Heya, it's me again!

Sorry it's been so long, I felt pretty demotivated to make these along with the fact that I just got no clue what to talk about most of the time, but I'll try anyway!

It's like, my Birthday or something tomorrow.

Yup, turning 19 tomorrow (the 11th), next up will be 20 (and then I'll really be old, eek!).

I'm not overall thrilled about it liked I used to be, but I'm also not annoyed about it. It's a thing I like to enjoy, but it's really just a passing moment for me at this point. Either way, another year to something I guess!

Doohickeyotron Dev Update - Scaling and Control Plugs

This one's a bit of a two in one since I felt like the scaling wasn't really that important of a thing to talk about so I wanted to get something else done first.

First off, the game's scaling.

There have been a lot of issues with scaling throughout the development of this DEMO, with a lot of level design looking really weird and just annoying to work with. To fix up this issue, I had done tests with different varying scales dependant on the tilesets to find a resolution that can both look good but also feel good to work with, and I'd say it works pretty well!

Here's a little look at the varying level scales when I was working on it.

There are about 4 different scaling options when it comes to the camera, in which I had to develop a new simple camera system to apply these scales easily.

The code is pretty simple, but it took quite a while to figure out the correct zooming scales.

I've also been working on the final core gameplay mechanic, the Control Plugs!

I overall don't think these are actually that hard to implement, I've just been REALLY tired lately so I've only got a very little amount to show so far.

I can't remember if I've explained the Control Plugs before or not, but they mainly allow the player to select what abilities/control options they can have available at select moments.

Currently, there's only 3 plugs and 2 outlets. One for Movement, and two for abilities. It'll most likely stay this way since I don't wanna clutter up the screen with 500 plugs for a bunch of random things.

There were originally gonna be 4 outlets, but I decided against it cause it looked a bit weird and cluttered. However, I really like having 2 outlets, it doesn't fit all of the plugs, but that's one of the main points. I think it can be a really interesting way to design puzzles around utilising what's available in the moment.

Anyway, enough yap yapping, here's a little bit of gameplay based on the very rough things I'm working on.

I'll try and update you guys more on this once it's implemented better, hoping that it doesn't take long.

Uhm, this happened.

Ok I did this as a bit but I spent a little bit too much time on it. I had a lot of fun though, it let me test my skills as a programmer a bit and I really enjoyed it for that part. However, I did become to get a bit carried away and kept adding new features. I never released the build, but there is one with discord integration.

If any of you are curious on this abomination I made, check it out below.

https://markisaman.itch.io/personal-spongebob

The Misc part where I talk about other things going on

Mini Game Rant: Big Walk

Finally got around to trying Big Walk after begging my friends to buy it and it's so much fun to play through! I had a lot of friends say it's expensive friendslop & such which is why they wouldn't get it, but I don't really see the friendslop aspects. The most friendsloppy it gets is the fact it needs more than one player to work. I don't really see that as an issue, however, as I feel like a lot of the game would be pretty boring without the 2 player puzzles, which are an absolute blast!

Also, the game is REALLY long. I've spent about 5 hours so far on a save and I still haven't gotten the final tower. I'm not too bothered though, I had a lot of fun just walking around the environments, going on stuff like the train and solving the different puzzles about. There's a lot of tough puzzles in the game that really make you think outside of the box, which I absolutely loved! We refused to use tutorials or videos the whole time too so it made it so much more interesting to find our own ways of solving the puzzles. Whether we got them right or not is up to us to decide.

Overall, it's a great game that I'd really recommend people check out!

YouTube Video 100

This is something I've been meaning to do for a while as I haven't posted on YouTube for about 3 months now. I wanna make a full update video on everything that I've been doing and all the plans for the future. Of course, a lot of you guys know most of that stuff already from this blog, but I'd like to talk a bit more publicly about stuff like Doohickeyotron.

I don't think I'll mention that I've been posting on here as I like to keep it as my more personal area of the internet, but I'll definitely post the video here too for people to see.

Song of the Week: Say I Haven't Lost It All

This is a song I've been thinking about a bit lately, as it's one that I'd like to use for the credits to the final game on my main project line. I think it's a really fitting one for the theming of the game and it being my last planned project before I just fully do whatever.

To be honest, I've been thinking about that project and all of my other ones lately. I think the final one is the roughest idea so far, but I know how each and every one ends.

The first project has a pretty good ending, but a very cruel one. I like it a lot, however, I think it'll be a controversial one (in the debatable sense, no heavy topics).

The second project is a bit of a rough idea still, but there's a nice surface to work off of.

The third project is one I've been planning out for a good couple years, I'm just leaving it for now until I get project 1 & 2 done.

The fourth project is my favourite all around. As much as I think of my final project as the dream one, I think the fourth is the one I'm most excited to make, I love every piece of it and I hope that out of all my projects, it is the one I can bring into creation, it is truly a special one to me. (for those who were keeping up with my bulletins, this is the one with best piece of lore I've ever written)

The final project is a lot of vague thoughts to me, especially with pacing. However, I know the final scenes of it and I know how it ends. It's a bit of a confusing ending for most, but I think it's a really neat one that has a lot of potential if I do it right.

Anyways, that's all from me over these past two weeks. Next time you hear from me, I'll be 19! (tbf, it's already the 11th over here by the time I'm posting it, so I guess I'm 19 now lol)

See ya! 👋