Okay, hello to whoever is reading this! :D

This devlog will probably be my place to share my progress. And my train of thoughts while making the game.

I'll be doing this solo, using the engine GDevelop 5. It'll be a 2D platformer, with the focus being a grappling hook mechanic. The rough roadmap being:

• Basic platformer mechanics (walking and jumping, collision)
• Grappling hook mechanic (shooting and circular motion)
• Making a level
• Making acceptable visual assets
• Adding sounds and music

Haven't thought about the story or the theme. Nor a title. I'll just add it up after the mechanics are done. Meh.

(Edit 20/01/27) There'll be a lot of gifs here~

Cheers!

It's Day 3 now, so I figured I'd post my progress. Log:

• Day 1: Messed around with the engine. There's a built-in platformer engine inside already but I decided to not use it. Went for changing X Y positions instead of using "add force." Also tried the engine's collision check and "move object away from..." action. Learned a lot of obvious things like "putting a brake." Now I think I was just making things harder for myself...

• Day 2: Kinda fixed the jump and movement mechanics...? Also added the shooting mechanic for the hook. At this point I realized that collision check is problematic.

• Day 3: Decided to switch to the engine's built-in platformer things. There's this "bullet through paper" thing that keeps happening when the hook collides with things, making it messy. Also, setting up the player-platform collisions are tougher than I first thought, when tying it with gravity, player's move speed etc. Hence me switching over to built-in "behaviors." Now I'm halfway thru the circular motion for when the grappling hook is stuck. I'm thinking of either shooting the hook at mouse pointer or making some special "magnetic" spots so that it'll get stuck nicely. 

Man, I made so many mistakes doing this... But I'm glad I did though. :D. Also LICEcap'd a lot of things just like last jam. 

Next up I'll have to set the collision to cancel the swinging mode and make up my mind for how to trigger the swinging. I'll add more things after if I can.

Thanks for stopping by! +sorry not sorry for the gif dump :)

Man, physics-based games are hard to make... and my foundation so far has been kinda wobbly. Still, daily logs first:

• Day 7: Not much added. Copy-pasted some things from day 5's work. Added a "pull" mechanic but it's way harder to make it feel right than I imagined. Also, jump-thru platforms being jump-thru, when the player falls with certain angle they just go thru.

• Day 8: Tweaked around the player's speed a bit. This time I really feel the disconnection between the player's built-in behavior and the "add force" actions. The player's speed from the behavior is completely separate from the forces. I can make it so that the force decreases over time using the player's gravity, walk speed etc. into the calculation, but I don't feel like putting in the work... Plus the swinging motion is just setting the player's position each frame, no forces at work. And I'm running low on motivation. No gifs today.

So, euhh, actually, mechanics-wise I've put in almost everything that I have in mind for the jam period. I'm thinking of adding a way to adjust the length of the swing while swinging and adding some sort of "lives" thing. I'm not even planning to make a main menu. The big thing I'll have to work on next would be level design. Either one simple level, with maybe some coins to collect in certain hard-to-reach places, or make it a scrolling map, some race with time...?

Just... physics games are about momentum , either real or just feels-like, or at least I think that's what they're about. I can't handle physics well, and the built-in behavior has its extents which my intention is beyond those. Maybe I'll redo everything once again and say goodbye to "Player is on land." Redo, because actually I've been redoing this everyday from day 1 - 5, every time testing new things. Maybe I'll make a Labo VI or even VII.

I guess 5 days a week is about right for me. There's still some things to do to make the game presentable, but, meh. I've learned my piece. I'm still going to work on this alright. Expect some minimal-effort assets and sounds, har har!

Okay, today's more wordy and rant-y. But still thanks for stopping by!

...

I will stop working on this project indefinitely. Which also means that I'm not going to submit anything for this jam. Not much progress, if any, from last update. I've   gotten used to the engine, and I guess I've also learned prototyping a bit. I'll take it as a win.

I started the project with a vague idea and only focused on some (apparently complicated) mechanic. The problem is that, though going solo, I really didn't do anything about all the other stuff. Was kinda putting it away for later, my motivation got thinner, and school said hi. In short, I overestimated myself, motivation and capability,  especially for the 2nd week.

Thanks for everyone who visited this devlog, and sorry to disappoint. Still, good luck to those who are still working on their project!