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Thanks r kid.

the most intense and terrifying cat fight ever it's great.

I spent a day trying to make new 'enemy' types. Although they aren't really enemies, so maybe hazards is a better word. I wanted each one to look different but more importantly to act differently and make the player react in a different way. The first one was a spiky ball which just fell straight downwards, so the player could predict where it would be, and where they needed to be to dodge it. Then I made a goo ball that, when triggered, goes directly towards the player. This mean the player has to actively respond to them, and when there's more than one of them it can get a bit tricky. I also added some floating furniture or random sizes which spin in a predictable way, but don't move position. Next I'm going to try some more random hazards, to make the player have to react more quickly.

One thing I'm not sure about is what the consequences should be for getting hit. At the minute there aren't any, but I could make the level reset after a certain number of lives, or maybe the cat gets points all the time it isn't hit, and loses them when it is. That sounds better to me, because it wouldn't interrupt the flow of the game so much. Not sure how to make score work, or make numbers appear on screen, but I'll try and figure it out maybe.

Update:

I have been at work all the time and not done much game-making. So much for doing something every day. One thing I did do was have a bit where the screen rotates while you go up, making it a bit more dramatic and cool. I thought this would be really difficult to implement, but I just googled it and it's literally just one line of code. So that's easy. This isn't really a proper update at all, except to state that there are no updates to the game of note.

Thanks! Yeah, I think most of what I wanna do is just learn new things that I can do with Gamemaker, and find cool things I can make happen that I didn't know about before.

Day 3:

Did loads of stuff today which is good because I have work all next week. I gave the cat a jetpack for a bit, but it isn't as fun as moving the arms so it might be temporary. I made some spikes which hurt the cat, though can't decide whether it should trigger the level restarting, not sure if I want it to be that challenging. Also made some rainbow rain for effect. Not sure what that effect is, but it's certainly there.

Challenge now I think is to decide on a main mechanic and improve that, make sure it is fun, then add in extras. Also make it feel like you are progressing through the game, either by notching up difficulty, adding more elements, or driving forward some kind of visual narrative. It helps that you are always heading upwards I think, as that gives the game natural momentum, and a feeling of moving towards something.

Update: I have drawn a cat and figured out how it might climb a tree. At first it was just going to be moved around and jumped with the arrow keys, but then I decided I would rather use the mouse. The result is something like this:

You can pick up and move each paw, and the cat goes to the middle point of all the paws. A lot of stuff I thought would take ages, like making the legs work and making the cat go into the middle, turned out to be really easy. And the stuff I thought would be easy was hard. It took me a long time to figure out how to make the paws point away from the cat no matter where you move them to. Apparently it has something to do with trigonometry.

Next I need to make a background, and decide how a narrative might work, and how much of one there might be.

Also, I'm not sure whether to make the screen scroll up automatically, meaning you have to be quick to keep the cat from falling off the bottom of the screen, or whether to make the screen scroll up with the cat, making it more of a relaxed sort of experience. Also I need to figure out how to do either of these things.

The power level screen looks really cool. Basically what I'd expect it to look like if donuts and magic ever combined.

Hello. This is my devlog for the game I'm gonna try and make. Gonna try and post updates once a day, or two days maybe.

I'm using Gamemaker to do it because I know a few basics of how to make stuff move about in it. Not sure if this game is gonna be super long or good but I'll give it a go.

Game might be called Nice Cat Story. Not sure if story about nice cat, or nice story about cat. Maybe ambiguity will help build up a sense of mystery. Maybe game will be called something better.

My initial idea is this game will involve a cat climbing a tree. This tree will be the greatest of all trees ever known to cats, very tall. Not sure if it will have to get back down again, think probably not as most cats just stay up trees don't they until someone rescues them. Dunno. Never had a cat.

Will post updates to art and sound and coding and ideas when I make them. Cheers.

1. Hello. My name's Joe. I work in a supermarket, making pizzas.

2. This is the first game jam I've attempted. I joined because making games is a kinda fun thing to do, and it would be good to have a deadline to motivate me to finish something.

3. The game that made me want to make games was The Stanley Parable. The game that made me think maybe I could was Undertale. Neither of them are my favourites really, but they got me into this in the first place.

4. I once made a half-finished Gamemaker game for a live performance about the film Alien. I talked and performed while someone played it on a big screen. It wasn't a game that would work on its own though. The most complex thing it did was move left and right, and other things moved left and right and up and down when you reached certain bits, you know. Sometimes sounds played, but never when I'd wanted them to.

5. I guess I'm passionate about making things that tell stories, and also reading things that tell stories, and watching/playing/listening to them.