Hey Professor, at the time of typing this, you and me fixed the issue with my Godot game, and it has been submitted to the Jam.
Overall I am disappointed with how my game came out, and I even though I was aware of the potential problems importing models could posses I had no idea it would cost me so much to the point where the atmosphere of my game had to be stripped away just in order to have it run on Itch.io
Now, even with that said I would have probably added more to my Godot game even if I would have to strip everything away at the end, cause in all honestly I definitely had alot of interesting ideas I wanted to attempt when developing this game. For example, I wanted to include dialogue in text bubbles and even experiment with mild camera shakes and other screen flair and effects to bring out the oomph in my game but realized we lacked the time (and were not taught) to do so. I take full responsibility of this irresponsibility when developing my game because until a few hours ago I did not know how difficult it would be to properly optimize this game to make it even remotely playable on Itch.io.
At the end of the day, despite everything, all the headaches, all the patches of genuine burnout, and all the frustration I felt creating this Godot project and my GameMaker project beforehand, I still had genuine fun coming up with the idea of these games and even though my full vision was never realized for either of those game projects, I did enjoy learning along with the class and incorporating my own style to these games despite how janky they came out to be, cause this is a learning lesson as you said so yourself, and this moment was two classes of both proper game design, and a lesson on how to temper my own expectations when it comes to any class project that dabbles in 3D design.
So to conclude, I would like to thank you Professor Owens for teaching me how to develop and make games on these different platforms over this semester, and even though I have grown to get frustrated with the work process at times, I did genuinely enjoy this class in its entirety and always looked forward to it. I definitely plan to tackle my Godot game in the future, because the idea to create this supernatural horror game where you relive the traumatic death of your late wife has so much potential in its storytelling and I would be a fool to just let it simmer on the backburner. (When I complete it, you will definitely be the first person I send a copy to)
Thank you for the help and fun times this semester.
Hey Professor! So up to this point, I was lost on what to do with the Godot game. I wanted it to be like Drought; however, since importing so many models that didnt fit the time period (and finding the right models took time to fix in order to make them Godot compatible took even more time) I decided to change up my game and made it horror focused. So this game is called “I cant stop thinking of her” (ICSTOH to put it shortly), and its a horror game that has the main character relive a traumatic accident that ended up killing his girlfriend.
Above is the starting room, and you mistook it for an “apartment” back when I was trying to make this game more Fallout-adjacent, so I just gave up and decided to give in to the apartment aesthetic and added dark red/pink lighting to intensify the feeling that something bad did occur.
Now, right above here is the old “hallway” I was going to use for my 3D Drought game. Considering I threw out that idea (and I didn’t want to go through the trouble of removing this room), I decided to make it into the street where we see the dead body of our loved one. It is still a work in progress as I’m trying to figure out how to add some “dark mist” to obscure the view of our player until they get to the center of the street, but I am sure we can work that out in class tomorrow.
Overall, this change (while very simple) has made me more excited to add new elements to this game (especially when I start tackling sounds, cause I plan to add a lot of creeping ambience). Of course, I am still having the issue of importing some models, and there are a few I will have asked you about in class in regards to importing them once I see you there tomorrow. But overall, good progress on my end so far.
Hello again, professor, progress for my Godot game has been going smoothly as of late as I have focused on set dressing my first scene before moving onto other aspects of the vault I plan to create.
As of this moment I am still attempting to finish set dressing my first room with the assets that I can find from turbosquid, however silting through the different assets that are compatible with Godot is very time consuming so my next course of action is to begin work on the next room after watching your portal creation video from the playlist.
If you have any other recommendations for where I can get more 3d models that are Godot compatible, I would very much appreciate it because I want to stick to a specific time period aesthetic (that being retrofuturism) without constantly compromising it by using assets that are more modern in design. (It just creates a clash I don’t want considering the models that I attempt to download don’t work well with the game-building app, so the ones I have found that do work don’t really suit my vision even though they get the job done, its confusing stuff).
Jude Mignon here, I am here to submit my current first scene for my 3D video game that I am developing.
Above is my progress on the first scene in my game, and I apologize for disappointing you, but I didn’t really get to coloring (or coding) yet, considering I was working on previous assignments during class. However, I will be working on adding more to this scene when I get to the main building early tomorrow.
Now, if you’re curious about what you’re looking at (if you haventt noticed the title of the game), I am working on a 3D version of my Bitsy game, Drought. Considering taking a 2 dimensional game like Drought and making it a 3D experience is going to be difficult (considering the coding and environment creation will be a bit more complicated considering I have a 3D plane to work with this time) I will definitely be asking more questions than before (even if I dont get to the surface world by the time the game is due to be turned in).
To conclude this brief check-up I do have some questions on how to create “furniture” (especially doors) as I develop this scene, but I will more than likely be asking you that in class tomorrow.
This is a revised blog for my progress on GameMaker to provide a proper analysis of the feedback sent. (Considering more feedback arrived while typing this, I am going to address that too)
To start off with Lily’s statement, though I admire the comment for Liams character design looking cute (which was the intention as I wanted to make it look cute at first before having it be revealed that Liam is a horrifying alien, but never fully got to that due to having to rework the stages. Additionally, I did fix the camera issue as I noticed that I had the scrolling option on which would completely wreck the experience, so there are no more scrollers to be found.
For the last comment, (considering I went over yours in my summary post) I do know there was an issue with the borders and collisions with the platforms itself, I did address this in the summary post I made, but I did take this into account even before reading this comment, as I split the platforms apart and allowed for more challenging jumps. To continue I had not seen the platform issue coming, but even though it was an issue that was hard to rectify, I made it work in my advantage to provide a much more enjoyable experience.
So I checked my grade and realized I have a D overall due to my apparent lack of a final GameMaker Post. So I’m posting this now so I can fix this and hopefully walk out of this class with a B by the time this class (and don’t worry with the other post, cause im getting to that after I post this one).
Now, if you can recall my previous post, you know I addressed your understandable criticisms with the first version of my platformer game, cause despite the game working well, the platforming was lackluster while being paired with terrible level design.
Above you, there will be a link to a short presentation of my updated game and the progress I made in making a more refreshed and challenging experience. Though at the time of the first post you saw, something that stood out to me was your idea to space out some platforms, so when making the 2.0 update, I decided to incorporate more difficult jumps that actually could use a bit of the “jank” that the player receives to actually get a small jump boost that helps them get to the next stage as simply making the jump higher would make the platforming alot more stale (at least in my eyes).
Now, upon looking back at the first rendition of my game recently, I noticed two extra comments that pointed out some understandable issues with the game. So, upon uploading the 2nd update of the game, I removed the scrollbars and only added in a full-screen button so players can have a full view of the game so they have a complete experience. Unfortunately, however, the platform problem persisted for me, and I figured if I was going to roll out this update in time to have a more functional game while keeping up with the class, it would be in my best interests just to spread out the platforms and enemy placement, while having the jank being something that helps you instead of hindering you.
Overall, I believe I have made a definite improvement of the platformer game, though it is unfortunate you won’t be able to experience it for yourself (due to my mishap of deleting the zip files), I hope the work ive shown above allows you to see the progress I made to fix my game for the better.
Hey professor, apologies for this post being a day late, as I had trouble adding/fixing a few things with the game itself (things we covered in class). But despite the issues, I released the demo of Liam the Loose Alien, and I will be going over the comments now.
Now your comment is the only one on my game thus far, however ,it seems pretty useful and I would like to respond to it.
Now when it comes to the platforms, I am aware that some placements are kind of strange. Beforehand, I had the jump set to -5 because it was high, but not high enough to reach elevated spaces. Now with the adjustments we made with the platforms, I am planning to change the position of the platforms and enemy npc’s locations to make the level alot more challenging and interesting so the player can experience less jank and more challenge with timing their jumps to get to other elevated spots to eventually reach the end (something I will adjust when I have the time). And before I go on, Ill test the published game, but I am sure I gave the game the ability to go full-screen, but regardless ill be sure to adjust the viewport so it works for the player when I have the time.
Overall, I am confident that I can finish the game (or at least put it in a playable state that brings challenge while managing the problem with the platforms) but at the moment I just want to take a brief break from adjusting anything with Liam the Loose Alien because I genuinely hated creating this game over the others and the ideas I had got overshadowed by the issues I was getting (such as the platforms that on their own made the experience of creating levels a pain, even though most of the issues were small things that became bigger problems during testing). I will gladly take your advice and release an updated 2.0 version of this game because I do think I can create the platformer game I was envisioning when I started this project (even if I have to wrap it up short for the next project). Thank you very much for testing and helping me out with this game professor, I will take a small break from touching this gamemaker product before getting back into the swing of things later on (I promise I wont take long). I will give it my all, and surely by the next update the game is much more entertaining even with its jank.
Now, assuming that you came back from watching my video of progress on the game, I am sure you have many questions, as do I. Now, although playthrough of the first room goes by very smoothly (and the controls and coding allow for the game to function properly), upon getting to the second room, I find myself in a bit of a pickle. There are invisible barriers and blocks that I did not place there (proof shown below), and the viewport room system that I implemented (1 to 1 for your video, mostly besides some size differences) does not allow for the camera to carry over when my character reaches the second end of the room. This is very (and I emphasize) VERY annoying because after constant retesting and altering, I still cannot find the root cause of any of these issues, and it puts me behind schedule in regards to the rest of the class.
Now, I assume your first thought is “why not extend the viewport barrier so it can capture the entire room?” Simple solution, however upon doing so my screen was stretched and it was very visually unappealing to look at when playing and overall made for a uncomfortable gaming experience. I tried deleting objects, and I have reimplemented many platforms but to no avail. Now, I figure that eventually when Monday rolls over we will be able to figure this problem out together, but I will confidently state this, GameMaker is the worst gamemaking program I have used up to this point in class. It is painfully glitchy without any real way to fix these glitches, and when I attempt to have my pixel avatar walk with two feet on the ground, the avatar itself gets stuck to the floor and cannot move without jumping first then moving after (which even then might not work because sometimes the game just ends up becoming a platformer version of frogger.) Overall, this entire situation has been very stressful for me, although I will carry on with adding obstacles such as objects that will reset you when hit and enemy npc’s, I will only incorporate them for the first room until you and I can figure out how to fix the next room. So as a reminder, I am not planning to give up since I am passionate in getting this project completed, but all potential joy I had prior to working with GameMaker in general when starting this project has been almost all been sucked out from me entirely because of the amount of crap I had to put up with this whacky site.
Other than that, I hope that at least in your eyes I made decent progress, despite my frustration with GameMaker I am indeed proud of the work I have done so far, the detail I incorporated with some of the platforms having a scry face that appears from time to time along with the slightly in-depth detail of my protagonist brings a smile to my face. However with these constant issues with the program despite following your videos from start to end gives me a headache because I cant tell the result is on me or on the engine. Bye Bye for now.
Now to address the elephant in the room, I did eventually fix the door problem with the game (as many people who played my game appreciated the attempt, but couldn’t fully experience the parts of the game I completed due to the door being a sprite and not a wall and yada yada yada, just one big headache).
Anywho! The problem is fixed (and I hope other classmates read this post so they can play the fixed demo so they can see what I was really working on considering the amount of time I put into the world-building via dialogue and hidden notes). But now I what I want to do is address my thoughts on what I was able to create with this somewhat short amount of time.
When I first thought of what my Bitsy game should be, I was confused on what it should be like, considering my work on “Break the Game” had a vision that would break apart as soon as I started to find my creative calling on making a Sci-Fi narrative instead of a disturbing, slow burn analog-horror adjacent story. So when brainstorming I found myself taking a look at the Fallout series, specifically the first two games and New Vegas as their artstyles, storyline, and post apocalyptic setting allowed me to realize my new vision, Drought, a story based on the fallout games (and by based I mean an unofficial rip off that I enjoyed every moment making because for the few weeks I was making this game I felt like laughing at what Bethesda did to current Fallout, so HAH!).
Now. To summarize my process for creating this game, I would take one of the plot threads of the first game to make a narrative that set the incident in a desperate state of action, so to say. Essentially you the dweller has to save their vault from a water crisis by finding a water-chip in a distant town while coming to terms to the reality of this wasteland that used to breathe life. Of course I could never replicate the gritty feeling of the first two RPG’s, so I decided to make sure the set design shared the sleek metal feel of the vault, while having the dry barren wastes out in the wasteland when the dweller gets outside of the vault for the first time. So imagine Drought as a simplified mini version of the original fallout games.
To wrap this up, I would like to share the only comment I had gotten on my re-uploaded demo (as far to my knowledge as this is the only comment that appears on the game page). I would like to thank the feedback and the appreciation shown for the dialogue presented as that was my main focus (besides the set design), I focused on the dialogue first because its the necessary component to any story or setting, its the oral worldbuilding of the world you occupy and I know having most sprites give off a hundred letters of dialogue might be annoying, however without it I think there is less detail in the story itself even if this is a demonstration of what the full game could be. The way I see it, if I am to ever expand more on the dialogue (and the game itself), I will be sure that everything (at least most of everything in said locations) enlists some verbal reward to the player, because I knew my limits when making this Bisty game, after all there were points where just managing the sprites, rooms, and doors (as seen high up above) gave me a hard time as some things would and wouldnt work, leading me to spend good time to fix those small issues that I know would ruin the gameplay. So in a way, adding all this text is the true art of this world, cause though the world of Drought has detail, it is meant to be dry and plain, so to makeup for that detail its only smart (at least in my eyes) to incorporate text that describes every little part of the world because im confident that the player (and the dweller themselves) would be naturally curious to look at every nook and cranny, and to reward the player with dialogue that adds on more establishing detail to the set is the way I see to make the world more detailed despite the 2d bit by bit graphics.
Now to look at the feedback suggested, I will consider making the two scientist gaurds at the elevator speakable, the only reason why I made them as walls instead of sprites is due to my confusion of what I would have them say, so I figured that the best way to keep the mystery of what is on the other floors of the vault is to not have any dialogue at all so the player can use their imagination of whats told to them (from the scientist in the officespace and other dwellers) so they can figure out what lies on the different floors of the vault since I did have a bigger narrative at play with the vault and overseer (something I couldn’t fully address in this fixed demo). Regardless, I would like to thank this playtester for playing, even if they are the only person who looked for the fixed demo when I re-uploaded the game, all feedback is good feedback and if I have the time (or am given the chance) to develop more for this Bitsy game in the future, I promise to embellish the world with verbal and textual detail so every player can be rewarded for paying attention and looking at every little thing in the game, because it may look simple to the naked eye, but there is always more than meets the eye. (And please classmates play the fixed demo cause I would love more feedback and I dont want you guys to think that first demo was just one room cause I made over 7 rooms for this game TwT)
Heya Professor! As of typing this, I am busy creating (and trying to figure out) how to get my platforming main character to do a proper jump. But for now, im going to let you know how the current progress is.
Above is my current design for my character, Liam the loose alien. And if you’re wondering why this cute guy is who he is, to that I say… Well.. I needed a simple idea, truthfully, I have always had dreams of creating 2d pixelated characters (since the art-style can be cutesy or detailed depending on the goal), but when I was thinking of making a platformer protagonist, I just made a blank white circle and went from there. However, to be honest, I did take a peek at one of the Bitsy games my classmate made, called Rest in Petals by Lily H, and from my brief play through I decided to sort of copy (sorry!) her color scheme for Liams eyeball while adding smaller details based on what I saw from her game. Overall, it allowed me to make a cute, but mysterious looking platformer protagonist, and though its not much to the naked eye, you know its strange that this so-called “loose alien” somehow found a way into a spacesuit and is now on the run, but thats alot of lore stuff I dont want to spoil at this moment.. (And before I forget I did make frames for his idle animation (shown above) it was probably my favorite part of making the design due to how easy it was, but as you will see in this post, that ease doesnt last too long.)
Moving forward, I went on to create the left/right sides of my little alien friend. As you can see above, I added frames to simulate movement, with his two legs moving up and down slightly to replicate actual human movement. Now, if you look closer, you see a pixelated oval shape along with an astronaut backpack, and to simply explain, that pixelated oval shape is Liam’s “arm” and the backpack he wears is the typical pack worn by our fellow human space explorers that we will see in the game as enemies (when I get to designing that, eventually). Now, I decided to keep these simple shapes for our alien to show how awkward he fits in the suit, considering Liam’s true form is much more… different than a human, he can’t fit his “hand” fully through the arm sleeve of the suit, so when he runs (if you look closely above) the sleeve just flaps to the side in a goofy way to show how strange Liams movements are. And before I forget, yes! Liam has an ear (its the half “E” looking shape to the left of where the eye is looking). Now before I continue, I will say making a side view for both the left and right sides of Liam turned out to be more difficult than I imagined initially, since there is no real way to flip the base design to its side (since it is 2d), I copied and pasted the front view and moved the position of the legs to face where Liam is facing while moving the main screen of the helmet to the right while slightly moving the eye to give the illusion of Liam facing another direction.
Currently, I am still busy with doing all the sprites for Liam. I think I’ll move on to the environment details after I am done with the jump, but yet a part of me wants to make an animation of Liam flinching when getting hurt, but I don’t wanna make more work for myself just yet until I get the base of the environment down. But I would say I made decent progress, and for the future of this project, I think I will hold back on my vision to make it more smaller and streamlined so I dont put this game into “demo” mode like my last two projects because I hate thinking about how unfinished these games are (even if they are completed enough for the classwork itself).
