THE ROAD SO FAR

Hi! :)

I started working on this site a little late (over a year too late, in fact), so in this particular case I'll try to post condensed information about Skeli. Subsequent posts will be more detailed and focused on the ongoing work on the game.

Well, it started as a simple 2D platformer inspired by such titles as Montezuma's Revenge, Henry's House or Jet Set Willy from the 8bit era. If you don't know these titles, I strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with them :). It was supposed to be a learning project (did I mention that I want to become a game developer?). However, from the very beginning it grew a lot. I quickly grasped how to make 2D platformer/jump & run games, but I wanted to learn more, so I kept incorporating new things into Skeli's game. So, very soon after this little skeleton learned to take his first steps, he made two new "friends".

THE BADDIES

As I mentioned, the game is inspired by Montezuma's Revenge,so Skeli's first opponent had to be the rolling skull.

Then SPIDER came to play :). The behavior of both is very similar. The only difference is that Skull can jump, can jump and roll at the same time and can just roll on the floor. SPIDERS, on the other hand, can't roll (that's probably because they're afraid of tangling their legs), but their behavior is less predictable.  They can jump... but will they? You never know ;). They're jumping suddenly and at random intervals, so it's harder to get past them.

There are also VENOMOUS SNAKES. They stand still, observing Skeli with their cold eyes. They're not moving, but they tend to be in the right spot just to make Skeli's life harder.

Speaking of making someone's life difficult. The first environmental (and dangerous) obstacle I implemented was pits of boiling lava. Fall into one and you're toasted.  Next came disappearing bridges, placed mostly over lava ;). Once I had those, I also added conveyor belts, which mostly direct the player into the lava (muahahaha :D)... After all this, I thought to myself that I copied all the basic stuff from Montezuma's Revenge. I consider myself a creative person, so I also added something from myself.... poisoned arrows! The mechanisms that fire them can be found on walls, ceilings and floors. They can fire slowly or quickly, the speed and intervals are adjustable.

Not everything is going to killing the player... at least not directly. There are also pipes that the player can slide down, ladders (this was an endless nightmare) and ropes that can be climbed (even some spider webs can be climbed). There are also doors that can only be opened if you have the right color key (a red key opens a red door)

Later I thought that I could add some kind of tutorial to my game... I had to introduce Skeli to his new friends.

THE NPCs

The DWARVES, were the very first NPCs in the game. Their role was plain and simple(as their minds), to tell the player how to move Skeli around, what to avoid and what to collect. That was everything. At that time I had no plot for the game. Actually I was asked about that, and I was figuring it out while I was writing the answer ;). In effect of that The DWARVES got a new purpose. They are scattered in different chambers of the dungeon and they're giving hints to help Skeli on the quest. They’re reapting rumors they heard and... I don't want to spoil the fun so I stop here ;).

The BIG DWARVES are just bigger cousins of regular DWARVES. They operate different mechanisms in the dungeon like folding bridges or sewage disposal levers. They can help Skeli, but they always want something in return. YES! I added simple fetch-quests. BIG DWARVE will ask Skeli to bring something for him, and in return he will offer some help.

At this point it got quite overwhelming for an inexperienced developer. It all worked fine, but it made me so tired so I stopped working on the game and I left it for almost a year. But this year have returned to it with new knowledge and new strengths.

NOW

I refactored the code, well I had to because I wasn't sure what I was thinking back then and some things stopped working because of the Godot Engine updated version. Now I have everything working as it should... again.

This year (since may) I'm focusing on storytelling aspects of my game so I added new 'mobile' NPCs with some new quests, I also had to redesign levels because of that. I added new BADDIE to the game and in fact, I'm kind of proud off that. It's nothing fancy, it's a GHOST. This ghost is flying around minding its own business, but when it spots the Player... Well Player needs to run fast because when the ghost catches him it kicks him in a random direction (lava?sharp spikes? ;)). I'm proud of this because I'm using a state machine for the behaviour of this ghost. I was afraid of using a state machine before, but now I'm thinking about implementing it also in other game objects. The time will show.

Well... that was a long post, and yet I don't think I managed to tell about every aspect of my game. Anyway, from now on I'll be writing posts on a regular basis :) I also hope to get some feedback from You, so please write comments and e-mail me if You want to :)

See You soon :)