DEVELOPMENT BLOG:

DAY 3

3D (5 Min left)

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i’ve run out of time. I had to rush at the end, and was able to cmplete everything (sprites, backdrops, some new features I will talk about later) but I wasn’t able to get the sound fx in, or any music at all. I’m bummed because the sound and music was going to be a big part of creating the right atmosphere, and now a part of it will be missing (at least for judging). The new features: new speach bubbles and text for visitors, tweeked some variables, and changed positioning. also bug checked.

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3C: (16 hours, 40 minutes left)

I put the demo on game jolt for a few people to test, the overall impression was really good, which made me optimistic. One interesting note is that I meant for this game to be a mixture between a tomoagachi-like game and a zoo tycoon sort of game, but what people seem to be taking from it (and really enjoying) is a kind of reverse tower defense game, where your goal is to ‘defend’ the monster from the visitors. I never thought of the game in those terms, one of the great things about designing games is that you never know what the player is going to experience, all you can do is guess..and hope! A friend on game jolt, toborprime, told me he would like to see more stands in the game (after adding the tomato stand), I thought this was a wonderful idea, as more stands help you fill out the exhibit and help ‘customize’ the gameplay experience. I quickly added this new stand into the game. So now when you buy the stand, visitors can buy balloons, but those balloons have a chance to pop, causing stress on your monster. I’ve uploaded this new version so that people can test it while I sleep. It is now almost 12:30AM (my time), and although time is running out, I know I will have to get sleep in order to finish the last leg of the race strongly. Everything about the gameplay is set, I just need to sit down and make quality graphics for the game and get rid of the temps. I also need to make some sound effects, (luckily I have my favorite SFX maker at my side, the same I use in PlanetScape) , and I will also need to find music. The music will be key, because it will need to deliver that ‘dark circus’ feel. In fact if I don’t find that right piece of music, I might just skip music all together.

3B: (18 hours left)

After my last post I got a good stretch of work done. I was able to add a new item, tomato stands, which will allow visitors to by tomatoes to throw at the monster for there pleasure (and the monsters torment). I also added a button link to the game jolt page, so that the player can instantly change there scores. I just need to add quality backdrops, new buttons, item sprites, and some sound FX. I would have gotten more done, buy I got lazy and ended up watching ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’ with my girlfriend. Now with only 18 hours left (11pm sunday, my time), I am at a race against the clock. This jam has been quite a challenge, I definitely underestimated the amount of pressure I would be under, and I have a huge amount of respect for my fellow developers in this jam, it’s amazing the work they have been able to produce in such a short amount of time. I only hope my game leaves the same impression!

3A:

Started pretty strong today, at around 9AM (my time), and got 3 major things accomplished. First, the visitors got a major overhaul. The visitors now comes in 6 possible skins, 3 boys and 3 girls. They also behave more naturally, and their average budget has been increased. The 2nd big addition is being able to submit your score…which brings me to the 3rd additon, a gamejolt page. Now when you finish the game, your scores will be submitted to the Exploit A Monster Game jolt page. (users not playing through game jolts quick play, or users without a game jolt account, save there scores as ‘Guest’.) I was reluctant to make my scores only available on game jolt, because I didn’t want players to have to make an account in order to track there scores, but because time is so short, it seemed like the easiest highscore implementation available (i’m familiar with game jolts scoring/achievement system from adding it to my other project, PlanetScape.) I am pleased with the results, You can still enjoy the game and view your score in-game without ever going to game jolt, but having an account and using quickplay allows you to submit and track your scores on gamejolt, which I think adds a lot to this game. (I know it makes me play harder when I test it, just to get a good score). In fact, if I have time before the end of the jam, hopefully I can add some achievements as well. I also made sprites for the tamer (who was before that an egg thing the items come from) , he isn’t my best piece of work, but what I like about him is he has a snooty, ‘doesn’t give a $%$’ quality about him. The rest of today will be devoted to making a ‘how to’ panel, and making everything else nice and pretty.

DAY 2

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2B:

After wasting a lot of time with my girlfriend watching Butch Cassidy and the Sun dance kid, I decided to try and get a little more work back in to the game, and maybe accomplish a little more before I go to bed. I have had a hard time really digging in to this project for some reason. I believe it is primarily due to the fact that my other project, PlanetScape, is half way through the development of it’s next update, and I don’t want to lose my ‘mojo’ I have going with that project by focusing too hard on this one (getting to attached so to speak).

But tonight I did manage to get a few good staples in to the game: When the monster dies, it now takes you to a screen showing you your score, as well as a few other things, and then takes you back to the start. It’s simple, and the sprites are all whipped up in as little time as possible (except again, for the monster himself and the status bars, which took me a while, and I am quite proud of!) but it does exactly what I need it to, except.. do anything wit the score.. Yeah I never even thought once this whole time about how I was going to implement my highscore system, and now i’m struggling to start the daunting task of putting it into the game. I might be able to make a nice enough highscore table fairly quickly, but this game revolves around your final score, and in order for this game to stand out, that highscore table needs to function and look perfect. Hopefully I can muster up the time and patience to sit down and work that all out tomorrow. (tomorrow is also my dedicated spriting and sound FX day). I also added rating icons above the visitors heads. there are 5 ratings: loved it, liked it, just ok, didn’t like it, hated it, and too expensive. These show above the visitors heads when that rating effects them (like not having enough money to pay for the ticket, or seeing the monster in good/poor health). later on hopefully i’m going to change these icons into speech bubbles that display the visitors like/dislike in dialogue (‘Hey this Exhibit sucks!’), but if I don’t get to it (so much on my plate as is) then these icons will work well enough. They get the point across at least. This is also the stage that I am ready to put up a playable demo (and I have), you can’t do anything with your score, but all the other gameplay functions are there. It’s actually pretty fun! I have to admit this morning being very discouraged, but now I think I can go to bed ready to work hard on this game tomorrow!

2A:

After a few hours starting the new idea, ‘smoochie’, I quickly got bored of it. I went back to my original idea, which was ‘Exploit a Monster’. I just didn’t like the idea of smoochie. So I’ve been hard at work trying to make up for lost time. So far i’ve gotten all the major functions in except scoring. you can feed you monster 4 different items (food,treats,hormones,and meds), visitors can come in and have an opinion, rate your park, which fluctuates the ticket price, and the monster can grow larger and age and die overtime, based on your actions. besides the monster and the bars, which I spend a good chunk of time on, all other sprites were quickly made ‘temps’. Tonight i’m going to hopefully have the basic engine down and done, and then work adding menu’s and extra features. Tomorow (and maybe tonight) will be a mad rush to create quality sprites and images. Hopefully at some point I will get around to sound….

DAY 1

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1A:

smoochy is going to be my submission for the jam. So i’m getting a bit of a late start because my first idea that i’ve been working on for the first half of the day didn’t really pan out (a little too complicated version of a tomagachi style game.) I’m sorry to right so little but really I shouldn’t even be spending my little precious time writing about it! so I will quickly say:.