My first game jam! 

dev log!!

heyo :) I decided to join and make a game-- or try to, at least! A little about me: I am a digital artist, writer, and have made a game or two in middle school which was... a while ago lol.

My game is Magic Brew Cafe, a semi recipe cooking game and semi visual novel/dating sim, where you're a witch working at a cafe serving monsters!

 I'm using Gamemaker which... doesn't have many resources for visual novels because there are better platforms like ren'py, but I figured Gamemaker would be best for the recipe section, so. yeah. I'll have to figure it out.

On day 1, I locked in the stuff I've been brainstorming, like what the recipe room will look like, and a few ingredients and character ideas.

I created the bare bones of a cafe room, where I'll have to remake all the sprites-- it was just something to start the process of making the game. 

I also created a room transition animation, which is a bit wonky but I don't care that much about it so it's fine. Or I'll go back later, who knows.

Then I realized this room means nothing without the main meat of the game, which is the recipe/cooking room. So I created the sprites for the bare bones of that (not including the ingredients), the background for a GUI, and a few future-interactable objects.

I think that part looks great, and it was getting late in the day, so I stopped it there. 

The whole coding part of making a video game is leaving me really stumped, but so far for the sections I'm working on, there are PLENTY of online resources and tutorials I can makeshift together! I'm happy with what I've done so far but kind of scared if I'll be able to actually complete this thing.

thanks for reading!

Fantastic visuals! I can say choosing GameMaker over Ren'Py is a solid decision in this case. You can make various animations, 2D effects and mini-games to make your game more engaging  and standout from other simple visual novels.

day 2!!

so, today!

I was too overwhelmed to figure out any code, so I did what I'm good at and worked on sprites and backgrounds.

I made the background for the room where the majority of the Visual Novel aspect of the game will be,

which I'm happy about! I also "connected" it to the delivery room so it's useable.

And I also made the sprites and objects of the ingredients for the recipe/cooking part of the game and put them into their room.

I planned out how the cafe delivery room is gonna actually look, brainstormed more about the characters and story, and stuff like that.

I started working on the object dragging-- my plan is that I can drag the objects/ingredients to a star slot on the right, and they'll snap in place there or back where they were, but that's gonna take some research ToT

that's where I ended the day! It felt like I didn't do much because it's just pictures and not actual game code, but I gotta remind myself that every bit counts, and I think I'm making great progress!

My plan for tomorrow is to figure out dragging the objects. It's a holiday where I am so I actually won't have time for much. So I'll postpone the rest of the day's plans-- making a recipe popup, and brewing system/sequences-- to the 5th.

I'm still scared by the thought of having to code all this and figure it out lol, but if I take it step by step, then I can do it, i think! The best way to be less intimidated is just to start :)

day 4

today was totally rough.

My plan for today was to make the menu/directions in a popup when you click on the book, but MAINLY to work on the recipe & results system. I got sidetracked on the book popup. I thought it would be simple and easy, and I would breeze on past it. Joke's on me.

I made the art for it, which omg took so long!! 

and THEN. and THEN. I spent THREE HOURS!! solid hours!! fiddling around and trying to figure out why the popup wasn't working! because it kept on skipping the room i wanted-- in a domino effect, i FINALLY realized after those three hours.-- so i changed the functions to different objects (doesn't fix the problem), then changed the functions to the instances' creation codes (doesn't fix it because those are for when the object is CREATED, so it continues the domino)...

and so that struggle lasted the whole day. >:(

I FINALLY figured out that it wasn't working because I made the menu's room-switcher a button that switched from one room to the next desired room, and the PROBLEM WAS that it just kept going in a domino effect, so it wouldn't take me to the correct slide. no matter what i did, the domino effect would still happen.

So. For some reason alarms haven't been working for me, like at all-- even with alarm_set and other things it just... won't activate what's inside. but I think an alarm is the only way to fix this, because it would provide just enough delay where the button wouldn't be activated immediately. so that's what i'm gonna do tomorrow.

here's the stuff I got done today:

-a cursor drawing popup when hovering over the book

-the sprites/rooms for the pages of the book.

BTW!! for that cursor drawing popup, for whatever reason, even with image_index it won't animate!!! so i have to have a stationary image popping up. ugh. 

rough day today. I have a better hope for tomorrow >:( 

day 5

YEAS!! today was a total success >:)

this morning I figured out the page-turning in only like an hour!! i used timers and fiddled around and watched a tutorial, and finally got it ! :D 

Then, I added buttons to direct to different pages quickly, as well as a "bookmark" to exit the book.

I'll have to go back and add in the actual contents of the book-- these blanks are just semi placeholders :)

then, I realized there can be no recipes without all the ingredients. I created sprites for the sugar and lavender, and then a drawer opening click (which did take some messing with to work), and dragging ability.

and then I realized there can TRULY be no recipes without the coffee. 

so I needed to make the jar drag to the mortar and pestle, a click mechanic to "grind" it up, then a drag mechanic to the stars-- and sprites, too.

I also did coding for the recipes when you click the cauldron, just haven't polished them up or added the resulting sequences. that's for later. 

I did find out, though, that for "or" there's actually a way to code that and it's just ||. before, I was just typing in stuff over and over again. rip. glad I found that!

The dragging the mortar is still in the works, but that's PLENTY for today. 

to be honest, i went TOTALLY overboard today; I finished the book mechanics and was done for the morning, and planned to be about done for the day, but I just kept on coming back to the computer-- made the drawers open, made sprites, made more objects drag, made code for recipes... way too much for one day. work balance is big, and i need to make sure I don't overwork myself! I get carried away sometimes. I get nervous about the time constraints and figure I can do just a little more... but NO! ToT

but besides keeping that in mind, today was awesome for the progress I made. I'm almost done with this brewing room, and after that there's just the cafe delivery room (basically only movement to the customer sprites), ... and figuring out the whole visual novel aspect. so, i'm like 1/3 done maybe?? which is totally on time with what's left of the jam!

busy day :) the plan for tomorrow is figuring out dragging the mortar, finishing coding the recipes, and starting work on their sequences/their images. don't overwork yourself! you have time!

This is looking awesome!! Really excited seeing a lot of the gameplay elements start to come together. Also totally agree and def advocate for rest!! It's looking great!

DAY 6

wow, almost a week already! so crazy!!

so, today i did exactly what I planned to! I figured out dragging the mortar pretty quickly, then worked on coding the recipes/results. i thought I was gonna use case/switches but i realized it wasn't the best fit so i didn't. 

Then, I made sure inputting the results actually worked, and from the few i tested, they seemed to!

I started drawing out the sprites for the coffees, and made a sequence for one of them.

(including a gif bc it's always fun to include pictures in updates!)

The next steps in making the game is making the rest of the coffee sprites, making their sequences (which should all be similar), and then... creating the whole character interaction section (which I'm nervous about cause figuring that out and connecting it to what I have seems a bit difficult lol), and intro... so I'm halfway, maybe. in the thick of it.

so the things i'll work on tomorrow are the rest of the coffee sprites, and if there's time, making their sequences and making the sequences actually happen in the game. 

yay! good day, i think. hope everyone's games are coming along!!

DAY 7 

omg i almost forgot to update today lol

also! what! it's been a week of working on a game! that's really cool! I haven't even THOUGHT about making a game since like middle school, so doing this and seeing the other side of video games is really an interesting and enriching experience!

today i didn't do much-- i consider it my break day :)

I created the sprites for the different drinks. They'll be placed into their individual sequences later on. I think they're very cute!

I updated a page of the menu/book so it's no longer blank, because i needed the drinks' images to be able to fill it out.

I didn't feel like working on the drinks' sequences, so I held it off and just enjoyed the rest of my day.

Tomorrow, I'll either work on the drinks' sequences, OR I'll start working on the interactive dialogue portion of the game. I think my plan for that is to create the sprite and plan of one character, and then figure out the ordering/receiving system for them, and then after that, I'll apply what I learned to the other characters and drinks.

I'm scared that I won't be able to figure out how to connect everything in the game, because of the nature of games-- everything is unique, so there's not always an exact tutorial for what you want. So, I'll have to break everything down into pieces that HAVE tutorials and figure out the rest.

I think moving on to working on the next section of the game is a good idea, because it'll alleviate my fears that what i worked on is easy and the rest is hard. Because once I have the bare bones of EVERYTHING, there's not much unknown left! Also, it'll be good to move on to a new section instead of getting sick of the section I'm working on haha

day 8!

the days sure keep on coming, don't they.

today I opted for a change of pace; I started working on the dialogue system!

it was a bit of a slog; I watched and followed through some tutorials in a total daze lol. I made my own text for the text boxes, which took hours... and then I still had the entire actual CODING to do ToT. 

So, then i coded... and coded... (with the tutorials). near the end I started to feel so overwhelmed with everything i had just done, so I decided to take a break to absorb it all, and basically stopped there. 

I now have the basis for a text system, and an INTERACTIVE text system! yay! (it's looping in the gif so I'll have to find a way to stop that...).

After taking that break, I decided to work on character development more, made a sprite or two, and brainstormed and sketched the characters. I also thought about how much work it'll be drawing them and also drawing backgrounds for the intro, and also compiling the drink sequences.... omg ToT. hopefully I'll be able to do it all before the game jam deadline ((but if not that's okay too rip))-- it feels like with only a week left, there's no time! but also, i think it would be calming to remind myself how much I got done in this first week :)

The next step for tomorrow is to add in an image box for "you" during dialogue, which is just in another tutorial to watch :) and then draw chararacters. 

grand scheme, I'll figure out adding and changing character sprites during conversations, and connecting rooms before and after dialogue-- oh and also fixing up the cafe delivery room... and making drink sequences... oof and also connecting the drink orders to the drinks made to the dialogue... yikes. 

game dev is complicated lol and there's a lot of steps. but breaking it down like this really helps to understand how much is left to be done. I have the basics done for basically everything already!! what!! I just need to make some visual components and connect things together! that's not so bad!

good luck to everyone-- i know a week in, this is starting to be just like constant work, so let's just take it day by day with plenty of breaks!!

day 9!

today, I didn't do much.

I coded more of the text/dialogue system. I got caught up in the details for a few hours, then when things weren't working i just realized that it wasn't really important.

I felt overwhelmed by all the code, but still figured out a few things. as the game gets bigger, there's a lot of moving parts to look at.

then I worked on drawing the characters and designing them.

I realized that maybe the scope of my game is a little too big for the time I have, and I still haven't figured out a few things. I think I'll just focus on the one NPC/dating sim character, and then later on add to the game.

day 10

hoo boy.

okay so today! 

I made the sprites of a love?? coffee interest!! and imported them!! into the game. yay.

Then I coded a main conversation with them, which looks alright. there's a few things to tweak if only i knew how lmao.

and then. there's the issue of the script looping. I'll have to rewatch the tutorials (ugh) and fiddle with it, and that's what I did for the past like three hours, too. I need the script to not loop so that I can switch rooms to continue the game. 

Once I figure out switching rooms after running the dialogue sections, then I'm basically golden and the rest should be a breeze.

I also have to figure out score points, because that'll be what decides the endings, good or bad, etc. that should hopefully not take too long.

I hope tomorrow I am quickly able to work out switching rooms ((because it would suck to be working on that all day and get nowhere)). please!!!

The past few days I've only been jumping in and out of working on this thing, and so my plan for tomorrow is to work on this hardcore!! I want to make it playable!!

day 11

okay. so!

today, I found a way to make the text/dialogue stop looping! yay! and then I also figured out some sort of way to make the room change. I made it a button, which is a little weird, but it's the best I got right now. Then I added more to a dialogue section, and brainstormed the intro.

And then, for the rest of the day, everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong.

the game kept not running because my computer was out of storage. so I had to fix that and make room for new storage.

Then when i ran the game, the mortar stopped working. so instead of clicking on it to change the sprite and then being able to drag it and add beans to the pot, it started skipping over the click sprite change entirely. And then when I ran through it and added it to the pot, it added too many, or didn't add any, or it added them when the mortar was empty.

And so I tried to change the code, but that just made it worse. i don't know WHAT i did, but I'm either going to have to look at all the timers and change them, or see what's wrong with the code of the mortar and just redo it.

AND, the ordering system ALSO broke down. Instead of recipes sending you to the correct room, they either don't work or they send you to the wrong room. idk wtf happened.

so tomorrow is for troubleshooting i guess. cause without the cooking section the game doesn't fit together and you can't move on to the next room. rip me.

day 12!

alright :) today I fixed up the things that were wrong!!

I fixed the mortar and pestle error, and the ordering system, so that stuff works again! yay!

Today I drew up backgrounds for the intro rooms and planned out the beginning section!

I'm having trouble figuring out how to connect the rooms in a smooth way with respect to the visual novel aspect of the game. I want an intro text click-through section, but for that I'd need multiple room backgrounds, and I don't quite know how to add that in and make it work.

I started working on that intro, but an error keeps popping up-- i need to find a way to copy the system of the room I already have. that's for tomorrow-- figuring out how to make the intro run. I have the title screen, I just need a way for the text and images to pop up. 

i'm getting real close to the game jam deadline.... idk how this is gonna go, but :T whether i make it or not, i'm gonna work on this!

day 14!

alrightie. Today I did what I planned to-- I added in the intro scenes, an ordering scene, and tweaked a few things. 

I also started looking at and adding in the points/score system, which will allow me to make different endings! It seems simple, and I hope it will be.

My plan is to really work on this tomorrow so that I can submit what I have for people to be able to play, because that would be fun for my other jammers here :)

So what I'd need to finish tomorrow (24 hours left! oh boy!) is adding in the score system for the orders (which I'm limiting for the sake of finishing this version of the game) & writing out 2 corresponding endings, editing/adding on to the book pages / directions, and adding in one more (or two, if time) ordering coffee scene(s). So a bit of coding, a little writing, a bit of art. And then I'll make sure that the game actually runs, and that's what I'll submit!

I hope I can do it in time :E I know that even if I do, the game won't be as elaborate as I want it and so I'll still be working on past the game jam, but it'd be cool to have a simple version finished :) Okay so see you tomorrow!

day 15!

I think I'll update this one throughout the day :)

so. This morning I was working on the different rooms based on if you brewed the correct drink or not. and i realized the brewing ingredient system still wasn't working, so it didn't send you to the right sequence, or it just didn't play the sequence at all.

so I finally decided to just delete all the code in the cauldron object and start fresh. and im gonna cry because its finally working, and it looks so clean, and the brewing has been a mess for two weeks and it's finally good. oh my gosh. ToT I deleted it all then was like what functions can i even use to make this. and i found that instead of instance_exists(), the more fitting option would be sprite_exists() !!! 

so that's what i'm working on for now-- cleaning up the brewing system, and then applying the scores to the brewings to take you to the correct reaction room.

update... it still doesn't work :/ I'm gonna research recipe systems people have done before me and see if i can find any that fit. without figuring out brewing, the rest of the game is null :(

update 2! I found that someone used local variables to stand in for ingredients. So instead of typing oStar.sprite_index = blah blah, over and over again, i did var S = oStar.sprite_index = blah blah, which significantly cleans things up and makes it all easier to see and comprehend! And this also seems to have fixed my problems, so now I can go on to applying the score system to the brews!

update 3! it actually didnt work :) and also my computer is out of storage again :) lmao this seems doomed

update 4. six hours later :) and I did it :) now I'm moving on to the score system and applying the good vs bad scores. if the ordering system fails again im just abandoning it bc im not dealing with that anymore  :)

day 15 (contd) FINAL DAY.

I literally can't believe this but I did it, you guys. 

I worked LITERALLY all day on the brewing system (the majority of my day ffs. it really had it out for me), the different interactive moments, the score system so there would be different endings... !!!!

also note that i literally didn't know you had to get a gamemaker subscription in order to export your game adsfkjhf so I had to do that. boo but whatevr.

it's up now at https://deee3.itch.io/magic-brew-cafe !!!! it's only for Windows version, because I tried but i couldn't figure out other platforms. sorry about that :/ 

playable or not, it's done :) i did it :,)