I’ve added much more so this system is a key member of the the game. Now you can use your arms to pickup objects and drop them around the map allowing you to trigger pressure plates or just get them out of your way. You can also grab ahold of all kinds of moving scenery to get a faster ride to where you need to be.

4. Maps - I intend to have 10 maps complete by the end of tomorrow. The first two are tutorial maps introducing everything from the basics of movement to the deadly spikes and use of pressure plates. After these first two levels everything gets a bit more complex. I currently only have the two levels actually built with only loose plans for the other 8. The development and testing of these levels will take most of my time tomorrow.

5. Level Introductions and Score Keeping - I’ve added a star system so you can see how many stars you earn in a level as well as a timer. Neither of these are used much right now and the stars aren’t even saved. I probably won’t get to saving your stars per level until after the Jam completes. If I get to the point of implementing the GJAPI I will be using your time to submit to Game Jolt for Highscore keeping.

6. Color codes - I’ve been trying to keep the colors of objects based on their function. Black for static walls, Green for the background, Red for the dynamic physical objects, Yellow for triggerable objects, Blue for items activated by triggers and grey for the player. The goal was to make it easy for you to tell what is what. These will probably change over time as I get feedback.

The Roadmap for Tomorrow:

1. Levels, Levels, Levels.

2. Finish UI Menu’s.

3. (?) Game Jolt API integration.