The future recedes, the past increases. Dozens of tasks are still not done. Hundreds of bugs have not even been discovered yet. And I would consider myself lucky to have something resembling a game by mid-October. But I can make it. I think.

A lot of this week was spent on fixing navigation for NPCs on different layers. Essentially, I am trying to make impossible space within Godot's 2D engine and suffering the consequences of trying to fight against it. The idea is that the player can travel to different floors in a level, all of which are in the same scene and stacked on top of each other. I knew when I started this project that it would be difficult, but I underestimated exactly how difficult it would be. Would I have changed my mind if I knew how hard it would really be? Maybe. It's such a minor feature that most players won't even think twice about it, but the actual backend for making it work is a complete mess I'm kind of amazed it works at all.

The majority of things I need to get done are all art-oriented. I am not much of an artist (although I am working on that), and I may rehire my tileset artist to make some additional art for characters, objects, and one more tileset. Music and sounds I can probably get royalty-free online or throw something together myself. But I am definitely feeling the pressure of trying to get all this done in time.

But some of the parts are easy. The game now has a pause menu that is (mostly) functional. Pretty easy work, just making sure everything lines up in the right places and at different screen sizes.

There's also the fun issue of trying to come up with a name for the game. I've been working under a codename that I had intended to use as the game's actual name, but unfortunately it's the same name as a popular book/film series which just happens to have a VR tech demo on Steam. So now I have to think of something completely different. I have a few ideas floating around in my head, but it's hard to find one that sticks after you've gotten so used to your first idea.

Making a game is hard.

Game of the Week

One of the most atmospheric games I've ever played is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and to a lesser extent its two sequels. It's a dreary, uneasy hellscape in eastern Europe where everything is out to get you. The game can be blatantly unfair at times, it's filled with bugs and is held together with duct tape, and I found its two sequels to be better from a technical and graphics standpoint but lacking in everything else, so SoC is still my favorite of the trilogy. Dreary, yet comfy.