Hello everybody! 

What an exciting time! Myself and my friend matsuringo have teamed up to take part in this jam. This will be the first game jam either of us have taken part in, as well as the first time we have worked on a game as part of a team/partnership. There are a number of reasons we really wanted to get involved, from stretching our scripting legs, working against a clock, testing our capacity for cooperative development, etc. The important thing is that we are both very excited to be taking this challenge on and are already finding it a great deal of fun!

Our development is being done remotely due to Covid and there were many aspects of this that we had to consider. In our own work we use different engines (Unreal and Unity), as well as having generally different skillsets and comfort zones. In the end the best combination of these has led to the development being done in Unreal Engine. The bulk of the scripting is to fall on matsuringo, while I will be taking on more of a mish-mash roll involving project management & game design, as well as (hopefully) using some of my 3D/art skills. 

While the 2 of us make up the official development team, I have worked in the past with a few of my talented friends who make pixel art & music. Depending on availability and how things shape up I would rather get them in on the action and have folks I know in the credits than whatever creative commons sounds we'd have otherwise, but it remains to be seen!

I am writing at the start of the third day, so to bring you up to speed here is the story so far;

Day 0;

I just wanted to include this image before the official start as it's one I drew up on the run up to beginning. matsuringo and I are both very keen to get the best out of this experience and one of the key things for us is properly considering things on the macro scale - that is, not getting bogged down on any single element. As such, I composed this plan (that I hope will not age poorly)

Day 1:

We have our first official meeting on discord to discuss ideas. We quickly realise that one of matsuringo's ideas is really jamming with us (pardon the pun). The concept is for an 'Overcooked' style game in which the player is an alchemist or magical artificer who is trying to combine ingredients &/or items to craft magic items with a limited amount of time to do so. At this stage we were unsure whether this would involve a set timer and attempting to make as many as possible as orders came in, or a set number of things to make in a given time with chances to increase time through performance.

 Having spent some time nurturing the idea, we created a list of essential features to complete first, as well as some stretch targets for if there is time. The goal is to be able to have the core loop testable by us and others in the first 3 days. This would include;

1) A player character capable of picking up and placing materials, with 2 hands allowing for 2 carried materials (max) at one time.

2) A rough-cut version of the HUD, going for a multi-window style a-la Papers Please. 

3) A storage cupboard that can dispense magical ingredients (think eye of newt).

4) A crafting table capable of taking in items and creating new ones according to a set of recipes.

5) A kitchen island/holding table for the player to hold a limited number of materials close at hand.

Well, come the end of the first day, things were shaping up better than we'd imagined! This is mainly due to matsuringo's skill and familiarity with scripting in Unreal, he absolutely killed it from day 1! We had a functioning dispenser, a player character with hand slots and a rough HUD layout. We also had a hearty list of ingredients as well as potential composite materials (for creating magic items that require more steps at higher difficulty) Things were looking good.

Unfortunately I neglected to collect screenshots from matsuringo on day 1, but I will remember going forward.

Day 2:

On day 2 we made some changes to the position of HUD elements and matsuringo made still more blistering progress on the scripting of game elements. By the end of day 2 we had most of the basic prototype we hoped for by day 3 done. The player could pick up, place, craft and store items. The next steps will involve implementing some of the other procedures the player must take to refine or cook certain ingredients, as well as providing a hand in area to tie up the end of that gameplay loop.

I spent my time putting together a bunch of placeholder sprites in the evening. Sunday was unfortunately a day where I had prior plans, but I was happy to have gotten these done :)

We also made the decision that the structure of the games challenge should be such that when a level begins the player has a set number of items to craft, like 3. These would be of differing complexity and all must be finished before a timer runs out. HOWEVER. There would also be very simple requests given to the player that could be completed quickly, that would reward additional time.

On to day 3!

Hello again!

It's the end of day 5 - and what a stonking 5 days it's been so far! Here is the rundown of the past few days since my last devlog;

Day 3:

Myself & matsuringo spent day 3 getting more of the essential functions of the game - namely the crafting system -  functioning , with placeholder icons for ingredients, items etc. By the end of the day, matsuringo had worked his magic and the crafting table was working as intended! Ingredients go on (in a certain arrangement a-la Minecraft) and magic items or composite materials come out! It's like magic!

We had a few meetings on discord through the day, one of which focused on an important upcoming task, the design of a window through which the player would receive/complete objectives. The following image shows the excellent work done in mocking up a prototype. The plan is to have 3 magic items requested by shoppers per level. There will then also be bonus tasks to make simple potions (which involve less crafting/time) that will reward the player with more time to complete the 3 main objectives.

Day 4

A lot came together on day 4.  

Matsuringo got the temperature functionality working - now items that needed to be cool turned to sludge if left out of the fridge for too long - and items left in the cauldron for too long can burn to ash! This presented us with a new issue, however, one of legibility for the player. We find here the need for some kind of UI overlay that lets the player know if an item is melting, cooking, burning etc. We eventually landed on coloured text that could show up in a small box upon hovering the mouse over an item.

Otherwise, I cranked out a whole bunch more recipes & placeholder sprites, this time for potions! The 'Very Green Potion', made from a dragon's eyelid and some green slime, is a personal favourite.

I also spent time searching for suitable SFX on sites like opengameart.org - with some success.

Also regarding sound, I'm happy to say that a talented musician friend of mine has happily offered to make some simple music for the game! He sent myself and matsuringo a demo & it sounds great!

Finally on day 4 was a big visual change. Aside from putting some textures on the walls and floors, we played with setting the camera to perspective mode as opposed to orthographic. We had originally chosen orthographic view because of the nature of the HUD we were trying to build, but finding that perspective view still allowed us to hit the same general look- whilst making the 3D utilities far more dynamic - it was a bombshell. 

Day 5:

That brings us to today. Today the temperature overlays in the UI got put in, but most of the hours went into implementing a proper interface for objective hand-ins. I spent time in the morning coming up with 50-60 lines of dialouge which covered requests & thank you lines. These were written in such a way that the game could slice and insert the name of the item that was being requested! This, combined with the eventual random generation of item requests, should lead to numerous novel (and hopefully funny) requests for the player to fulfill.

The rest of my day was spent making this 3D cauldron model. 3D is one of my greater areas of experience at this point, so it felt great to test my skills in this time sensitive environment! The model took around 1-2 hours. There are still 7 or 8 more models to make, then they'll all need texturing, so the pace needs to keep up!

When modelling the cauldron, I used this sketch I'd doodled up earlier in the day. Using a simple screengrab of the white-box environment I drew lines over the top to roughly concept the size and proportions of some of the items in the scene. The two tall blocks at the back are the fridge and dry storage - both of which will have open/no doors so one can see the ingredients within!

The final issue covered in a meeting on the afternoon of day 5 was concepting the recipe book players will be able to consult in the game. The game is meant to be challenging and we felt that challenge needed to come from a mixture of sources. The level timer, resource/ingredient management & remembering/quickly scanning the recipes for magic items/potions. As such, the current thinking is for the book to be intuitive, but not allow the player to simply click on the correct item icon and be given the recipe in a snap. Instead the contents page will list items by name - through which their graphical crafting recipe will be revealed. From here, constituent materials may be clicked to see how those are made - if relevant.

Both myself and matsuringo are really happy with our progress so far - roll on the next few days!

Hello hello!

Well, 5 more powerful, electrifying days have passed & myself, matsuringo & others have been working very hard! When I say others, I'm referring to some wonderfully talented friends of mine who have kindly lent us their skills in music & sprite creation/animation. With these contributions, alongside the efforts of myself and matsuringo, our little game is shaping up in a way that continues to surprise and excite us!

I am writing this at the end of  day 10, with the end nearly in sight. It's been 5 full working days since I last posted an update. As such I'm going to have to force myself to be extra brief. That being said, I hope a lot of the pictures speak for themselves. I'll also put up a video to show the current state of gameplay!

(Also, as a side-effect of me taking the responsibility to write these dev-logs, as well as the fact that Matsuringo's time is mostly being spent on scripting, the majority of the entries in this update will focus on artwork/visuals completed by myself or our 2D artist contributor)

Day 6:

Small 3D Objects:

I created models for small objects to be scattered about the game environment. This inclides bottles, scrolls, books and a candle!

Level Redesign:

On day 6  we went through redesigning the layout of the game space. By this point we knew that there would be only one scene, even if there were multiple difficulty levels. As such, we moved objects about the scene to emphasise freedom of movement & minimal obstruction, allowing the player to focus on high octane alchemy rather than navigating around obstacles!

Recipe Book Scripting:

Matsuringo spent some time on the 6th day getting a functional recipe book in the game, a key part of the build necessary for testing to be done by people other than ourselves.

Day 7:

Combining Table:

From day 7 the 3D modelling of key game utilities/scenery began in earnest.  One of the first objects I modelled was the combining table. I do all of my modelling &  retopology (making the models game ready)  in Blender - then bake, paint and build up textures in Substance Painter. For the objects in our game, I will be relying heavily on SP's brilliant pre-created smart materials, as I woudn't realistically have time to create all the ones we need from scratch. That being said, I almost always make some alterations or recreate the material myself with some slight changes.

Dry-Store Shelves:

As well as the combining table, I got the shelving unit for the dry ingredients modelled.

Animated Character Sprite:

Though myself and Matsuringo are the official development team for this jam, we were keen to extend a hand to talented friends of ours who showed interest in the project & could offer us some of their time/skills. One such person is my friend Henry, who made us a wonderful looking main character sprite and this hilarious running animation!

Small Objects Textured:

Day 8:

Dry-Store Shelves:

Textured and looking fine! I'm quite pleased with this one. It's so simple but really satisfying. I like the shelf brackets & general proportions. I had in mind the idea of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary shapes for this - and subsequent models made! The idea being that there should be 3 catagories of form in a piece. The primary, large forms are the main outline - the outer bound of the shelf. The secondary forms, then, are the shelves themselves, the trim as it reaches the floor. Tertiary forms are the finer details, like the aformentioned shelf-brackets!

Walls:

I spent some time creating this wall, to be used throughout the level & give it a nice varied surface. There are 4 colours of brick in here - and it is one of the sets of models using materials I made without presets in SP (all the brick models in the scene use these neat little materials of my own)

Day 9:

Tower:

On day 9 I created a tower of bricks to be used in corners and to break up long, straight areas of uninterrupted wall.

Hand In Window:

The hand in window got the same masonry treatment - with a small wooden serving bar.

Day 10:

Panting Character:

Henry did more fine animation/sprite work with this panting sequence. Matsuringo got it hooked in such that the panting will last longer depending on how much the player has been running recently!

Bin:

For the bin, we wanted to get WEIRD. So, we imagined a mimic-style bin that was bearing monsterous teeth. I grinded this one out in a couple of hours!

Textured Cauldron:

End Of Day 10: 

By the end of the 10th day, so much had changed when looking back to the previous devlog. So many models, lighting changes, mechanical tweaks and system alterations (though the core gameplay has been the same since day 2 or so). We are, so far, extremely proud of what we have achieved. We got some feedback & are continuing to encourage people to test the game for us. We already nerfed the 'melting ingredient' timer, as it was causing victory to be really rather difficult indeed. That being said, it is playable, challenging, colourful and dare we say fun! Oh and I nearly forgot, we got some AMAZING music too! I reached out to another friend of mine, the talented Turlough McHugh, who was all too happy to contribute some of his talent to our project! Please check out the video below for some beta footage, or check out the 'Mid Jam Testing' topic in the community thread. Thanks for reading, good luck everyone!

Final Devlog

We submitted the game this morning! It's been a ride, but we are really pleased with our game - A Dash of Magic!

At this point my hands are worn out and my mind is running headlong toward a mini-holiday, but I wanted to tie up this devlog properly. I'll post work in progress images from the last few days, then try to summise my thoughts at the end!

Day 11:

I spent day 11 modelling and texturing the fridge that sits in the top left corner of the workshop. It took a long time, but is probably the most complex object in the scene.  I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Day 12:

My time on day 12 was taken up with the last few bits of 3D modelling and texturing. I got the recipe book stand modelled and textured and then got the holding table/kitchen island modelled as well. I also fixed an issue with the combining table, changing the wooden 'item coasters' to shimmering gold and marble.

While I was busy with those, Matsuringo was busy setting up our system for delivering the tutourial and altering the level structure. We wanted steadily rising difficulty and an in game explaination of the core mechanics, perferably delivered by a happy bearded man.

Day 13:

With all the 3D models done, a chunk of day 13 was dedicated to set dressing. We sprinkled the small objects I had made (once I'd added some more roughness to the textures) all around the level to try and get some visual storytelling done. This is one aspect of the game I am super proud of. We fear we may have implied the alchemist has a drinking problem...

Day 14 (morning of submitting):

We had always intended to submit early, oweing to both of us being otherwise engaged on the jam's actual end date. However, we felt confident and happy with where we had arrived at. In the morning of day 14, we added a particle effect to the cauldron, made a trailer, added level select and saves - I'm not even sure how, it was all a  blur!!

Here is the games page if you want to download and try it!
https://matsuringo.itch.io/dashofmagic

I'm going to return for one last entry later today to try and get my final thoughts down. Phew..

Post Mortem

After a long weekend away following the submission of A Dash of Magic, the dust kicked up by development has begun to settle. Both myself and Matsuringo had prior family arrangements that led us to submit the game quite literally as we left our doors. Two solid weeks of development, laughs and a marked slip into in-joke inception, it was a really wild ride. As this is my Devlog I'll take the liberty here of commending Matsuringo on his astonishing hard work during the fortnight of development. I owe a lot of my surpassed expectations to the skill and dedication with which he applied himself to this jam, consistently performing beyond what I thought was going to be possible. I am fortunate to have ben working with someone so comfortable with unreal engine & capable of mechanising ideas & getting prototypes going at pace. All this being said, it's high time I spent a final splash of energy closing off the circuit with this post-mortem. 

General Thoughts:

This was the first game jam either of us had taken part in, as well as the first game we had collaborated on. In fact, this was the first game either of has had collaborated on, having both worked independently beforehand (aside from, in my case, taking on assistance for some art elements). As such, we really didn't know what to expect from trying to work as a team. However, as is now apparent, the working relationship we fostered proved very productive and healthy. I also don't believe we had and clue what a jam game made by our hands might look like. The bar for quality wasn't clear, but we set out with a healthy understanding that we'd like to finish something 'bad'. I personally owe a lot of recent drive and success to this idea. Making things in anticipation of probable mediocrity, or possibly outright failure, helps to limit scope and keep the project manageable. We delivered things on time, because we had to accept that time was limited and our efforts would be wasted on the diminishing returns of invisible detail, or in Matsuringo's case - invisible fidelity of code. We allowed ourselves the space to brute force things, to cobble things together and build in prototypes with an end always in mind. I can say without hesitation that our expectations of quality for the final product, if there were any, were utterly out-done. 

Our Goals:

For myself and Matsuringo, the overall goals for this Jam were similar, yet distinct. Personally, I was keen to try working within a time limit, as well as experience team production and the variations in roles that come with that. While I can't speak for Matsuringo entirely, I am aware that they were also looking at the jam as an opportunity to exercise restraint - by which I mean working on something that wouldn't allow his skills in scripting to become a self-fuelling job machine, prone to feature creep and other catch 22s of a game with large scope. When condensed down, the goals were as follows;

- Submit a complete experience (prototype/rough) within the time limit that is FUN TO PLAY

- Exercise best practises in project planning (scope, time management, task delegation)

- Wherever possible, use bespoke assets (music, sprites)

- Have fun!

What Went Right:

Happily, this section will probably be the longest of the sit-rep!

Starting with the obvious; we submitted our game on time, it is fun and enjoyed a level of polish we are still pleasantly surprised by. Now, when I say surprised, I mean by the level of quality we feel like we ended up hitting - particularly in the looks and functional elegance of the game. This is NOT to say that we didn't plan our time with polish in mind. Quite the contrary. From the very beginning I had suggested a development cycle that emphasised quick prototyping, with a serviceable build to be delivered no later than half way through our timeframe. The aim here was really to avoid key mechanics hinging on work that may take a long time. We wanted to be able to test the 'fun factor' within the first 3 days. This choice of time management, combined with the faster than expected turn around of our core game mechanics (hats off to Matsuringo) meant that we were able to indulge in the 'finessing stage' at a pace that allowed us to push the juicy look of the game to the point we are now. Again, to avoid confusion , it should certainly be made clear that this wasn't at any stage 'easygoing' development. The hours were full working day length, if not longer, for the entire two weeks. But, this is what we wanted all along. Thus, I'd also call it a success in the case of our time-management, scope and task delegation goals.

In terms of the wish for 'bespoke assets' , I'd also have to call that a success. There are areas we weren't able to conquer here, namely the sound effects and font, both of which were lifted from public domain resources such as opengameart.org and others like it. However, the other elements in the game were all crafted by myself, Matsuringo and our 2 key collaborators, Turlough and Henry. Turlough is a relatively recent friend of mine, whose musical talents came to my attention not long before I heard about the jam. He was very happy to pitch in with a track that seals the whole experience with an atmosphere that is exactly what we were asking for. For anybody looking to support a talented musician, I linked his spotify on the games download page. Henry, on the other hand, is a long-standing friend and creative partner of mine. He helped me with the character sprite for my previous game 'LifeLine' & was all too happy to lend us his talents again for the main character of this game. The character that made it to the final build of the game was the first one he sent us, he nailed the theme and look right from the word go. Henry is also responsible for the portraits of the shop patrons, all done using Asprite. It was with the help of these two talents, as well as our own hard labour, that the game oozes with character and originality. I myself created all of the 3D assets in the game, among other things, finding joy in decorating the scene & giving it that hand crafted care. It's my belief that we've made a very sweet, unique looking little game - and I'm so happy about that.

Finally, did we have fun? YES. My goodness, it was an intensely enjoyable and enjoyably tense 2 weeks - something I could easily see myself recommending to people who have an interest in making games. I think that the past experience myself and Matsuringo had in the combined fields of UE4 & 3D Asset workflow did a lot to take pressure off some of the areas that might otherwise really give new developers trouble - so I feel for me it was a great time to get stuck in. I'd be very surprised indeed if this was my last game jam.

What Went Wrong:

Happily (again) very little. There were a few spooks on Matsuringo's end with regard to the project files themselves and UE4 throwing up an unknown error, but it was easy enough to resolve. This provided a valuable lesson in itself - consider version control and save as you go. I think I'd have been fine submitting a project that was even a shadow of this one, but I think it would somewhat crush me if we had made such a lot of progress for it to al disappear. These things happen. hey happen all the time. Back up your stuff if you care about it! But, otherwise, there were no real hiccups. Though at one point I wondered if I was getting ill. Headaches and wrist pain from sitting and working at the PC got quite unpleasant at times. This isn't something I'm willing to put myself through - so in future I'll more seriously factor in breaks. That being said, I always made a point of getting up for water or doing other things to take my mind off the development for a bit each day.

Lessons Learned & the Future:

I think that now all is said and done, both myself and Matsuringo have given ourselves/one another some real perspective on indie game development. In terms of lessons learned I can only really speak for myself - but I would say that the jam provided a space for me to learn about my own creative habits, what drives me and how I like working when in a team environment.  It's given me a helping of what I have craved for some time, a hearty bowl of self-belief that indie development may be something I can actually do. I hope that in the future, I'll be able to look at this as a moment of realisation which led to even bigger, better and more exciting game dev projects!

Thanks to all who read along. To any who haven't tried the game, here is the link again;

https://matsuringo.itch.io/dashofmagic

Here is the trailer too;

Joe