The artwork is in, the game play is complete, the control system could use some work but I've determined that this will be the final state of my first 1 game a month submission.
I need some time to recharge before the January challenge and I'm hitting the busiest week of the year in my day job.
Once I have some space I'll try and write a proper post-mortem but in case I don't here are my current thoughts.
1)I have a lot to learn but that is no real obstacle. Every little issue I ran into is just a matter of learning the API or medium level problem solving.
2) Unity is made for this type of stuff. Having written 3 relatively sophisticated 3d engines over the years it is clear how unsophisticated they actually were. You make games with the toolchain and that's where Unity shines.
3) I can make a game in a month. It's not beautiful or ground breaking but it's a game, cut from whole cloth and made in 25 days. I definitely intend on repeating this success in January.
4) Artwork is fully 1/2 of the equation. Unfortunately for us programmers it's the important half. The difference between the game when I was using placeholders and when I put the skin on it is wild. I'd love to find an artist that was interesting in making a game in a month and see what we could do combined.
5) Unity Asset Store is a great resource. All of the art in the game is a free asset excluding the wolves and the rabbit. Grand total cost for all of the art. $25.
I made a detour the last couple of days because I hit a wall in development. Every line I code I was writing was suspect and I just couldn't get it going. In an attempt to practice useful procrastination I started adding art assets to the game so what I had relegated to "nice to have" made it in before a few "must haves".
I did get the progressive score system working and tune the game quite a bit though. It's more difficult now and the game adds extra wolves at a faster rate. So not a total loss. It is sometimes frustrating to me how important good artwork is in the actual construction of a game as that is an area I have a lot of work left to achieve a reasonable level of competency. Just not enough hours in the day, especially with the hard 1 month deadline.
I'm already looking forward to the next months challenge and have been thinking about some game ideas for January.
To trudge... the slow and determined march of a man bearing a heavy load...
Ok, enough melodrama. I'm posting this on the 19th but this video was recorded on the 17th and reflects that progress. The simple flashing of the "wolves" required me to refresh my memory on how coroutines work in Unity. After a few stumbles I finally figured it out and also added a sound for when you eat the "carrot" power up.
With 11 days remaining on my first entry for the 1 Game a Month blog, I've hit on what I believe to be the final scope of this project.
I initially hoped to have several maps, and to progress through the maps as you cleared levels. Maybe 5 or 10 plays per map and then I'd alter the maze, move the power ups around, perhaps introduce additional wolf types.
Here's my final punch list. If I have time beyond this I'll spend it on small features I can add in a single coding session or polish.
Will do:
1) One more score dynamic - A progressively higher score for each wolf you eat per power up.(1 wolf gives say 500 points, second 1000, third 2000, etc... resets when you lose your power up status)
2) One more presentation update - A pause when you are killed, then a "you got killed sound" then a reset, then a go! Death is abruptly handled currently with no time to gather yourself before the game continues.
3) Play-balance the game - It is currently too easy. My primary plan is to adjust the scoring system to reduce the number of extra lives you get per map.
4) Polish - The sounds get the point across but a few hours working on the sounds and adding a few particle effects will go a long way as far as the feedback the system gives you. Without pretty visuals I need to insure that the feedback is tight and obvious.
More importantly than what I will be able to implement is what I won't be able to implement. That's the sort of lesson the 1 Game a Month challenge teaches, you must ruthlessly attack the scope of your game.
Won't do:
1) Multiple mazes/levels - I have a great idea for a dark level where a spotlight follows the rabbit around the level and you can't see what you've "eaten" and what you haven't. Not going to happen for this entry. Maybe some other entry I'll pick it back up and go for it.
2) Proper artwork - I could buy appropriate models and pick up the game visuals by using a proper shader. Maybe, maybe I can hit this mark but I'm putting this weight down as far as a "must have". It's definitely in the "nice to have" list.
3) Intermissions - I wanted a black background cut scene similar to the intermissions in pacman between map changes. No map changes though, so no cut scenes for sure. This would have to wait for a round 2 attack on this project. I simply won't have time to implement this.
4) Android release - I've yet to tackle an Android release but even if its easy as pie I know I'll have to re-write the control scheme for a virtual D pad. As fun as this would be it won't make the cut for December.
Still on target to make my first challenge. I deployed a web player and linked it to a few friends just for the fun of it. I intended to provide links to incremental builds so you could follow along as the game progresses but I got caught up in making the deadline and slacked a bit on blogging my progress.
Pretty exciting to be honest. A 1.0 revision simply means that the game is playable. You can win, you can lose. The fundamental criteria of a game is in place. This feels like quite an accomplishment given this is the busiest month of the year at my day job.
Next round of development involves adding some variety between levels and improving the feedback the game gives you.
One idea along this line are to add a variety of wolves, and to have the spawn rate increase as you go up levels. The alpha wolf will hunt your current position ruthlessly. A hunter wolf will wander randomly until he picks up your scent and will follow it until he gets you. What's pictured currently is the soldier wolf. He just wanders randomly around the map with no chasing ability at all.
Another idea is to add a power-up spawn that randomly traverses the level at a slow pace. The power up will give you a point bonus and a variety of temporary power ups. What these are is still anyone's guess. A speed increase, invulnerability, maybe some other effect. I need to play test a few ideas and see where the fun is.
Here's the underwhelming, but inaugural 1.0 Video.
I've decided to work on a One Game a Month entry to put a finished project in my portfolio. The game is a riff off of PacMan, but I'm going to alter the mechanics enough that it should play quite differently.
I'll also document development on this blog. My process will be to get a functional game up and running, primarily with programmer art and royalty free sounds I make or find online, and then I'll hopefully get to spend quite a bit of time on polish.
I started December 1st and have until December 31st to complete the project. As of the eighth I'm probably 7 or 8 good days of coding away from being able to say "game"
Once I've gotten to the point where you can actually "win" and "lose" I'll start working on the mechanics and try and maximize the fun. After that, time allowing, I'll replace the programmer art with something that is higher quality and put proper animations and User interface skins in.
