GMTK Game Jam 2024 - DevLog #4

Hugh... An exhausted Daugsilius here :)

Well, I certainly could not have made a game in 48h.

I mean, a game probably, a very simple one. Definitely not the one I started to envision on Friday.

And even with 2 extra days, I'll be far from that.

But it's starting to look good !

It took me another day to get the physics AND feel right, but finally we have something nice.

It will still require tweaking when I start messing with block size and density, but after many trials, some backtracking and then forwardtracking back to the start with a twist, the scales physics are working.

And I was also able to add some gameplay, some UI and to pave the way for a proper win/lose mechanics along the way, so the finished product will deserve the name "game" :)

Right now I was working on pathfinding so our AI lizard friend can climb its way up along our pile of blocks, but I should probably go to bed instead.

What I've learned is that :

- Learning how to properly use a new tool takes time. If you want to make something in a very short time, pick a tool you know as well as possible.

- When an unexpected need arises, take multiple steps back and see if that tool you know well is still relevant compared to the other ones (yes, switching to Unity instead of MonoGame + 3rd party library would have been easier).

- Pick a very small scope, because it keeps expanding (or rather, it fractally duplicates).

- Physics is subtle and complicated (what gamer would imagine that similar blocks on each side of a scale won't have the same effect because they aren't at the same distance ?).

- I don't know how to live with one-shot code. I keep organizing stuff, trying to make it generic and re-usable, fiddling with variable names to avoid typos... That's a big hurdle for time-crunches like this jam.

Anyway, 5 (50) more minutes of pathfinding along stacked blocks and we'll call it a day.

Oh yeah, and I did play 4 h of dungeons and dragons in the meantime ! My players did not get to the Tower of Scales (I expected as much).

But on the bright side, they pissed off a noble and started a duel with a powerful soldier !

I have to bank all my tower cravings on the game now.

Next update tomorrow !