Hello all, welcome to my devlog. First one of these so here's hoping it's coherent. I'm just planning on noting my progress throughout the days through this, but feel free to comment if you want, I'll always appreciate any feedback. I've had a couple of projects I've messed around with before, but this is my first ever game that I'll be submitting to a game jam, so hopefully I can do something nice. (Also apologies for starting late, spent the first couple days getting used to RPG maker as I used Game maker in the past)

DAY 1:

Planned out a general plot and sequence of events structure, I now have an idea of what I want the character to do at each stage of the game with a decent idea how to implement it. As for actual coding progress, I made the starting house and decorated it with assets, as well as creating a sub-area (cellar) where there will be a puzzle for the character to get their key to leave the house and progress with the game. Below are a few pictures of what I've done today (not clear from the picture, but I spent too long on getting the light to follow you around in the cellar):

Thanks for reading,

Connor.

Hello again, here with the day 2 update.

DAY 2:

Today I was finishing off the starting area, so it's starting to look fairly polished. All of the objects in the house should now be interactable (with references aplenty), so exploring the starting area should be a bit more fun now.

Additionally, I also created the puzzle for the first area as well. Nothing too complicated, just a simple block pusher puzzle to get to the key (and maybe something fancy in you want to do another puzzle). An unforeseen consequence was that it is possible to softlock yourself if you do the puzzle in a certain way, so I also introduced a "return" spell that sends you back to bed. You can cast whenever if you get stuck (or otherwise).

That's all from me today, thanks for reading,

Connor.

Hello again, here with the day 3 update.

DAY 3:

Finished building the next area of the game, a village surrounded by slimes (the slimes are animated and were built on gimp to gain more familiarity with it) where your goal is to find a way out! The actual puzzle element will be introduced tomorrow.

Additionally, also made a new secret area, I wonder what could be going on there...

That's all from me today, thanks for reading,

Connor.

Hello all, here's the weekend update:

DAY 4 and DAY 5:

This weekend was dedicated to filling out the village, including a whodunnit mystery you have to solve by asking around the townsfolk. The village is now 80% complete, which is good as this will be a good chunk of the game. There are currently one big puzzle, a smaller puzzle, and an optional maze, including all the NPC interactions as well. Additionally, all I've got left to add to the village is one more optional area, flavour text for the man's house, and a few other small bits to polish here and there.

Otherwise, that's over half way through my plan, with just two smaller areas left to make, so it looks like we're currently on target to finish in time.

That's all from me from the weekend, thanks for reading,

Connor.

Hello all, here again for a short devlog update.

DAY 6:

Not too much done today, all of the flavour text for the village has now been added. Additionally, I've started building the map for the penultimate section of the game: the area outside the shop. I haven't included any pictures today as the adjustments were pretty minor.

That's it for today, thanks for reading,

Connor.

Hello again,

Here's the day 7 update:

DAY 7:

The final bit of the village has finally been finished off. This is a secret area that combines the hidden collectibles scattered about the games. If you have all of them, you can even get to see something special.

Additionally, the outside of the shop as well as the puzzle to get in has been made. The puzzle is maths based, but should hopefully be a fun way for people to recall their GCSE maths.

That's all from me today, thanks for reading,

Connor.

Hello,

Here's the day 8 devlog:

DAY 8:

Today was creating and finalising the penultimate area of the game: the shop. It can be over immediately if the player wants to finish it quickly, or there is an additional optional puzzle that the puzzle can solve in order to collect another gem! I'm sure they'll be useful somehow...

Otherwise, I have the final area of the game thought out, so hopefully I can create that tomorrow, then Friday can be polishing and game-testing, ready for a late Friday submission!

That's all from me today, thanks for reading.

-Connor.

Hello,

Here's the day 9 update:

DAY 9:

Today was the final puzzle section of the game! You have to navigate past moving a number of moving slimes in order to get to the end. Don't let them touch you though, otherwise you'll be sent back to the start of the area.

That's all from me today, hoping to implement the last couple of things tomorrow and then officially submit. Thanks for reading.

-Connor.

Hello,

Here is my day 10 and FINAL dev-log, as the game is now finished! Thanks to everyone who has been reading these dev-logs, it's been fun making them.

DAY 10:

The game is complete. Today was mainly playtesting, making sure things work smoothly, minimizing bugs and making sure the appropriate music was always playing and the like. Additionally, I made the intro and final cutscenes, however those are quite short and sweet so that didn't take too long. Finally, I created the itch.io game page and officially submitted it to the jam! I hope that some of you will give it a go when the jam finishes.

Thanks for keeping up with this devlog,

Connor.