Work/Production Diary - Switch

Monday 05/01/2015
I have begun work on a new game idea at the moment i shall produce a small Pitch while attending to my briefs tasks.

I will be using he 2D game engine Game Maker as i know it more than any other game engine, the sprites and coding are simialr to me so i should face less problems

today i have started task 1 and will complete it at a later date while i work on the game idea next lesson


Wednesday 07/01/2015
I have started to work on the idea on the game and will create a base game or a test demo to prove that i can code simple movement and attacks.

today i have finished the simple movement codes. left right, jump and gravity also affects the player. i will need to add in some enemy soon including attacks and deaths. this will include a whole new health system which i will begin next.


for now i have created my idea which is a retro pixel arena game  where you fight to the death between other characters while avoiding traps and death, there will be a time limit to obtain as many kills as possible. Each kill will be rewarded with points.
But, when the player is killed by an enemy the game is not over, they will then ‘Switch’ to that character and take over them, controller their current weapon, keeping score intact and more time to be given to wreak more havoc.

If the player final blow is by a trap or off screen death, the current game is over and the score will be added to the score board.

Their will be plenty of weapons, random characters, and death to keep the player entertained. Power ups such as; more time, higher attack, and higher defence, will also be added into game to make it more interesting, but the player isn't the only one that will collect these.



Friday 09/01/15
I have begun work on the health system. for now it will be a basic 100 health, and a certain amount will be taken off each hit.

i have also started work on the maps, i have 10 map ideas but for now i will only use one for the base game to help keep things simple. so far ive cut it to 6




Monday 12/01/15
I have created my own music over the weekend on a program on my IPad called Auxy. it has a simplistic beat yet it lasts for 5 minutes, which each game will last for, unless a boss is encountered. and then the music changes into a more upbeat version creating tension for the player

these are my music files that i will be using. as of yet i have no sounds only music, i should start working on these after the base coding is complete.




Wednesday 14/01/15
today i have decided to work on the main menu, this will include a new game, options and exit button, including a logo at the top as the title and a back button to move out of the options page or 'room'. this is also animated. the 'S' and 'H' 'switch' around
although this animation could use a fine tune




clicking on the new game buttons starts up the first level which has a controllable character that can move along the surfaces and jump to others.



the exit button works and now closes the game down. i should add in an in game pause menu with these options and maybe more.

but when moving rooms the music still plays over the new rooms music. i should fix this before it gets too irritating. 
Friday 16/01/15
with the main menu working i have decided to do some more task work today, so i don't fall behind, i will upload it when its complete, task by task.
Monday 19/01/15
i will be working on some problems that I've been facing today. such as the music continuing to the next room, repeating when it shouldn't and the player getting stuck in the ground

i have fixed the ground problem, as well as the music problem
Wednesday 21/01/15
today i will start to code in enemy and their  movements



Friday 23/01/15
the enemy movements are fluent and i shall now add in their life system and attacks, but before that i need to make sure they also wrap around the room




Monday 26/01/15
after trying to add in a simple attack (a fired arrow) the player can no longer jump and after every attack the player disappears.


Wednesday 28/01/15
i have now fixed the fire problem by going over some older coding
Friday 30/01/15
today i shall work on my brief tasks
Monday 02/02/15
more task work today

Wednesday 04/02/15
i shall work on more sprites today, and next lesson i will work on the enemy coding to get my tech demo done

Friday 06/02/15
i will be working on getting my tech demo done such as fine tuning the health and attack systems.

i will aim for something like this;


Monday 09/02/15
today i will change the options menu to a control menu, so the player knows the controls of the game before starting.

Wednesday 11/02/15
today i will work on making the enemy spawning random and not too many but not too few at once

Friday 13/02/15
today i was going to upload what i had as a tech demo, but Game Maker is not working, so i will try later, since i cannot do more on game maker today, i will work on my tasks

Monday 16/02/15
Iv'e changed the menu so it isn't just a point and click system, you can now just use the player to jump into the 'new game', 'controls', and exit to work the main menu

Wednesday 18/02/15
I'm adding in a tutorial for the menu, a quick 30 second tutorial to get new players started.

Friday 20/02/15
The tutorial is next to finish and i have made a new sprite for it too.

Monday 23/02/15
the new finished menualong with the new Tutorial room





Wednesday 25/02/15
i'm adding in a new enemy they will be gold or yellow, and cannot be killed by usually means, instead will have to be touched by its 'twin' two will spawn every 100 seconds or so, firing at them will result in a retaliation of a one hit blow.

Friday 27/02/15
the coding and sprite is complete and with some testing ive found no problems with this new enemy. their placeholder name is Boss for now.

02/03/15
the next week i am dedication to some course work such as a pitch and some research

04/03/15
n/a


06/03/15
n/a

09
/03/15
due to game makers limits on sprite and objects for its free version i have to take out all the weapon drops, inventory system and one or two traps. today and maybe tomorrow will be working on deletion and making it work.

11/03/15
Instead of weapons I've just added in a single fire ball when pressing the space bar which will kill most enemy's in one part from the twin gold bosses.

13/03/15
today will be about bug fixes to the new edition and deletion of the objects.

16/03/15
I've added in a loading screen before you get into the main menu of the game, its an enlarged version of the logo and a blue loading with animated dots so if it does crash or lag you can see this. the logo object also emits a small waiting tune.

18/03/15
today as a new trap i will add in a grenade, when shot with the fireball will explode as well as it will be on a timer, after the timer ends and explosions will occur, enter the explosion and you will take 10 damage a frame which will be next to instant death, thought i will edit its mask to make it a little bit easier to escape from the blast.

20/03/15
Today and the rest of the week I'll be working on some tasks and sorting out my blog

23/03/15
N/a

25/03/15
N/a

27/03/15
N/a

30/03/15
N/a

1/04/15
N/a

03/04/15
after sorting out the majority of my tasks ive started working on the game again.
after playing the game after a little over the week ive found a bug with the timer, it reaches 0 then goes into negative numbers.
turns out i changed the room speed form 30 to 45 and that affected this, ive changed the timer objects code and it now works.

06/04/15
due to the rooms changed speed ive had to change other objects that have timers in them such as enemy objects and the grenades, (sprite had to be extended).


08/04/15
today i going to be working on PIskellapp to create the backgrounds for the bad ending

10/04/15
today i will be finishing the background off as well as some sound edits

13/04/15
with the sound edits complete ive added a total of 5 action punching sounds so when you or the enemy objects take damage a sound will be played, all objects have a unique sound but i want to make the sounds random.


15/04/15
each room has a system with the sprite for these systems (as they have to be objects) is the games logo in the top left corner, the systems all have the HUD or GUI for the player, ive moved around this to make them appear more professional and keep them out of the way but in an easy visual range.


17/04/15
to make the game harder, and more fun ive added in more enemies each wave, so you'll never run out of things to shoot.

20/04/15
Half Term

22/04/15



24/04/15



27/04/15
made the underwater background 

29/04/15
the moon background as well as ice background have been made

01/05/15
today i had to take out some of the messages that the enemies say when you kill them, because is someone read them the wrong way, it could become an issue, although this wasnt meant to happen or i didnt mean to say it that way, i took them out anyway, just as a precaution.

04/05/15



06/05/15



08/05/15



11/05/15



13/05/15



15/05/15



18/05/15



20/05/15



22/05/15



25/05/15
Jordan asked us to make a poster so ive took to taking screenshots and editing some sprites to make this


27/05/15
with the poster done showing the game play elements, ive took to working on sprite masks to make it easier to escape enemies and the explosions

29/05/15



01/06/15



03/06/15



05/06/15
Today, i started my evaluation.

08/06/15
I asked people to give me feedback about my game.
10/06/15
Today, i checked my blog for the tasks to make that i had done what had been asked of.
12/06/15 - Final Dead Line
Ive made sure everything is uploaded, and ive edited some tasks, the evaluation is done and the game is in the Q drive.