Adding (Just a Touch of) Complexity

Things are going well in My Hot Girlfriend…land. I have all of the basic systems in play, the Yarnspinner-made visual novel scenes are working nicely, and I have two of my four main puzzle levels built out, with all the core functionality working. That includes… wait for it… adventure game puzzles!

The Adventure Begins

I did a playtest with my real-life girlfriend (slash muse, slash inspiration for the project). She had good feedback for me, including the fact that the puzzle levels were just way, way too easy. Simple clicking on things and dragging/dropping what amounts to a match puzzle game is just not enough interaction. If I continued that route, I’d basically have a tiny visual novel with 15-second puzzle screens, really a sort of tiny mini-game layer, and while that might be fine, there was an obvious solution to me: make it a little more of a point and click adventure.

I’ve always adored the genre, and once upon a time, many, many iterations of Unity ago, I made a tiny point and click adventure about another subject near and dear to my heart (dad jokes). To make that, I made a simple inventory system. That was back in… 2014? Maybe? And that was written in javascript, so I didn’t bother revisiting old code or anything, but the core design isn’t far off. 

Again, this isn’t a big or ambitious game, by any means. The first puzzle is extremely, extremely simple: there’s a big fan sprite, and a cord somewhere in the house. You find the cord, it goes to your inventory box, and you use the cord on the fan to solve the puzzle. I suppose I just “spoiled” the first puzzle, but it’s basically a tutorial, and I’m adding more steps and more logic in subsequent puzzles. I’m keeping it all very simple and in-fiction (no shaving cats to make mustaches or anything here!)

This has allowed me to have a little fun with narrative design and logic, and play with a genre that I love, without adding too much complexity.

There are a few systems underneath this, of course! I added a sort of light “hint” function that will highlight any active puzzle/inventory elements in the scene, in case players get lost at any point. I’ve added hint text on mouse over for all interactable objects, and the setup is so simple (every level is a single screen) that I’m not too worried. But I’m hoping this extra element is fun to play with, and adds a little bit to the world and “story” (that is, of one person scrounging around, trying to make their partner comfortable!).

It’ll still be around a five minute game. Maybe six! 

Maybe It's Animated

Another thing I’ve been adding is just a bit more animation. These are very simple, single-screen levels, but things just feel so much more lively with some idle animations, lighting elements, etc. I am NOT an animator (to be honest with you, I think animation is maybe the most confounding part of game development to me), but just seeing the difference between a totally static screen and a screen with a few light animated elements has convinced me it’s worth it to do that tiny extra bit of work setting up controllers and animations for characters and objects in the world.

I also added: a cat! That’s one of the most exciting parts of the whole thing.

Here’s a little work-in-progress screenshot for the first level. The UI is so hilariously unfinished, and a lot of things are pretty rough, but it gives an idea of what I’m going for!

Early on:

And then, with the win condition satisfied (the temperature is an acceptable 68 degrees, thanks to all those lovely elements: the big fan, the coolers, seltzers, and cooling towels you placed around the girlfriend character!):

Don’t mind the weird ice cream cone sprite in the bottom middle… it’s the placeholder sprite for the hint system. I’ll probably go with a nice little “eye” icon for the final project, as is typical in a point and click adventure. Simple? Oh yes. But I’m having fun, and honestly learning a lot.

Assets

I want to make sure that I’m giving proper credit along the way to the art and sound elements that live in the project! So far, I’m using assets (under the proper license) from the following itch.io creators: 

Art:

Modern Interiors/Modern Exteriors/Modern Office by LimeZu

Cats Pixel Art Pack by Pop Shop Packs

Pixel Art City Backgrounds by edermunizz

Sound:

8-Bit/16-Bit Sound Effects Pack by JDWasabi

Cassette by ShapeForms

Free SFX by Kronbits

FREE Chiptune Music Loops by Tallbeard Studios

Until next time, uh, stay… hot!