Hello Everyone, my names Nic and i have always had an interest in making games. Although i have a decent knowledge of coding and pixel art i have trouble finishing games that i start, so hopefully this devlog will help me keep on track and motivate me to keep going. This devlog will be updated daily and show the progress i have done. Anyway "Where's My Skeleton" will be a platformer in which you play as a necromancer getting to the end of levels to get his skeleton buddy.

Day 1:

So today my goals were to create art for the necromancer and the skeleton. It took me a couple of hours to make them in Aseprite (Great program btw) but i am extremely happy with the result. Tomorrow i am hoping to complete some more art and get a prototype running in Game Maker.

Necromancer with walk cycle:

Skeleton being Resurrected:

Well I'll be sure to update you all on the progress tomorrow and hopefully get a bit more done.

I really like your title, it's just funny to imagine somebody looking for their own skeleton (even though I see that's not what you meant). The sprites are pretty cool too, I especially like the skeleton coming out of the ground. Looking forwards to seeing more!

I really like your three color shading on the Necromancer. It really makes him pop out! I am too used to working with a very limited color set. I need to tinker with three color shading more.

I love games about necromancers. Do get any skelebuddies to help you?  Oh, and as someone else that has trouble starting projects, that skeleton animation is pretty sick. Great progress dude!

the art animation is looking great! awesome progress!

Day 2:

Hey Everyone, sorry for the late update. As i am typing this it is currently midnight in Australia. I have stayed up so late because i was so determined to get something good out to you guys after seeing all the encouragement and excitement that you all replied with. I worked really hard with Game Maker and now have a prototype but before we get to the good stuff i think it's best if i take note of some of my problems and achievements.

So i encountered many problems while making this prototype which i had to overcome. One big one was figuring out how to play an animation only once and not repeat. This was solved by telling the game to stop playing the animation and pause at a specific frame when landed on. Another hard problem was trying to use a "with" function. This was just me being kinda dumb by trying to get object 1 to tell object 2 to do something after object 1 had already destroyed itself. There were a few other problems encountered but they were mainly just me not knowing the full Game Maker user interface and code.  Also tomorrow/today is going to be a shocker at school and I'll be surprised if I'm not tired in the morning. Well now that i have said all that let's get onto the main show and show you my prototype.

This is it :D. As you can see i have added platforming and collisions to the game allowing you to touch the arrow and awaken Mr. Skelebones. I am yet to add a winning screen or a level select but just remember this is a prototype. I have also added some aesthetics like the arrow and the torches which i think makes it feel more dungeon like. In the future i am also going to add in some windows to make it seem more open.

So now this is where you guys get to take part in this experience. Please add anything that you think looks odd or could use changing (e.g. animation timing, movement, images). Or if you even have some suggestions as to aesthetics to add then feel free to give your input. I mean the worst thing that can happen is that your idea may not fit my vision of the game (I will try it anyway though just to test it out). As for any gameplay mechanics, i think it's best to just leave those to me as i can't do a whole lot in less than two weeks. Another big question i have is do the walls and floor look good? Or should i change them before the proper release? Anyhow i think i deserve a nice sleep before the morning ahead of me. So i hope you are all doing well and that you continue to enjoy this devlog and the process of the game. (Btw you should support the other game devs too). Note: These next few devlogs will focus on level development and puzzle design as well as adding in enemies.

-Nic

I think the walls look fine. Those torches look so cool! I think a window or two would be great, yeah, or some other sort of decoration (nothing is coming to mind, though)

nic this looks AWESOME so far!! i love how you separated the foreground + background elements with value and how cohesive all your pixel art is. it's sooo nice. great work on getting movement and collisions also! since this game is a platformer i might suggest that you play with some of the platforming "feel". jumps are pretty core to platformers so it can make a lot of difference to make them feel right. i think when you get to the level design you can start tweaking it more but i would look at other platformers and try to figure out feels good about them. anyway great work!! i'm excited to see more of your game!

Day 3:

So unfortunately today i had A TON of work to do and was incredibly tired (that's term 3 of grade 12 for you) so i haven't gotten a ton done. What i have done is tried out some new aesthetics. I tried a wooden window but being able to see out of a dungeon just didn't fit and i had to cut it out. I have however added in a bookshelf which i made after seeing similar ones online that looked really good. I think it works pretty well especially since you are a necromancer and fits the game. This of course will not be the only aesthetic and i am sure i will have to make many more. Some good news is that i only have a half day tomorrow meaning i can sleep a bit more and hopefully get some work done. I am hoping to make a tutorial level and a level menu system so that way when i add new stuff I'll have a proper level to test it in (e.g. enemies, aesthetics, puzzle mechanics). Also I'm not going to be working on this idea soon but I'll put it here so i don't forget, which is that i want to add an object that brings up a box and tells you information. Well that's it for today and sorry about the small amount of progress but as always i hope all of you are doing good and also keep thinking of any aesthetics you would like to see in a dungeon style game.

P.S. This is a bunch of bookshelves just for appearance. They will not be clustered this close in the final game.

-Nic

You may want to improve your jumping animation, make the necromancer pull his knees togheter or perhaps let his robe flow around a bit. Just something to visually make sure he is in the air.

Other than that, keep up the good work. :)

Day 4:

Hey guys, so today is just going to be a quick post since i am still working on the tutorial level and the level select screen. Progress is going pretty good however the internet decided to slow to a crawl where it now takes about 5 minutes to load google. Hopefully this picks up otherwise this game making process is about to get a whole lot harder. Anyway i hope you are all doing good still and keeping updated with everyones work.

-Nic

Day 4:

Hey guys, so today is just going to be a quick post since i am still working on the tutorial level and the level select screen. Progress is going pretty good however the internet decided to slow to a crawl where it now takes about 5 minutes to load google. Hopefully this picks up otherwise this game making process is about to get a whole lot harder. Anyway i hope you are all doing good still and keeping updated with everyones work.

-Nic

Hope your internet connection gets to feeling better! I really like what you've done so far. The jumping looks really floaty, like there's not enough gravity. It's hard to say without actually playing the game though. I wouldn't fuss with it until you've got a test level so you can get a feel for it.

Day 5:

Hey everyone, sorry for the late update but unfortunately the internet issue isn't going to be resolved for another 2-3 days. Progress on the game however is still going good as i have made a book that shows a text box above it when you walk in front of it. Appart from that though the tutorial level still needs to be completed and i am going to try to add in enemies soon. Hope you are all doing well.

-Nic

Day 6:

So bad news today but i didn't get any work done on the game due to LOADS of school work and i was also extremely exhausted. But good news is that the weekend has arrived so hopefully i can get more work done then. Sorry again for the bad news but i hope you all are okay and keeping track of all the updates.

-Nic

Day: 8

Hey guys, so I'd like to apologize for not making any posts (except for this one) recently as i just needed i little break from all the work that was piling up and stressing me out (school, this game jam etc.). However, tonight i decided to work on the game some more and i now have deaths and have gotten more work done on the tutorial. I have yet to add the aesthetics to the tutorial but it will happen soon. I also need to create jumping animations which will mostly just be the robe flapping about when in the air. So without further delay here is the progress:

I should also add that when i finish the tutorial and make the other levels i won't be showing them as otherwise you guys wouldn't have any reason to play the game ;D. Well i hope you guys are enjoying the progress of the game and are having fun seeing the development.

-Nic

Last Day:

Hey everyone, so the jam is about to end but the game isn't fully completed to the standard that i would like. Because of this i think that i may just work on the game past the jam instead of submitting an unfinished game. I hope you all understand, but good news is that when i do release the game it will be so much better. Anywho thanks for all the support and maybe you could even check out the game when i release it (Which i definitely will be doing).

-Nic :D