This month has mostly been about art. Not entirely, I have been also doing work refactoring already existing code, making the player controller more manageable, re-working the collapsing platforms, but mostly I’ve been working to get the art Fernando delivered plugged into the game.
Huh, I wonder what those shiny things are? Needs additional particle polish, but got the new powerup sprites in. #gamedev pic.twitter.com/fcXWqJi68C
— Ike Ellsworth (@iellswo) April 4, 2017
While the new stuff certainly looks pretty flashy, there’s not a whole lot to talk about on the technical or interesting side of things. A lot of individual frame additions in the editor, and a lot of level design using Tiled, and we are making some good progress on making this game look and feel the way it should. This has done a lot to make the game feel more real to me, not only am I less ashamed to show off the state of the prototype, but it also is beginning to feel like a game. The character moves, and jumps and it is starting to look pretty good.
Threw together a simple starting menu, not final, but will likely stick around for a while. pic.twitter.com/q27pqd5VYp
— Ike Ellsworth (@iellswo) April 7, 2017
I have also started trying my hand at doing game development streams on the Creative channel at Twitch. Not sure if I will continue that habit, there are pros and cons. On the one hand my schedule is not as normal as I would like to believe, so trying to commit to a weekly development stream is daunting. On the other hand the few times I’ve tried it so far it has resulted in very productive evenings. One thing I did get done during one such stream is adding a nifty particle effect to the collapsing platforms.
Tonight updated my collapsing platforms, adding the art from @2dchaos, as well as pretty particles when the platform collapses. #gamedev pic.twitter.com/p97eont281
— Ike Ellsworth (@iellswo) April 13, 2017
So that about sums up what I’ve been working on this last month. Vacío is coming along, and I hope to have a playable “beta” finished and ready to get a few playtesters by the end of May or midway through June.
To wrap things up here is the obligatory dog picture:
Apparently this is considered comfortable. #dogsofgamedev pic.twitter.com/Oj6yjVRrjZ
— Ike Ellsworth (@iellswo) April 29, 2017
-Ike