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[chriswearly]

Hello TIG!

I, and my friend Aaron, have paired up together and are going to attempt the IGDA Game Writing SIG sponsored #WAGchallenge, a game jam hosted by itch.io.
It begins the first of June (tomorrow) and runs until the end of the month.

In that time we are going to attempt to make a game. With major emphasis on the writing.

My primary roles will be the writing, and the art (pixel gfx).
Aaron's role will be programming the game (last I checked it'll be in GameMaker).

This Devlog will be a tool for us to mark our journey through the process over the next 30 days, and will be a way for us to look back and see how we progressed.

And hopefully on July 1st we will have learned a lot, gained some skills and insight, and maybe can provide a nice little game you all can play.

About me: I am by no means a literary savant, nor a pixel Picasso, and that is partially why I want to do this jam. But the little bits of pixel art I do weekly, and the snippets of writing I've done in the past- with this jam I want to really benchmark where I'm at. I want this challenge to, well, challenge me. I'm not someone who sits down and makes a plan, or lays out a course. So this will be a good opportunity to try that, and lots of other things.


About Aaron: Well, I don't know much on the guy. We've just become friends online, so he can tell you a bit about himself as a reply if he wants

Tomorrow the Jam starts, and that is when the Theme will be announced. Specifically for the Jam, only the writing will be critiqued by the panel of judges; so here in the Devlog I do hope to hear, and welcome with open arms any feedback/critiques/"dude that sounds absolutely awful"/"woah that looks amazing" replies

Thanks if you've read this and decide to follow our progress.

[Saithir]

Oooh, now that's an useful topic, I almost forgot about this challenge, and I had it around in my bookmarks for a while now. I'll be taking part as well - as you said, it's a good opportunity to learn something new and test what one can do.

Not going to hijack your devlog though, I'll just leave this post here, so the forum reminds me if there's something new to read

Good luck o7

[gereon]

Interesting challenge, good luck both of you!

[chriswearly]

Alright, it's 7am and I'm extremely exhausted from the weekend, but the jam's Theme was announced at midnight, and it's "Down the rabbit hole"!

(link to jam page: http://itch.io/jam/wag-challenge)
I have one idea of what I could do with that which I already had in mind. A sorta spin on a Half-life-like story, except you play as a person who had one day sneaked onto some government property to just check out if there were any aliens or whatnot being hidden in a plant, only to crest over a hill and see an explosion. You soon make the choice to go and investigate, since no one has gone in or out of the facility in the past 5 minutes. As you run down to the main entrance you notice some strange crates/holding cylinders spewed across the ground. Then as you reach the large double doors, a few people run out of the plant screaming (cue narrative-driven insight). You tentatively venture into the plant, as at this point you see no signs of fire or immediate danger. And as you take your first steps into the lobby, and throughout your walks deep into the plant, you discover things you couldn't have even imagined.

I think my goal is to have a few story lines, meaning large-scale storytelling. But for now we'll stick with one main discovery at the end, with a bunch of small ones found along the way.

I also have a working title: Plant 19



(note: My and Aaron's schedules don't mix very well, at least not yet, so I haven't told him any of this We'll get ourselves sorted soon.)

Alright, it's just past 7am EST, so off to bed. I work tonight, and after should be able to do basic artwork and hammer down the rough draft storytelling late into Tuesday morning. Then Tuesday night I have off work so Aaron and I should be able to get some working time together to start the foundation of the game *cross fingers* :D

[chriswearly]

Day 2 of 30. A little after 4 am.

Finally messaged with Aaron a bit tonight, and got ourselves on the same page for the project (woo).

I haven't done any art or writing, as I wanted to make sure Aaron was on board with my idea. Now that I know he is, I can get started tonight after I sleep all day. Though got a nasty headache from being up all weekend- hopefully it subsides later.

Anywho, as of right now, the art will be loose 16-bit. Baseline, it's 16x tiles. I had had the idea of possibly trying to do the colors in Gameboy fashion, but after discussing we made the decision to not limit ourselves. And actually, this is more challenging for me, and so I intend to embrace it
My main goal right now is to come up with a good clean palette. Nothing more than like 20 colors, though. Hopefully tonight I'll have a working ramp and will roll out mockup tiles to see how it all looks.

The other bit of art that is gonna need to be looked more deeply into is the letters. We intend to do some narration through speech bubbles (like comic books) throughout the game, but how exactly to do that in Game Maker is the question. That's Aaron's hurdle. Mine as well, though, as I have to figure out how to make an official pixel font-set that GM will accept. So I need to find a program to 'write' it all in, and then have Aaron test it in GM.

And while all that is going on tonight I'll be writing up the basic Story Arc/Intro/Rising/Climax/Big End Reveal.

And coming up with what kind of things the player will discover. Laying out the world this all takes place in. Who exactly is the player. All that jazz :D


So in layman's terms, the goals right now:
Art:
Make color ramp
Start testing tile/sprite making
Mock-up title-screen (experiment different resolutions)
Look up how to make a pixel font, and how to get it imported into Game Maker

Writing:
Basic story arc
Character background
World setting

Programming:
Right now Aaron's work schedule has prevented him from seriously starting anything. Will likely get the coding up and running Wednesday night, though

Ok, that's it for now. Hopefully tonight I will show off the first pixel art images :D

[Aaron Pendley]

Started programming the core mechanics of Plant 19 tonight. All basic movement and jumping has been situated. Also looking at long elevator rides into the depths of the plant as transitions between "levels". I use the term in quotations due to the fact that all of this game will be taking place in one "room" in GM, therefore actual black screen transitions won't interrupt the flow of gameplay. As narration is the focus of this game, I expect there will be a good bit of the "narrator's" thoughts being displayed during these transitions. (Whether the narrator is the player or not)

On that note, the elevator programming was relatively easy and is functioning perfectly for prototyping.

As for the speech bubbles, getting them to swoop in for action effects is proving very fussy.

[chriswearly]

Day 3/30: Things are looking good.


Slept for 15 hours, and that sure fixed my headache (woo) and have gotten a few hours of work in this morning. Firstly is the graphics.

The game screen, at this point in time, is going to be basically double Gameboy, aka 160px high by 320px wide. And then scaled up 4 times for a pixely look, plus so you can actually see the game

Also, the tiles will be 8x, and I'm currently just working with basics to get a layout of how things will look. Palette making I can do later this morning or tonight after work.

The game is going to be changed from being coded in Game Maker to Unity. That was Aaron's decision, as he feels he can get a better output with it. So, yay!

As of writing, it's still mostly in my head atm. But shouldn't be too hard to get a rough draft in Word this morning.

Aaron brought up that he wants to use Elevators as transitions, since each screen is static. And that works for me. So now I have to keep in mind that each room/screen has to be used to further drive the player to dive deeper into the plant.

All good stuff, and Imma get back to work here. But here's a first mockup of some tiles and the trees when you first play the game, if you're interested:



Also, we might be getting a guy to mix us up some nice tracks for the game. *fingers crossed*
EDIT: scratch that. The guy I was talking to is on board, so we have a sound guy now :D

[chriswearly]

Small Day 3 update:

Skyped with Aaron for a few hours. Holy crap Unity is a piece of, well, it's sure frustrating.

Definitely got our work cut out for us

So we're taking the evening off, but we'll be back with a new post late in the morning after we hammer down a bunch of hours of solid work!

[Aaron Pendley]

Got more of the core mechanics implemented, including a fully functioning camera system that floats between anchors as you progress through levels. A lot of physics bugs getting sorted out, mainly through parenting all objects to one large collider for each platform. Lighting and GUI dialogs up next.

[chriswearly]

Day 4. Small progress. Realizing scope, and MVP.

So we (Aaron) worked mainly on the engine this morning. I basically watched Aaron's screen through Skype as he expanded on the room. It looks really good, actually And now that I have a better understanding of how the game looks, I can use that visualization to help me with the story-writing.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna spend the next two days getting more of the story dumped into Notepad, and then make new copies where I chop it down until it's a very small linear narrative. Then we'll remake the game's layout in Unity, test out playing through it, and make sure we're hitting at least 10 minutes of gameplay, as the Jam requires that.

That will be our Minimal Viable Product mockup, hopefully up and running no later than mid next week. And then by the half way mark we should also have the final MVP, with sound/music, voices (maybe), and the fully functioning narration boxes. Plus title screen and credits.


Then, after all that is done we can work on polishing, and extending the game's narrative to fit in more discoveries and details. Perhaps even some side-stories. All the while making sure we don't exceed a 20-minute game session.

Things are looking good, though. Definitely gets frustrating at points. Sometimes wanna say 'nah, what's the point', but in the end perseverance will serve us nicely

[chriswearly]

Day 5. Minimal advancement.

I was busy again today, but I had a little bit of time to watch Aaron mess around with Unity again (which is coming together really really nicely I should say), and we discussed the writing briefly. I've still not fully gotten to it; which is fine, but tonight I definitely need to have it all in a rough draft after work. This first real experience is, like I had saw coming, 'catching up to my bad habits', so I gotta work on that. And I will, which is good

So, yeah, this is the first, but hopefully last day where almost no progress is made.

However, for your viewing pleasure, here's the player, Hank, in a lineup of various poses:

[chriswearly]

Day 6. Getting there.


Got a bit of the world-layout done. At least, the beginning of the game is pretty much sketched up. Also got some of the story written up too.

Gonna hopefully get a bit more done before work tonight. And then lots more afterwards.

Also, we have a voice actor on standby for when the script is ready. So things are slowly shaping up nicely.

Alright, time for some sleep

[jamesprimate]

hey the pixel art is looking nice already!

[chriswearly]

hey the pixel art is looking nice already!

Ah thank you James ^_^

[chriswearly]

Day 7. Wrapping up week 1.


Ok. Nothing visual to show (aw), but, a lot has been set in motion after a productive Skype with Aaron. We have a very nicely laid out "act 1" on paper- basically everything from the start of the game, to the point at which you're deep into the facility and things start to get really weird. Creating that in Unity should keep Aaron busy for the day, and then we'll reconvene later and I should have the next part ready for him to make.

So right now, the programming/engine is over 80% done (now it's just a matter of sitting down and making each room/hallway, etc - easy)
The writing (narrative) is about 25%
The player's script has not been started
And the art is 5%

The jam itself is focused on the the writing, and now we are through 1/4 of the time. But being my first real project, and our first collaborative, we are making some pretty decent headway.

Thankfully the writing can be done in about two days. And the script shouldn't be hard at all, considering how little each piece of dialogue is going to be.

Overall, I'm well happy with how much we've gotten done so far, and there's a strong motivation to do really good work and I really think we'll be able to make a nice, playable, well-written game

[pintobean]

This looks pretty cool! Also doing the WAGChallenge, and I'm excited to see how your game turns out

[chriswearly]

This looks pretty cool! Also doing the WAGChallenge, and I'm excited to see how your game turns out

Thanks Bean :D


Day 8 (Day 1 of Week 2). Sleep.

Haha. I've been up for 30+ hours, and it's now midnight. So no work from me like usual this now morning.

But Aaron's got the whole 'Act 1' done like we planned. Wish I had something for him to work with to continue progress. But I need my sanity first.

Day 8 post, with something to show for, will be this evening then

[chriswearly]

So Day 8 turned into Sleep Day for 18 hours. Eugh. That's alright though


Now into Day 9. Act 1 is mostly done. More art is done. Lots of back story is down, which will help make the game's story easier to write, especially since a good bit of the narrative later is flashbacks and/or something like that.

A lot of what I'd like to show is on Aaron's computer, which is 2000 miles away. We'll get some screenshots posted soon, though.

But in the meantime here's a very basic phase 1 mockup of some tiles for the facility's surface rooms:


One of the things I'm struggling with atm is whether or not the floor/wall/ceiling blocks (both immediate and the ones outward of that) should be darker or lighter than the BG tiles. I know traditionally they're darker. Plus that enforces the enclosed feel of things.

On the other hand, when the shaders are turned on in Unity, lighter tiles work better. It's an area that I'll pin point in the next day or two. Most likely going with lighter ones, though.


Aaron and I also talked about the character design, and how he thinks Hank (the character) should have different hair. This stemmed from hearing our voice actor's test file, and finding that the voice we're getting is not the voice we had in our head. But so, Aaron pointed out that the hair could be changed to better suit/match the voice accompanying it.
However, as it turns out, Hank's mohawk is about the only thing that looks good on him Like really, nothing else works. And that's actually nice. I originally just slapped on those pixels to give him something up there. Then realized it was a pretty good decision, as a character with a mohawk is pretty distinguishable from everything else. Especially if we do some drawings for a "cover" for the game.

So Hank's design, which I guess I've neglected to delve into, is accidentally the best it could be right from the beginning. At least, from what I can see now he's just right for our game.

I haven't talked much on the narrative/script/writing in general; that's mainly because it's not done, and because though Aaron and I have Skyped about it it's not officially written down in stone.

About 30% of the story is realized, though, which is nice. When I'm almost done with the writing I'll talk about it here. Though not too much, as I don't want to spoil anything if you play the game.


Alright, see you guys in the next update :D

[Aaron Pendley]

Hey guys, programmer here. Just gonna share some quick screens in development (the wall tiles will change dramatically soon, I feel) so you can experience the atmosphere of the game.





 

[chriswearly]

Day 10. 30% time gone, about 30% work done.


We've hit the ten day mark, which means we have just under 3 weeks left. So far I think we've done a great deal of work, especially for our first collaborative project, and things are coming along really well.

But, personally I now realize I hit "the wall" a few days ago. I really lost the steam to trudge on and produce work. I said I was getting stuff done, and I was a tiny bit, but nothing really worth showing.

However, Aaron and I had another nice Skype session this morning, and we've got "act 2" laid out enough where he can set the foundation in Unity (woo).

Now it lies on me to buckle down and get the script and artwork done. It will take a few days, sure, but I know I can do it.

The story itself is sounding pretty good. I guess, though, that some things were said to have happened, but apparently they're not that believable, at least not without sound reasoning. Take for example the building blowing up. Why did that happen? I originally said because the player was being lured in. I didn't realize how that doesn't exactly sound right in the head. So instead we have it more towards that the facility is being sabotaged, and the player is there by coincidence. That small change from the beginning will help affirm other things that happen later in the game.

In the end I'm definitely learning lots of stuff. This is a wonderful experience for sure

Also here's a little updated drawing: