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[bclikesyou]

EDIT: I have been Greenlit!

For all prior progress, check out my devlog over at the Scirra forums here.

I recently released the demo (entire first level) for my first game, A Small Robot Story. It's a platformer with a focus on story and a retro aesthetic. Currently I'm working on the 2nd level. There will be a total of 5 4 levels and I *hope* to have it finished this year.

The demo is available for Win, Mac, and Linux. There are a few minor bugs (listed on itch.io page) but it's playable. Works with the xbox 360 gamepad as well.

Story is delivered through dialogue boxes between the main character, Rae, and other characters. I came in to this knowing that a "retro platformer" isn't anything new, so I decided that the story would be the main focus and driving force. Plus this is a low-pressure first game  

I'll continue to update this dev log along with the Scirra and itch.io one. Content will be the same across all three.

Thanks for checking it out!

// Details //
Engine: Construct 2
Art: Pyxel Edit, Photoshop
Music: LSDJ, Ableton Live, Famitracker
SFX: BFXR
Gifs: GifCam (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)

// Media //

Title Reveal


Level 2 tileset test


Level 2 enemy test

[Hephep]

Love it because it reminds me of my own project.I like your backgrounds! Keep going!

[lobstersteve]

Looks sweet
The forest level could use some polish in the graphics, but the mechanic level looks cool already

[bclikesyou]

Love it because it reminds me of my own project.I like your backgrounds! Keep going!

Thanks! I'll be sure to take a peek at your project

Looks sweet
The forest level could use some polish in the graphics, but the mechanic level looks cool already

I actually had a friend do the tileart for the 1st level (mechanic level) and he did an excellent job. Moving forward I'm doing all the art and yeah, I definitely need to polish up the woods and cave level. I need to make elements with a contrasting color and some more decorative elements. Thanks for the crit!

[bclikesyou]

Currently I'm coding the boss for Level 2. While it's going well, it doesn't provide for good gifs or screenshots So instead I thought I'd share a project that is 10+ years old and how this game all started.

Back in 2004, I was in a band called Tomorrow is Forever. Yeah I know. It's a dramatic band name. But it was the early 00's   The band was a project for the two guitarists in the band. It would be their senior capstone project in new media. The idea was to write an album of music, create videos for every song, and perform all of it live. We did this and actually toured with it twice. The story takes place in the 80's and tells of two friends who form a game company, a bunch of drama, and the eventual downfall. Now this story was told through the music videos. We also wanted to make a brief flash game of the game that the story was about. We made 1 level and that was enough for our purposes.

So when I got in to game dev, it made sense to take this old game and make it a full release. A lot of the story and world was already built. Plus I wasn't blowing my "dream game" idea on my first go.

The entire collection of music videos from my band is on YouTube. Apologies for quality; we uploaded these in 2007! If you checked out my demo, the level music is this song:



Some of the other songs will be level music and some of the music I will write myself. For instance, the title, intro, and boss music from the demo are all new.

Thanks if you read this far!

[bclikesyou]

Tweaked and re-skinned a level 1 enemy and now I have a cave rat!



Up next: level 2 boss art. Then I can finally move on to level design.

[imaginarymonsters]

Loving the jumpy little cave rat!

[bclikesyou]

Loving the jumpy little cave rat!

Thanks dude 


Got started on SLIME BOSS this weekend. Code is all set; just need to finish up these animation states. Dude has got some stuff floatin' around inside of him.

[bclikesyou]

Boss art and code are mostly set. I've been making an effort to get to a point with art and code where I can say, "Okay it works and it looks good" so I can move forward and work on other stuff. There is still a lot I'd like to add to this boss (small firing animations, slime particles, spawn minions) but scope, man! 

[Hephep]

Wow it looks great! I like the idea of the slime monster spitting at you remainings of older things it absorbs  keep going!

[TooKindStudio]

The main character looks very cute!

[Quicksand-T]

Hey fellow C2 dev! Could you upload a Win32 build for people with terribly old computers like me?

Everything looks good here except it seems kinda off to have the main character have such a dark outline when nothing else in the new level has that look to it.

[bclikesyou]

Hey fellow C2 dev! Could you upload a Win32 build for people with terribly old computers like me?

Everything looks good here except it seems kinda off to have the main character have such a dark outline when nothing else in the new level has that look to it.

I'll try and upload a Win32 version this weekend.

And yes, I agree with you on the outline. For the demo, the level art had used a solid black. Moving forward I went for more of a "warmer" black which I will be replacing the demo art with. Also - I've been upping my pixel art skills in the past weeks and am no longer outlining all the characters in black (as you can see from the rat and slime boss). So at some point, I'll re-do the main character and get rid of the black outline.

[bclikesyou]

Not much flashy stuff to show off from my work over the weekend. Mostly went through my new enemies and made sure all states and animations worked. Cleaned up some animations. 

Ran in to a small bug where, while multiple slimes are onscreen, they will stop jumping when one collides with a wall. Shouldn't be a huge issues to sort out.

After that, time to add the dialogue plugin I bought! Really excited to get that up and running as my current dialogue setup is pretty patchy.

[Bakuda]

Beautiful looking game.  Looks like a lot of fun, too.  I look forward to checking it out.

[bclikesyou]

I love reading dev logs but what I love even more is getting to know other developers. It's nice to have a bit of insight in to their lives and find common ground, especially as hobbyists. With that said, here is an "About Me" so you get a better understanding of who is making this game about a tiny, confused robot.

Hi, I'm BC!


That is not my puppy. I wish it was.

I'm a 30-something who lives in western New York. I've spent a lot of time playing in bands, making a lot of designs, and generally trying to fill up my time as much as possible. My current full-time gig is working as a graphic designer, so much of my game dev work happens during free time (nights and weekends). I also go to a parkour gym twice a week, run a local game dev meetup, and do a bit of running. On top of this, I'm currently writing more music for Halloween Forever and my wife and I are in the process of buying a house. I'm a busy dude who likes being busy!

I got in to game dev about a year ago and have been working steadily on ASRS since July '15. Being from the art side of life, I dove in to Construct 2 and found it an easy engine to pick up and learn with. With future projects, I'd like to explore using Unity. I do pixel art in Pyxel Edit (which is an excellent program for the price tag) and Photoshop CC. For music I use LSDJ on a Game Boy Advance SP (chiptunes) and Ableton Live plus a bunch of instruments and synths for other genres of music. I do all my progress tracking and to-do's using Trello. I schedule my life using a Passion Planner and Sunrise for iOS.

I've made quite a few things that take time and dedication, but for some reason I've found working on a game to be way more fulfilling. I'm really enjoying the process and the community that revolves around making these tiny worlds.

Thanks if you've read this far and I'll return to game progress updates moving forward 

[bclikesyou]

More coding this past weekend. Still nothing exciting to show yet.

However a youtuber did do a Let's Play of my demo. Check it out!

[Hephep]

Your "About me" post reached me  :)You seem friendly. And I love parkour but I never got the chance to try it, I have no parkour gym near home. I played Mirror's edge instead haha.

And I'm impressed, a let's play on youtube! I didn't see you had a demo, I'll give a try soon. It look forward to release some demo too. Good job and keep going!

[TooKindStudio]

Loved reading the "about me" stuff, and the video looks very fun! Good luck !

[bclikesyou]

Your "About me" post reached me  :)You seem friendly. And I love parkour but I never got the chance to try it, I have no parkour gym near home. I played Mirror's edge instead haha.

And I'm impressed, a let's play on youtube! I didn't see you had a demo, I'll give a try soon. It look forward to release some demo too. Good job and keep going!

Thanks! And I highly recommend Parkour. It isn't all flips and crazy jumps off of buildings:) It's much more of practice of feeling comfortable moving your body over, around, and under things. Tons of fun!

Loved reading the "about me" stuff, and the video looks very fun! Good luck !

Thanks!