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[gamerzap]

This is a Metroid inspired (I know it's been done like 600 times) game I've been working on for fun.  It's the farthest I've gotten in a game's development so far so I decided to start a DevLog to help motivate myself.

The game starts inside of a crashed ship.  Here's the first screen:


You play as the orange guy in the bottom left.  The game is like Metroid in that the game involves exploring to find power-ups to advance.  Currently I've only got the first power up done, which gives you the ability to slide under small openings, which you need to get out of the ship.



I'm working on the area outside of the ship right now as well as the miniboss of the first area of the ship, but that will probably take a while.

[Moth]

Congrats on getting the furthest you've gotten with a project!

Looks like it'll be really fun to play, nice colors. Maybe put a solid color behind the HUD so it doesn't get lost in the same color like the first shot?

Is it screen based with the camera scrolling/jumping once you leave the boundary of the screen? I love screen based games

[gamerzap]

Thanks for the feedback!  I've been thinking it would be a good idea to add a black background behind the HUD but the only problem is that would require me to make the screen taller and would mess up it's dimensions.  I'm not sure how to get around this without redesigning every screen I've already made.

And yes, the game is screen based.

[afender7]

Maybe put a black shadow/border around the hud text/icons?

[Moth]

Solutions:

1. HUD has opaque black (or other color background) but moves to other side of the screen when you're close to it

2. HUD stays where it is, has partially transparent (alpha effect) background behind it to increase visibility

But then again you might not even need to do anything fancy beyond put a solid black box behind it- are there frequently important level elements in the top 6x1 tiles of the screens? If not, you probably don't need to worry about that small rectangular region being obstructed.

[gamerzap]

Thanks, I like the first solution.  I'm trying to avoid putting transparency in the game unless absolutely necessary because it doesn't fit the art style.

[Fenrir]

Wow man, I think we have a name clash, expect to receive soon a letter from our lawyers!
Anyway nice project, keep it up!

[gamerzap]

Oh we have the same name?  Sorry, but my game's name is very likely to change (I don't think it fits mine all that well, I just can't think of anything better right now).

[gamerzap]

I added a black border behind the HUD and I finished the first miniboss.  It looks a bit ugly but I'm really not an artist so I'm not too concerned with it's appearance.

[gamerzap]

I fixed all of the bugs I was having with the collision system and added some more items and enemies to the first area of the ship.  Here's a gif of the first miniboss (with debug mode on because I was working on the hitboxes for the boss):


And here's the map of the game so far:

[CoreGG]

Dude I love the pixel art style. It seems simple but I wish I could paint something with similiar level.
Good luck, I love the metroidvanias.

[gamerzap]

Thank you!  I'm not very good at art, but I'm pretty happy with the way the art in this has turned out so far.

[gamerzap]

I finished the second miniboss.  Well, mostly.  Eventually I will add an animation for the start of the fight and its death but it's ok for now.


The boss is a giant worm that spits acid at you.  As it takes damage, the rate at which it spits acid increases.  Occasionally it will stop briefly (I added this so you could reload).

[gamerzap]

I haven't updated in forever (mostly since I haven't had a lot of time since school started up), but I have done a bit more.  I added a save and load system using XML, I've added sound effects and made 2 songs for the game (they're terrible, but at least the game has music now), and I've added a good amount of new screens.  Here are a few.