EliteGamer Update (v0.0.12)

Head's up. This devlog contains gifs demonstrating intense screenshake. It might be harmful to people with photoepilepsy. I don't know about such things. View at your own risk! Thanks.

Last night I dropped in and donated to Elite Gamer's 24-hour charity livestream in aid of Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland.

I met Daire a at gamejam some time ago, his first impression of me having a kind of story that gets repeated due to my honest and at the time, poor reading of the room. Anyway, we go way back :P.

He guessed that I was a gamedev from reading my name in the chatroom "MindCauldronGames". There was a little discussion around it, and I suggested giving this game a go, since I have not released any games as Mind Cauldron yet.

They played it! And, a good few times at that even hours after they learned about it.

It felt strange and wonderful. This was the first time anyone has ever streamed anything I've made. This is the first time I've seen people who I don't personally know play the game. I was energized, embarrassed and enthusiastic about developing it further!

Here's details of the last batch of changes.

Changelog

v0.0.12

This version is playable. However, the dynamic of the game is altered quite a lot by the grazing and modifiers.

Now we have a game where you can overflow the score variable, because it is a 16-bit int. For now I am keeping this odd behaviour in-game, but whether this limitation becomes a feature or a bug will be determined by people playing the game. It might be a little too *nerdy*! xD

• Fixed score bug (was 0 until modifier was incremented). The score was being multiplied by 0, which is interesting, because then
  the game becomes completely about grazing the obstacles. However, I set it back to be a multiplier of 1. Such a silly mistake.
• Fixed multiplier bug.
• Spawns reset to random, incremented version.

Some gifs from this version:

v0.0.11

Finishing off the rough implementation of screenshake, for more intense GAMEFEEL.

• Fixed black border from camera offset during screenshake, now using ss_amount to increase the size of the rects in draw_road to fill the screen.
• Fixed "p.y_speed is a nil value" - bug related to either() function.
• Added rough SCREENSHAKE, altered obstacle spawn locations to test.

Testing screenshake makes one's brain nauseous.

v0.0.10

First pass of sparks and multiplier when player is 1 pixel from death.

• Added rough MULTIPLIER to player score, incremented on GRAZING causing sparks.
• Modified spark time to live default.
• Added basic sparks, updated version number, added either() function

v0.0.9

This is a larger update that added a few important soft features to the game, mostly being a game menu, music and hi-score tracking.

• Modified spawn rate code.
• Modified menu's wait mechanic again.
• Now, instead of pressing a button with no menu, you have to tap it three times, with ui feedback of 'READY', 'STEADY', and 'GO' to ensure that the person actually wants to start a new game.
• Modified 'wait' between menus, so now you have to press a button instead of a forced delay. Mostly because I want to show a responsive menu.
• Added new menu background using pget() and pset() and a map of colour values to give a sense of transperancy.
• Moved start of music to cart _init instead of menu, fixing a little issue with the music option.
• Added a fade in for the music.
• Reserved 2 music channels for drums and keys.
• Added hi_score variable, used to compare scores in gameover screen and activate 'go with the flow' colors in draw_road().
• Refactored sfx() calls to use new try_sfx() helper function. Added sounds to menu ui.
  • Added settings for 'sound effects', 'music'.
  • sfx() and music() calls are wrapped in settings checks.
  • Added new sound effect for ui feedback when toggling menu items.
  • Refactored menu_draw() to handle the larger menu.
  • Refactored gameplay sfx to use 4th audio channel when music and sfx are enabled, or any channel when music is disabled.
• Modified music a tad to keep the drum beat up.
• Updated version to v0.0.9, added new music and a 'wait' variable for menus, so that it locks out user input for 1 second.
• Modified draw_road() colours and menu colour, inspired by the Go With The Flow music video
• Music - added new music tracks, getting a desert rock vibe.
• Added options menu. Now there is a main menu and options menu. Refactored menu related functions to treat menus more generally. Now new menu items and additional menus are easier for me to add/remove from the game.
• Added basic music, modified sfx() calls to not use specific channels.
• Added menu option to enable/disable tire sfx.
• Added builds and ulgamejam directories for archival purposes.

Future Plans

Same as the last proper changelog really. Have some copy-pasta.

Trying to polish this have up a bit will help develop a lot of important skills.  I hope to make this very simple game into something more appealing and more engaging with buckets more attitude and challenge for me and my friends.
I am currently designing a little game similar to this one. The lessons I learn polishing Obstacles will help me make the next one better.
The game design I'm working on already has a lot more personality, magic and fun.
The creative process is an iterative process.

The game design mentioned above is roughly put together, but to be honest, it's better if I continue to polish this game than start on yet another project.