Sunday Night Lazy DevBlog - 9/14

    Few things to update you on this time around. This week on the demo, I added:

• Some searchable offices for the player to ransack.
• A whole new floor with what can barely be called a puzzle.
• Lots of character. 

    In all seriousness, the new demo is coming along a little slowly because I've been having fun with level design. It's be interesting to take a three path fork and cut it up different ways to make each path feel unique, add some distinct art to an area so players can orient themselves, make things arbitrarily longer.

    I've also been trying to pull design inspiration from and old Tomb Raider game I have been playing in my spare time. Before, I was making very small rooms filled to the bring with loot and searchable things and all clustered together. It made sense to me based on how I would design the space if I were actually using it as an office (or evil lair), but I've noticed in Tomb Raider there are these long, winding paths and tunnels that lead to big, elaborate spaces with something like a single health pack. 

    It doesn't feel like a waste of time somehow as a player. After all, you get to explore and get an item at the end, but I would be incredibly aggravated to have a 20 ft hallway between my sink and where I keep the dish soap. I am trying to keep that in mind while I make the floors. Make everything bigger than it needs to be and don't forget to reward the player, even if it's a small thing like a useless health pack or a cool mosaic.

    Also, I made a stupid, little fortune teller game that you can play for free on Itch.io. I call it Tarrot, pronounced like "Carrot." Give it a whirl and get your fortune told. 

    That's all for this week. Later. 

Sunday Night Lazy DevBlog - 8/31

 

    So, last week (or last blog. I think that was two weeks ago) I mentioned that I was putting together the first serious demo for Operation Spilled Martini. Well, good news and bad news.

    Bad news first because I'm a pessimist. The demo level I had in mind let the player explore three floors of a lair, encounter multiple traps, find a good number of gadgets, collect some loot, find a blueprint for an upgrade, and plant some explosives. It was pretty fun. It was also a lot to polish and honestly a lot to take in as a player. Mechanically, everything in that demo is functional, but every little thing from the UI of the pistol to the sound effects of the fire extinguisher all need little tweaks. I could spend the next month or two just polishing all the gadgets and mechanisms in that demo level. 

    So, that one is on hold, or maybe cancelled. Don't worry, I am sure all those burglar-able rooms, traps, and tools will get reused in the final game. You won't miss out on any content.

    Now for the good new, there is a demo right now. You can get it free on Itch.io because I haven't finished setting up the Steam page for OSM yet. It's very simple, just go down a hallway and avoid lasers that will kill you, but it's keeping in spirit with things like Charlies Angels, Mission Impossible, and Archer, the patron saints of this project. 

    I think maybe for the next build of the demo, I'll put some McGuffin in a glass case at the end of the laser hallway for people to grab. That would be fun for me. Also more complex movement for the player to dodge. Speaking of which, I am doing this game in Early Access, partially because I've never really done that before and wanted to give it a go. Even the demo will get some updates as we get closer and closer to the final release.

    Thanks for reading everyone. Here's a parting shot of the laser hallway. 

Laterz.

Sunday Night Lazy DevBlog - 8/17

    This week I started seriously putting together an early demo for Operation Spilled Martini. This means I didn't actually add a lot to the project, mostly just moved things around. It doesn't feel great as a developer, because it feels like you aren't doing anything at all, but it's necessary to make all the mechanics I've been throwing together actually have a purpose.

    I also took a mid-week break from OSM to build a little prototype where the player can sail a small boat around an equatorial ocean. I went kayaking earlier this week and couldn't stop thinking about it.

    Anyway, I'll try to add more to both OSM and put up some more tutorials for Trash HORSE this coming week. 

    Later. 

Sunday Night Lazy DevBlog - 8/10

      In the past, I've done write ups for my games and ended up wasting so much time on editing and graphics that I could/should have spent improving my games. I want to start keeping track of how my project progresses without getting weighed down by making a proper developer blog. So, this is my first entry for my Sunday Night Lazy DevBlog, where I just casually list all the things I've added to my current project, or whatever.

      Right now, my main project is Operation Spilled Martini, a rogue-lite dungeon crawler where you get to play as a pulp spy and break into a villains secret lair to carry out annoying missions. Here are some of the newest additions.

-Added a turret trap that currently shoots poison darts when the player is in range.

-Fixed up the trip laser trap and made the darts that shoot out of the wall more deadly.

-Polished the fire extinguisher mechanic that lets the player see the trip lasers.

-Made some amazing improvements on the pistol, including reloading and picking up extra magazines.

-Built a main menu with some pretty fucking dope graphics. 

-Built a prototype for a new trap where a giant saw blade pops out of the wall and decapitates the player.

-Spent an hour chasing a glitch and debugging different audio scripts only to realize that the volume on my headphones was turned off.

      Thanks for reading. Come back again soon. Eventually I'll have a demo for you all.