6 hours ago

I've begun greyboxing the hub. I typically don't do greyboxing but it makes sense here. I've put some thoughts on where I want the game to go below:


I want to say that everything I talk about is subject to change as development continues, these are just some ideas I thought of after a brainstorming session today.

Essentially I want the hub to have a bunch of everyday objects, but they essentially act as warps to the different worlds. For example you could enter a record player which throws you into a music themed world. Or you enter a computer to go to a digital retro computing world. Or you enter a mythology book to enter a Greek mythology world. Or you enter an hourglass to enter a sand/desert world with tombs and pyramids.

Worlds are free roam with collectibles scattered around, I'm going against the mission style objectives you would see in a game like Mario 64. Pineapples are the primary collectible, they unlock more worlds. Mixtapes I'm unsure about, they'll probably just unlock extra pineapples. Minidiscs are secrets that are going to be pretty rare, they only count to 100% completion.

I'm targeting the web (WebGL2) to be more accessible. I will most likely put in some GameJolt integration like my other web games for saving/loading, and maybe more. I would make a Windows port but I don't have a Windows device to test on (I'm a Mac user with a Steam Deck) and unfortunately Windows holds the majority of the desktop computing market (especially gamers). So web it is.

Level design is going to be the hardest part of this game, I'll most likely go through many iterations of each level (I've already redone this greybox like 3 times this afternoon). I'm expecting really slow development. I want this to be great because fun fact about me, I love 3D platformers, and I've always wanted to do a game like this but I felt as though I wasn't skilled enough.

Regardless, I'll keep posting updates but the game is now in early development. Going to wait to set up a page because this game doesn't have a name or anything, and it's a bit too early in development to really do any branding.

Again everything I mentioned here is subject to change.

1


0 comments

Loading...

Next up

It was revealed to me in a dream I needed to add a wall jump, so I did. It reminds me a lot of Mario Sunshine.

A few things: More visual feedback, randomized game over message, sound, and I did way more work on momentum. The player isn't using physics because I wanted it extremely deterministic, so I ended up hard coding a lot of the "momentum". Still neat.

Macroquad's 3D is actually a lot more in depth than I thought, my first impressions are pretty good.

A prototype of my 3D collectathon concept. Very very early development. It's about being a 2D character in a 3D world. A strange blend of A Hat in Time/Banjo Kazooie/SM64, and Paper Mario.

I've been tinkering with a spherical Minecraft-like voxel toy. Makes me want to make a small game with this tech. More info below.

Game devs should add more silly features to their games that serve no purpose. For my game on every game over there's a random condescending death message. Took a whole 5 minutes to add. Here are some possible messages:

I've been brainstorming different collectible ideas, and my partner had the stupidest idea. Pineapples. So I modeled this pineapple in Blender (took way longer than anticipated).

Working on a protagonist for a game concept. She doesn't have a name. I'm using split pixel art + puppet animation. Thoughts on a 3D collectathon with some Paper Mario elements?

I'm sick yet again so I'm doing a casual playthrough of Trail & Trade. I absolutely love this little fade animation I did, it's a shame it's so late game most won't see it. So here's a fun clip (spoilers)

Play it here for free: https://gamejolt.com/games/trail_and_trade/1008039

After about a week and a half, my 3D collectathon prototype is ready for production. It's about being a 2D character in a 3D world. It takes inspiration from retro 3D platformers (Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie) and Paper Mario with lots of stuff to collect!