Tagged “gamedev”
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The last couple of bitsy games I've made have focused more on the design and aesthetics of the game rather than the functionality and gameplay.
That was mostly due to the types of games/stories I had opted to tell; this time I had an idea that was more limited in scope but involved different mechanics.
Given the theme of 'supermarket' I instantly had the idea of running around a supermarket in a post-apocalyptic zombie situation, as I'm sure we all would.
Side note: you can play the game direct in your browser right here: https://alansuspect.itch.io/supply-run
In my original idea I thought about the supplies randomly appearing each time the game was played, but it's either not possible in bitsy, or far beyond my abilities. I might come back to this idea in the future, maybe even on another platform.
So for this I just created several different 'supplies' (in the game dev these are listed variously as 'fruit', 'veg', 'chips', etc but not listed in the game itself), and placed them randomly around.
Due to the design of the shelves in the supermarket I had to make the tiles that the supplies sit on non-wall tiles so the character can pick them up (which also throws out the random supply placement idea).
One thing I knew I could do in bitsy was display random text each time an action happens. So each time the character walks into a zombie the sounds the zombie makes a different. After the random action I then added a quick palette-switch-and-back to a reverse palette, to give that injured red flash.
Lastly, I wanted to add some kind of message at the end rather than just have the game end. It's fairly easy to add a variable to the text so the next step was to count each time a supply is collected and each time a zombie attacks.
Once the counting variable is ready I add it to the text message at the end. Easy!
Still, it's not super exciting. I then decided to try out the if/then/else to display a message based on the results.
I tried writing out the logic but it doesn't look right. Basically it checks if Attacks = 0 first, and if so then if all supplies were collected you get the congrats message. If no attacks but not all supplies were collected you get a different message. Lastly (and I was running out of time) if Attacks >= 1 you get the 'bit' message, bad luck!
And I think that's about it. I enjoyed playing with bitsy's mechanics more this time - for a simple game maker it actually allows for a lot of experimentation. Give it a go yourself!
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I have had this idea for a computer game for a while now, it's not completely fleshed out but I have a rough storyline down and a few ideas for puzzles.
What I can't decide on is how to implement it. Issues of time aside, I'm also not a skilled game developer so an easy learning curve would be preferable.
I like doing pixel art so that would be a nice path to go down, but I probably shouldn't commit to doing too much of it as I'll end up giving up before I get anywhere.
My first thought is a point-and-click adventure game like LucasArts used to make. When I was a kid I played with GRAC on the Amiga and I can see similar programs exist now, such as Escoria and Popochiu add-ons to Godot.
I even got sidetracked looking at Godot add-ons and found Cogito. For a brief moment considered a first person puzzler, but have no idea about 3D graphics.
Going to the far end on the other side I thought about doing an interactive fiction piece, where the story and puzzles would be a lot easier to implement and I could incorporate some static pixel art along the way.
Lastly I've been trying out some games on the iPad which are kind of a mix of interactive fiction and point and click, in fact they call themselves point and click games but I consider them more first person point and click, for clarity.
I even found an add-on for Godot called EgoVenture which does this kind of thing. It would mean I can do static graphics (without all the pesky animating characters walking stuff) and keep things as simple or complex as I like. On top of that, I could implement some cool puzzles.
Oh, and a bonus mention to GBStudio which looks awesome, but not sure it would suit my game style. Maybe for another project.
Lots of coulds in there! How do other people figure out how to plan a project like this? Do you do a script/plan layout or just get started and figure it out as you go?
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