itch.io

Thank you so much for trying out my game! I originally wanted to polish it up much better. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to create a game character with smooth animations, so I had to rely on scrolling images to simulate movement. The UI is also pretty rough as a result. I’ve heard Spine2D can fix these issues, so I’ve been trying to learn it lately. There might be more efficient workflows out there, I just haven’t figured them out yet -_-

I checked out your game, it’s really awesome! But players these days have way higher expectations. Even games that used to blow up barely get anyone interested now, so devs gotta step up their technical skills big time to make something good.

I’ve tried optimizing the game and adapted it to run on web pages. This way, players won’t need to download anything, which should be much more convenient.

I decided to try game development back in April, so I looked up information about different game engines online. I found that Godot is a great pick. Its programming language has simple syntax and is really easy to learn, so I chose Godot as my main game engine.

I started learning its syntax in April, but I didn’t make much progress back then. I only spent about half an hour to one hour on it each day. I really focused on studying it in May. After I got a good grasp of the basic syntax, I started working on my first game project. The scripts run well so far, but they can only achieve some pretty basic functions.

Soon I ran into a second problem: I didn’t have enough art assets. I was able to write simple scripts, yet I lacked proper art resources to move the project forward. I heard AI painting has become very advanced these days, so I tried using AI to create art materials. However, the results were not satisfying. AI struggles a lot with character movements and stylized designs, which are exactly what I needed.

I then tried different solutions, such as testing better AI tools and other game engines. Eventually, I realized that if I want art assets that meet my standards, I have to make them myself. Relying entirely on AI is not a viable way out. That’s why I began to learn Spine from late May to early June. That’s basically my learning journey up to now.

Many people wonder why I want to get into game development recently. To put it simply, AI development plays a big part in my decision. We often see news stories that people can finish a game in just three hours or one week with the help of AI. Those stories are really exciting, and AI is what inspired me to start making my own games.

But after diving deeper into game development, I realize AI can only do so much. Most of the work still has to be done by myself. When it comes to coding: even if AI can write scripts for you, you still need to master basic programming knowledge. If the AI produces faulty code, you won’t know how to fix it without proper know-how. You also won’t be able to give clear instructions to AI to get code that fits your project. In short, AI does not lower the barrier for total beginners to make games. Solid coding skills are still a must.

As for art assets: modern AI painting tools can create gorgeous images, but they are not ready to use directly in games. Unless your game only uses a few static images, nearly all AI-generated art needs plenty of manual edits. So AI’s help in this area is also limited.

AI sparked my interest in game development and pushed me to start my own project, but it never made learning easier. On the contrary, I have more things to learn now.

Right now, I only have a basic understanding of scripts and programming. I still have a long way to go when it comes to art creation. So my next plan is to learn Spine well. I believe once I master this tool, creating dynamic art assets for games will no longer be a tough task. Of course, I know this is just a tiny part of all the challenges in game development.

I once uploaded my simple game demo as a compressed file to some websites. Unfortunately, the file failed to open on my phone and kept showing error messages. That led me to deal with debugging issues. Game development is just like this. Problems keep popping up one after another, and I have to spend a lot of time and energy solving them. I guess this is just the normal life for anyone who makes games.

I wrote all this down to record my journey, from the moment I had the idea to try game development up until today.

The exported file size really caught me off guard — it’s nearly 100MB. I’d suggest holding off on downloading for now. I apologize for the lack of content. 😢