Ok, so work happens, and there goes the idea of an up-to-date dev log. But I managed to finish the game with almost 100% of the intended scope.
Day 5:
- Finalized all four classes and started balancing (which mostly meant playing the game over and over). The robot was the last one added and, as a result, ended up being the least balanced - either too weak or, on the other hand, able to sneak past everything and one-shot bosses with a frontstab. No in-between.
- Did some animation drawings and worked on the title screen. I knew I had to draw something for it - maybe characters standing around a campfire like in Diablo 2 - but that was way too time-consuming. The idea of a fantasy world map came just in time.
Day 6:
- Some wrestling with Unity and WebGL builds, which kept failing mid-process with crazy out-of-memory errors.
- Boss fights - implemented with the usual combination of bad coding practices and hacks. This is actually a really fun and rewarding part, but since it's always at the end of the jam, it inevitably leads to some military-grade dangerous programming.
- I gave up on adding sound effects, as I had zero experience in that area. I did the technical setup for music but had no tracks yet.
Day 7:
- I only had half a day and spent it trying to find music. This is something that should have been done way in advance or even in collaboration with someone who actually understands the topic. Music is so overwhelmingly critical for the atmosphere, but my only way of picking tracks was by listening to them during playtests and deciding if they didn't fit. Someone on the 7DRL Discord suggested that music should be chosen first, with everything else built around it. Maybe I'll try that next year.
Anyway, the game is finished and submitted! I'm happy with it - it’s compact, has a consistent style, features some broken mechanics, and includes carefully hidden jokes. And as I originally planned, it can be built upon and expanded. But first, I need to breathe. I can't even think about implementing serialization with the current state of the game's architecture.
Have fun going through a Mostly Grand Adventure!
