Everything I've learned.

This was my first ever game made and it has been eye opening.
I've had the opportunity to collaborate with really talented people and I wish I could've dedicated more time to realising this really awesome idea.

We originally brainstormed a collection of awesome ideas. We wanted a fast paced action platformer that has our main character escaping a home flooding with procedurally generated platforms before a puzzle-esque  room that would have you choose between dispatching an enemy or escaping without any conflict. 

I spent most of the 30 days getting the movement to feel just right and satisfying . So before we had any sort of level design, the jumping had been tinkered with and modified hundreds of times until the movement felt good. I took inspiration from Super Mario Bros. I had to have momentum be a strong aspect of movement so when your character builds up momentum, you skid to a halt. Taking further ideas from Mario vs Donkey Kong on the original game boy, I add a skid jump. So if you jump while skidding you get extra height. This created fun traversal with moves that were simple yet satisfying to execute.

The Good:
- In regards to the movement mechanics, & game play, I am very satisfied with what we have built. The jumping is fast and responsive and quite versatile which fits in with the story of an agile cat getting around. This helps to compensate for the poor level design.

- The method of getting to the goal/exit was something I wish I could have expanded upon. I wanted to make a game that didn't force the player to dispatch enemies directly. The player hits a trigger to dispatch the enemy or the player can bypass the enemy altogether and still finish the level. 

- The music by Aaron is excellent. He had to develop the music before we had a concrete story, idea of characters, level or even a game to make the music to. All we had were my adjectives of the atmosphere I wanted to create and Aaron delivered a satisfying track that conveys the ominous and treacherous circumstance of our heroine. 

The Bad: 
- I am terrible at design and more importantly level design. I spent so much time just trying to get a passable level. I didn't even come close to all the cool ideas we brainstormed in the beginning. 

- No menu, pause and title screen.

- Only 1 enemy type

- Only 1 level

- Originally I wanted to give the player the option to dispatch enemies or keep them alive and finish the level. If the player spares an enemy, that enemy would help them in the next level and if they dispatch an enemy, they would progress to the next level without any help. This idea was intended to give players the ability to adjust the difficulty them selves through the experience of the story and gameplay. Great Idea I hope I can use in the future. 

Conclusion
There is not enough time in the day. I had to simultaneously learn new methods of development while trying to develop a satisfying platforming experience. I don't think I achieved that, but what we produced is a satisfying experiment which tastes like potential.

With better level design and more time dedicated, Curious Cat could have been a really engaging experience from the music and game play all the way through to the level design and enemies.