Back to making this site even better!! In this session I dived deep into JavaScript to create this animated moving background for the site which I saw on @Irtaza ’s site and I liked it alot. So I spent all this time trying to figure out how that works because I have no idea how JavaScript works. I also added my new game “The Lat Dig” to the game section aswell with a clickable link.
Added the Readme.md file in the game’s repository and did some final changes including an hour long hunt on why the sounds weren’t working in the itch.io page when publishing the game, that is fixed now. The game is ready to be shipped!! (This is the first version of course)
Completed adding all the sound effects and running them through code. Also made changes to the colour and positioning of the tutorial text. Now when you dig a tile the background colour is no longer the sky colour it is a solid dark grey so you can distinguish between the dug up area and undug area easily. Also added a story scene so you know what the goal is in the game. The First Version of the game is complete now. I just need to create a readme file and Build the game so that it can uploaded online! See you soon :)
We are so back!! The Title Screen went through some changes but it is this newish display now. Major thing this session is that I added sound effects!! I had never added sound effects to a game before so this was a huge learning curve especially with linking the sound to the animation and stuff. Also finding a sound you like is very time consuming. I think I’m very close to shipping the firs version of the game. I don’t think I’ll be able to complete this game for Stardance because I have the SAT exam soon so yeah… I hope you guys will still like the completist version of this.
In this session I completed making the interactive tutorial for the starting of the game. It tells you how to move, dig up dirt, collect coal, and use the shop to sell minerals and buy upgrades. Also created the Title Screen for the game.
Alot of stuff happened in this session; I went back and forth on the background alot and settled on this new background with some trees and bushes with no secondary sky colour behind it, I play tested the game to see that all the code is running smoothly, made some bullet points for what I want to add before the first ship and now I’m currently working on an Interactive starting tutorial for the game.
Working on the background art of the game, added some trees which took ages to make them look good. I hope they are unto the standard of the game theme.
Added the Iron tile!!! I know it doesn’t look the best but I think you can cut me some slack as this is still my first 2D Game. the iron tile is worth “15M” coins so you can use it to refill your battery or save up more to consume the coins in the upgrades section. The sell button sells all the minerals (coal and iron) together. Now you can upgrade everything quicker!! yayayayay. What should I add next? Secret dungeon fight under the Iron ores? Sound fx? more Ores? Better Sky? Interactive starting tutorial? Starting Lore Animation?
Created a Battery Refill button so that you can refill your battery bar when you are running low on it. It is “15M” right now which Is half the price of the first upgrade so you have to contemplate if you wanna dig more for the upgrade or just keep refilling the battery. Also working on a new mineral for the game, the iron tile.
Alot has happened since the last devlog… The upgrades screen now tells you what happens when you upgrade an item to its next form. This took alot of time to figure out the code for but in the end it worked out! :D The Battery drainage icon has been slightly updated and now when you upgrade the battery feature the battery refills to full battery and the inventory now has a “full inventory” pop up screen whenever you mine a mineral and your inventory is already full so it doesn’t count that mineral so it is basically destroyed. Worked on art aswell for the background which I’m still not happy about but at least the upgrades section is complete for the first ship!!
The Battery feature now has a UI display to visualise how much battery you have left. It is present at the bottom left of the game screen and it is upgradable in the shop as well just like before. Very Fun!! No I think I’ll work on the inventory feature to set a limit to it and then make that upgradable aswell!!
There is a battery feature now in the game and when you are using the jetpack for too long your battery runs out and you “die” which means you lose all the minerals that were in your inventory but your coins balance remains the same. The Battery is also upgradable in the shop with your coins. A battery ui bar will come soon…
The jetpack function now has an animation whenever you are using it. Fully upgradable through the shop. Though it doesn’t have separate animations for the jetpack yet. I am trying to leave the less important artwork towards the end of the project now so then I’ll only work on aesthetic like background and polishing sprites for in game animation.
There is an upgradable jetpack feature in the game now!! Which was an extremely hard job to pull off because the initial version of it had a million bugs. Because I want there to be zero gravity on the cobble tiles so it is like the base platform and the jetpack doesn’t work there and when the player gets near the ground/dirt tiles gravity should apply so the player falls downwards after digging but when any up keys (up arrow, W key or Spacebar) are pressed it should drop back to zero gravity so the player can use the jetpack to go back up to the “home” cobble tiles. This took so long to make it usable and I’m quite happy with it. Just have to make the actual jetpack item now.
Still working on the sky, mainly the bottom terrain now. And also adjusting alot of tiles in unity. I also made the camera boundary (the place where the camera stops following the player) a bit smaller because I don’t think I wanna make that big of a game. This is supposed to be a fun game which you can come back to and have a mission to complete.
New Sky in the game now!! Still trying to add more things to it so stay tuned for that. Also fixed a major bug in the upgrades digging script for the shovel as it would only dig up one block instead of four if it is upgraded because it only detected tiles to the right of it and if they were already dug up it would appear as though the upgrade didn’t work and only one block has been dug.
The Shop is now in the game!!! and it is fully functional. Now when you mine a coal tile the newly added GameManager tracks it and updates your total coal count which then you can sell to get 10M per Coal and upgrade your shovel. First upgrade costs 50M and the upgrade button works aswell, first upgrade increases the dig size from 1x1 –> 2x2. Now the game is an actually playable game where your objective could be to get rid of a whole area and make it easier for your self by getting upgrades. But that is not the game I’m making, I’ll make it a bit more fun than that. Your Goal will be to dig to the bottom to find Secret Treasure…more on that later!!
Coal Mineral is now in the game. Made three different sprite styles of the coal so it doesn’t look repititive I know the placement of coal looks a bit cluttered right now. I’m still experimenting with them. I’m currently going to be working on the script to count how many coal ‘tiles’ have been dug up so you can sell em in the shop. Hope you like this!
The upgrade button for the Shovel works now!! It has 4 upgrades and the tile dig size increases on each upgrade. Also made the player flip alongside its animation if they dig a tile which is on their opposite side which is pretty cool to me. There is new grass on the intersection of the cobble floor and ground tiles. The game is pretty fun to play if you just like to dig dirt, I know that sounds weird but just getting a rid of an area and upgrading your shovel is pretty fun in itself.
