Welcome Back!

Welcome to the 12th Musta̶c̶h̶e Dev Weekly Update, where I share the progress I’ve made over the last week and the challenges I’ve encountered.

Despite not making much progress on ScaleUp (because of school), I have significant progress to share for Ryu’s Revenge.
For ScaleUp, I created a simple tutorial level 🎓.
As for Ryu’s Revenge, updates include finishing up all the UI, revisiting the first cutscene prototype, and adding some weather effects ☁️.

Introduction Level (Tutorial) 👨‍🏫

Allow me to start this time with an update on ScaleUp.
I’m not sure if I ever told you about my plans for this late GMTK Jam submission. But since someone on Twitter/X asked about it, I made sure to respond.

As you might guess, according to the plan, the game looks pretty good.
I thought the same, so I started doing some necessary tasks that usually come last.
Last week, due to limited game development time (thanks to school), I only managed to create this simple tutorial level. The game is already so simple, but I don’t want anyone to be confused about how to play it.

UI Fine-Tuning 🔧

Controllers 🎮

If you’ve been following the previous Weekly Updates, you know I’ve been focusing a lot on the UI lately. This week, I finally completed it.
First off, I added controller/keyboard/touchscreen icons for the tutorial text within the game using this cool plug-in: Controller Icons.

I had to make my own adjustments, like touchscreen icons and input fallback if the action is unassigned or unknown. But it took care of most of the heavy lifting.

This plug-in comes with auto-controller type detection (e.g., PS4 and Xbox 360), but I implemented a manual selection option anyway.

Because sometimes, players don’t like the kind of game controllers they have 🤬

Buttons 🔘

I continued my mission of stuffing the shuriken icon wherever I could in the UI, adding it to the checkboxes and radio buttons.

I might even consider a shuriken mouse cursor 🐁

Then I noticed that when enabling the fullscreen option, the buttons sometimes ended up with more width than height or vice versa, resulting in a non-square shape (which I didn’t really like).
So, I did some pro coding to keep them square-shaped 👨‍💻

It took more time than it should have, though.

Cutscenes 🎬

You might not believe me, but more than 4 months ago, I started creating the very first cutscene for the game.
It ended up like this, and I hadn’t touched it since.

But the time finally came—I had to face it, so I did.
What I didn’t tell you before was that when I was making rain and thunder effects, I was creating them specifically for that cutscene (but I later used them in some levels as well—more on that later).

So, I replaced the placeholder dialogues, added rain, lightning, and mountains to the background.
And… Voilà!

I still need to add some villager houses there…

The difference is clear, but there’s still more to add.

Reusing Rain 🌧️

You didn’t think I’d only use the rain and lightning for that cutscene, did you?
Of course not! That’s why I added them to Levels 5 and 6. Now there are two levels in the green forest, two in the spooky cave, and two in the stormy night forest (soon to be a village).

That’s it! Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Who Am I❓

I’m Mohamed, also known as Mustache Dev. For the last 4 years (since 2021), I’ve been creating games solo using only my mobile phone.
I’m currently working on Ryu’s Revenge, my biggest project so far. It’s a 2D action platformer about a ninja slime named Ryu, seeking revenge for his family and clan after a brutal betrayal.

If you add Ryu’s Revenge to your collection, you’ll be notified when the free demo is out and when the full game is released.

Adding Ryu’s Revenge to your collection (and liking this post) is the best way to support me. Thanks ❤️