I spent most of the day socializing with my fellow gamedevs rather than actually getting any work done. One thing that became clear is that I am not sure what game I am making, because as the ideas flowed, I didn't have any clear guidelines to say "no that doesn't fit this game, because...". It was just like, "well, maybe... doesn't sound right but, I dunno?" Going to have to think about that some more in the future, but keep focusing on the stuff I know the game/engine will need from a technical side for now.

It sort of feels like it was a sidetrack, but perhaps a sidetrack that needs to happen every so often. Like, what the heck are you building?

There were a few small concrete tasks I did complete:

• Redesigned the opening area so it feels more like a game. I don't know why a realistic* open woods with grass and trees dotting the area is boring, while arranging the trees to form a maze is not completely stupid and seems natural; but that's how it is. I'm still pretty slow with the map editor so it's good to flex those level design muscles a bit.
• Made it so you have to actually press a button to interject during dialog. This allows you to move around and abandon the dialog if you want a lot easier. Someone asks you a question - you walk away - they have there answer**
• The npc path following function works great from a data perspective. They get to their point efficiently while navigating around obstacles. This took a year to get where I wanted it! Visually there is a weird quirk where for some directions, they oscillate between facing directions. They will be moving straight north, but the sprite shows up as facing east, then facing north, then facing east, etc. It looks bad. People I showed it off to pointed it out. It made me feel really embarrassed like I should go sit under a bridge and eat bacon or something*** I spent some time trying to tweak this behavior, with limited success. The artifact happens less frequently now. Hooray?

* I use the broadest definition of realistic here.

** They have the answer to the question of "is the player character a dick"

*** OK, not this bad. Maybe we can skip the bridge. Never skip the bacon. ****

**** And I don't even really like bacon that much. I mean it's OK, but I'm not like "BACON! WOO!" or anything.

Today I made enemies hop over stuff and look hilarious.

Worked on an old prototype I had lying around. Might try and finish it for the 'finish your game' itch.io jam...maybe.

It's what can be described as a bit buggy, but I've got the painting working in the map editor.

The brush position is wrong but it kinda sort works.

Getting some coding in after a (lost) basketball game and (a lot) of homework!

The key mechanic I started to implement doesn't fit with the game I want to make, so I am removing it. The key will act as it does in the original "One Room Dungeon."

Today I don't have anything finished to show off. I have lots of little things I started on which will pay off later.

gonna add some spikes, at this point i can start getting the menu ready, some basic ui and levels

couple of bigs to fix tho, no biggie