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[Excy]

Hey guys, back with another project I've been working on Dink, a small platformer/collectathon game.

The idea comes from a little game I made when I used to work in Java around 7 years ago. It wasn't really anything back then but had some cool mechanics which I won't spoil.

The reason I'm doing a devlog on this game is that I want to start making games right, I want to stop my horrible habit of quitting, that's the goal with this. So let's begin.

Start Date: 14 June 2016

The past week or so I've been developing base features and mechanics in Dink as well as several art assets.

Things completed:
Collectibles. I'm calling them nuggets for now and have three variations; Gold which are found everywhere, Blue ones which are secrets/hidden areas and Red ones which are challenge nuggets. At the moment they're just reskinned gold ones but I'm wanting to make them a bit larger and maybe change the shape.

Movement. I've got a good feel for movement down including wall sliding/jumping. Some of the jumping I feel needs tweaking but it's a good start.

Art. I started out with a Portal-ish vibe, starting out with an overgrown lab but the aesthetic didn't warm up to me that much so I went with an underground/cavern feel for now. I plan on doing different themes for different segments of the game.

Cheers, I'll keep this updated.

Latest Download (27th February 2017): http://www.indiedb.com/games/dink/downloads/dink-v003

Enjoy!

Original gif

[jctwood]

Really love the character and how visible they are in the scene, are you still working in Java?

[Excy]

Really love the character and how visible they are in the scene, are you still working in Java?

Thanks! Nope, I'm using Unity and C# now

[TonyManfredonia]

Aw, I love the little character design! Kind of reminds me of a Tamogatchi. Not a bad thing at all, in my book 

Keep it up! I anticipate learning more about this.

[zminusone]

Niice Reminds me of playing Ocarina of Time with my little bro. Silly, but his name was Dan so he'd always name his "link" "dink." I'm Brian so on my playthrough was named "bink" haha... looking good 

[Excy]

Niice Reminds me of playing Ocarina of Time with my little bro. Silly, but his name was Dan so he'd always name his "link" "dink." I'm Brian so on my playthrough was named "bink" haha... looking good 

Haha, that's awesome. Thanks man.

Aw, I love the little character design! Kind of reminds me of a Tamogatchi. Not a bad thing at all, in my book 

Keep it up! I anticipate learning more about this.

Thanks! I think I've settled my style on cute cubic characters

I think I'm going to include technical stuff in updates too so hopefully I'll be able to teach someone something at least!

[TonyManfredonia]

I just followed you on Twitter

I'm very excited to stay in the loop! I have a soft spot for cute 2D characters...

[Excy]

I just followed you on Twitter

I'm very excited to stay in the loop! I have a soft spot for cute 2D characters...

Thanks! I should use Twitter more.. haha.

Update #1 is here!

I've been adding some aesthetics to the game, I'm wanting it to look somewhat pleasing so I've been messing around with some ideas. Overall, it's been pretty good and the game feels a lot more welcoming and peaceful

First and most obvious; Wall sliding now has an animation and a smoke trail, really happy with this.

Second, I created a trail of leaves that would sometimes fall from where you've been walking.

Lastly, I created a little smoke bump particle effect when landing, might change it but it's looking pretty cool.

[Excy]

Update #2:

So a little more work on putting some prettiness into the game has been done. It's surprising how just a few pixels can change the aesthetic so much. I wasn't too happy with how the grass on the tiles were looking, too uniform and ordered. So I created a tileset for 20x20 images instead of 16x16, this gives me a 2 pixel leeway/overlap area that I can go outside of and still be attached to the image. Here's the comparison: Left is old, Right is new.

I also made a new trap. I'm mainly wanting to stay away from live enemies as I'm aiming for sort of a peaceful mood. I like the idea that this place is abandoned and it's yours to explore. So, we have an arrow trap which works similar to Spelunky in the way that you can activate it with objects. Also! We're now able to pick up objects and throw them about! The art for the arrow trap is very placeholder for now as I'm finishing up for tonight. Will replace later.

I've also darkened some of the background tiles to give more contrast especially between that big door and the forground tiles. I think it helps a lot.

[TonyManfredonia]

The art difference with the door definitely makes a HUGE difference! I agree.

With the arrow trap - I know you plan on changing the art. Perhaps you can give the players a touch of warning before the arrow floors it across the screen? xD I'm not sure what the final art will look like, but at the moment, if I tried wall climbing that I would've been butchered by the arrow by not knowing it was coming at all. The mechanics work well, though! Great job!

[Zorg]

In my opinion, the falling leaves look a lot better than the smoke (and water) particle effect, because you are not scaling or rotating the pixels of the leaves.

If you want to "disrespect" the virtual pixel resolution you'll have to apply it everywhere (or at least more often) so the result looks intentional. I'd prefer non-scaled, unrotated pixels, of course that's just my personal view on that topic, feel free to ignore me.

Also, don't be too inspired by FEZ.

Following.

[ogat]

Looks kinda cozy.

How are you planning to structure the game world. Will there be individual levels/puzzles or a more open exploration sort of deal?
How will taking damage/dying/respawning work? I think that will be very important for the game's mood.

[Excy]

The art difference with the door definitely makes a HUGE difference! I agree.

With the arrow trap - I know you plan on changing the art. Perhaps you can give the players a touch of warning before the arrow floors it across the screen? xD I'm not sure what the final art will look like, but at the moment, if I tried wall climbing that I would've been butchered by the arrow by not knowing it was coming at all. The mechanics work well, though! Great job!

Yeah, it's still WIP, I'll have to play around with different types of warnings, most likely just environmental stuff and cues.

In my opinion, the falling leaves look a lot better than the smoke (and water) particle effect, because you are not scaling or rotating the pixels of the leaves.

If you want to "disrespect" the virtual pixel resolution you'll have to apply it everywhere (or at least more often) so the result looks intentional. I'd prefer non-scaled, unrotated pixels, of course that's just my personal view on that topic, feel free to ignore me.

Also, don't be too inspired by FEZ.

Following.

Thanks! I didn't think about pixel scaling or rotating, I'll tinker with it and see what it looks like, who knows maybe it'll look a lot better

Haha, I've taken a bit of inspiration from Fez for art but not too much. To be honest, a lot of the art here might be redone, it's only early and I'm still finding the artstyle for the game

Looks kinda cozy.

How are you planning to structure the game world. Will there be individual levels/puzzles or a more open exploration sort of deal?
How will taking damage/dying/respawning work? I think that will be very important for the game's mood.

I'm still thinking about different routes I can take with this. Currently I have a series of "tutorial" rooms that lead to a hub world with several doors. I'm leaning towards a Spyro-esque structure in that each hub world has several different routes/levels and you need to collect something from each of them to open the door to the next.

At the moment, any damage you take just resets the room you're in. I think if I were doing larger rooms, I may need checkpoints but to be honest, this method is working quite well so far, I like it.

[Excy]

Update #3:

So we have secrets now, and a bit more art as well as light shafts. I'm a bit iffy on the light shaft, think it needs work but it's definitely a nice addition to have. Secrets is one thing I'm still learning the best way to hint at them.



I also made a very early pause menu, but what's important is that in the top left of the screen it now shows how many nuggets you've collected on this level while unpaused. While paused, it shows the total number of nuggets in the game.

[Excy]

Hey guys! It's been quiiite a while since I posted here because I have a crap ton of stuff going on (moving house, yay!). I AM however, still working on Dink so let's get back into posting. I've done quite a few things while away.

Here's a firefly with dynamic lighting and you can also see the outside border of the level here that's new.

http://i.imgur.com/3eTs7g2.mp4 (sorry, image opens up as an mp4, guess I took too long recording it)

I'll be back with more updates. Dink isn't dead

[TonyManfredonia]

Hooray! You've returned :D

Welcome back . I love your little light butterfly creature. Very mystical!

[Eluardian]

Glad this is still going, really cute and memorable character you got goin on here.

_{(Best of luck with the move!)}

[Excy]

Hooray! You've returned :D

Welcome back . I love your little light butterfly creature. Very mystical!

Yes! :D I realised why I quit projects when they get going. I always thought it was a lack of motivation, but it's not, it's a lack of determination and perseverance. Once I actually get into the groove of working on something, it's enjoyable again

Glad this is still going, really cute and memorable character you got goin on here.

_{(Best of luck with the move!)}

Thank you very much!

[Excy]

Sneaky little update here.

For some reason I continue to work on the aesthetic of the game. Here's some butterflies with a toadstool.

In other news, I have decided on a theme for my first world!

http://imgur.com/a/12W2m

[Excy]

Another quick update on the stuff I've been working on today. Really getting into the groove here.

Challenge rooms and nuggets. Basically rooms that have a timer, if it reaches 0, you reset.

http://imgur.com/a/CT3c8