Well, after some major complications the first time, I decided to return to regular devlogs with some lessons learned. The most important lesson being that developing games is hard and time-consuming. Id est, I have a day job, sometimes medical issues, and maybe a weekly devlog is not the right move for me.

So, I'm going to try a monthly devlog instead.

For those who are new to my devlogs (which would probably be everyone who happens to be reading) I think the best move right now would be to take stock of my progress on my first project. And, while I'm at it, I should probably clearly announce my project and let people know what it actually is.

My project is an Idle Game called Idle Exotics. It's kind of a pick-and-mix of gameplay ideas between games like Cookie Clicker, AdVenture Capitalist, and a few other related games. I didn't really have much in mind for the game, but it's supposed to be a simple project to get me started.

I guess there's a bit of a story for "flavor" but where's the fun in spoilers? It's a game about being an aspiring franchisee of an exotic pet store - it's a simple plot for a simple game.

Gameplay:

I've finished a good portion of the basics, and finished some concept art. I completed the "minimum viable product" a while ago. Now, there are additional features ready on top of that. Here's a brief rundown of what features are finished

• The player can hatch eggs by clicking on them a certain number of times. This number varies by species, and the player can only select species that they have access to.
• The player earns money from hatching eggs that can be used to buy various things from incubators to upgrades. The more you buy, the more expensive they get.
• The player can buy incubators that can passively hatch eggs in the background for certain species.
• The player can hire interns to click the egg for them.
• The functionality for upgrades, such as access to different species to hatch, and various bonuses to help the player earn money faster. However, these are not accessible in the demo yet, as the code is not associated with the upgrade buttons yet.

There are also a number of things that aren't really features, but are still important, like making the player's view scale depending on the aspect ratio of the screen or the size of the window. Little things that I felt I should get under control before getting ahead of myself.

The big feature that isn't in the game yet is the ability to breed for eggs instead of just getting random ones every time like it is now. I wanted to add a bit of a twist on the idle game formula, where the player collects all the different morphs, in addition to the usual idle game fare. Breeding is probably going to be the main target for code during the next month of development. I'm going to aim for a more rudimentary version before I fully finish it.

The demo has slots for 16 different species, which was the original number that I planned on having. But, after some deliberation, I knocked it back to only 12 different species for various reasons. Part of it being the time I'd need to spend making assets, part of them was that I didn't really like the concept, or wasn't able to represent it well in a still image.

!!!!!!! DISCLAIMER !!!!!!!
All of the art assets featured in these previews are placeholders, and won't be there in the final game. I just needed something to put there to make sure the sprites were actually getting swapped out for the correct ones like I'd expect. The final game will probably use cropped versions of the finished art assets, or more detailed sprites from the concept art with a close-up on the face. I haven't decided yet, but I certainly won't be using assets directly from Google Image Search.

The names for things are also not final, so they'll probably change as development continues.

Art Assets:

The big problem with having a focus on the breeding functionality this month is that it's so intertwined with the art assets. So next month might have a focus on the art side, rather than the code side. For now, the game still uses stock assets. I've got some art assets finished, but I still have quite a few to go.

So far, I've managed to translate 2 species from a concept art sketch to an art asset that will eventually make its way into the game. Maybe along the way I'll add short animations. But, for now, a single sprite will do. We'll call animations a "stretch goal." I have 2 more concept arts completed that I'm currently working on making the assets for. So, I'm almost 1/3 of the way finished with concept arts.

You might notice that I'm starting in black and white, which is done to accommodate for the different morphs you can collect. All the different colors on the examples are a result of palette-swapping different layers of the image, so each can be adjusted independently. There are ways to palette-swap sprites without working in black and white, but I decided to keep doing it this way for a few reasons. For starters, I don't mind working in black and white when I make sprites. I'm a traditional artist, and I've done a lot of work in black and white. Some people find it boring, but I don't mind either way. If anything it kind of strips out the hues so you can see the values and contrast more clearly. And secondly, I already know how to apply a shader that will change the color of a sprite the way I want. Maybe in the future I'll look into these other methods of doing palette swaps, but right now it seems a bit unnecessary.

Since they're simple, I'm probably going to try to get some unique sprites for the clickable egg as well. I think most people would agree that replacing the MS-Paint egg would do a lot for the presentation, and drawing an egg shape or a sphere is pretty easy. In the final version, I'll probably have hatching animations for the eggs, but we'll play that by ear and see what happens.

So, in conclusion, I have some solid progress so far, and hopefully a productive month ahead of me. My goal for October is to finish 4 more concept arts, have 2 more assets ready to add to the game, and get about halfway through implementing the breeding system. It's a tall order, so I guess we'll see if I can stay on target or if I'll have to adjust my expectations for November.