Hello, a solo dev here, trying to make a little bit short game. The second game technically made public and first ever devlog, for you seeing this post, thank you :)

Current Prototype Available Version 0.1

Summary

Tyro Knight is a 2D Platformer where you are a knight(obviously from the title), you fell into a cave. Your main goal is to escape the cave. You encounter some magical gems in the process. These gems is used for puzzles to progress the game. I'm gonna make the level a bit metroidvania-like design.

Note: The word 'Tyro' in the title is a synonym for beginner.

Updates

Day 1. For now, I won't share the game's unique concepts because I need to make player movement first

I'll give you some picture

Just gonna skip straight to the attack and shooting. 

In this game, Attacking is where you turn on hitbox and dash. The main use is to attack of course, and to cross some gaps. This is also used for puzzles.

Shooting is well, shooting a bullet to a indicator. This mechanic is mainly used for puzzles, this can be used to attack, but not effective.

Next day, I will post about the unique concept, I need a little bit suggestions on that. That's all, see you tomorrow :)

Day 2. The player's movement is finished, yay :D

Here a gif about the game now. Low quality, but still a good gif

The white aim thingy is the cursor for the shooting. The player 'shine' to when the player attacks for now, and the red square that being shot at? That is one of the gems I'm talking about, it's one of the game's unique concept.

Note: The gems is inspired by Peteksi's To a Starling, just that :)

The game has three type of gems. The red one is designed that if it being shot, some specific platforms in the room is changes. Ghost platform(dark red) becomes real platform(light red) and vice versa, shoot at it again and the platforms change again. This design is locked, I won't change the red gem.

The other two is the thing I have trouble with. It only because I don't have ideas for these two gems design. The color of two gems is green and blue. I just need some suggestions on the rest design. I'll update this post on day 3 for the design I chose. I might choose random, but if it works out I'll keep the design. 

You can reply to this post about the suggestions. 

Thank you, I'll see you tomorrow :)

Day 3. So there no suggestions, that's fine I'll get ideas anyway :) also I just finished the second gem design and also another thing for the game.

So here's the gif

So the green gem have 4 walls with 1 is ghost, hit it with attacking, wall 1 is real, wall 2 is ghost, hit it again, wall 2 real, wall 3 ghost, and so on. This can be used to make players go a route without getting too lost, used for a multiple route areas. This design can be changed completely though.

The other thing for the game is the camera. The game has camera now that change position when the player is on the edge of the screen.

Now there's only one gem left to design, will update about the last gem. But now, maybe I make other impactful things for the game.

Thank you and see you tomorrow :)

Day 4, The last gem design has been made, all gem has been made into the game :D There another thing I design as well so here's the gif.

The blue gem is triangle (now I look at it, it looks like arrows). It change the direction of the bullet to the direction it points (ok it really like arrows now :/  ), to change its rotation, use bullet that go through special tile(greyer tiles). It can be used to make bullet go to specific direction at some step, for example step one is change the direction to left to hit red gem, then step two is change direction to the right, to the previously real red wall, now a ghost red wall to hit something else.

Note: The green gem now activated by shooting now, not attacking :)

Also I just put another stuff to the game, spikes. You already know the design by seeing the gif, touch it and then you bounce hurt :|

Actually that's it for now, I need hours just to think the blue gem, but now it's just think about other a bit less important things to add to the game, which is a bit easier because most don't need innovations, but more to choice to apply to the design, like ladder that player can go up when in front of it and door that leads to another door that might need keys. But still, applying these design is still good for me as long as the stuff is not too much, I will watch out about my choices for the game.

Well that's that people, thank you and see you tomorrow :)

Day 5, so only 1 design made because the issues that comes with it and few more issue in other stuff, but it all done :)

So here the gif focused for the design, the rope.

The rope is used to reach places elevator style thing, when the player grab it, the player can go up and down. The player can shoot and attack technically midair, when the player gets off, it length return to the max ungrab length when not grabbed. This design can be used not only for puzzles, but for platforming as well.

This is not important, you can skip this paragraf. I added two max length for this, max ungrab length(gonna call it ungrab length), and max length, if the rope's length is less than the ungrab length, it will go down until it hits the ungrab length, if more, it will go up, ungrab length will run when not being grabbed(a bit obvious, also technically not really max, just point where to stop) , the max length is run when grabbed, it stop going down when the length reach the max length.

The rope probably defies few logic in the final product, but don't ask :|

And that's all people, good bye and will see you tomorrow ;)

Day 7, day 6 there was no post because there some issue and its night for me so I post today. There's three design I made :D, but there's some issue (not error) that might impact the game D:

You know what I'll do, here's the gif

Sorry if the gif is too small, I switch to another converter

The three stuff I added, checkpoint, healthbar and healing, and coin system (ok now I see it as four :/), I'm gonna explain how I added these, these explanation is not important, you can skip to the "Done Explain".

1. Checkpoint, I added checkpoint by making the spawnpoint, the spawnpoint is an autoload (global variable/ stuff that already there when the game start and doesn't change even if the scene reset). The player position start on the spawnpoint, if the player touch the checkpoint, the spawnpoint's position will be change to the last checkpoint the player touch, now when the player died, the scene resets, but the spawnpoint don't, the player's position is not at the checkpoint, but the player's position is at the spawnpoint's position at is at the checkpoint's position. The checkpoint can only activated once.

2. Coin System, the coins are in different shape and different colors, these are only for visual purpose. The player touch it and the counter adds by 1, basic platforming stuff I know, but there's a gimmick tied to this (I don't know if this count as gimmick), the player can heal with the coin system. The max coins to have is 100, not 99

3. Healthbar, I added UI, the heart texture is tiling, so the texture is repeated. The healing is also a bit easy, if the player have 25 or more coins, they can heal, just click the heart beside the gem counter. Health adds by 1, Coins subtracts by 25. And the method I use to make this? I just put a heal button (the heart beside the gem counter), that it. The health of the player is 5.

Done Explain, I'm sorry if its too complex for some of you or that I didn't explain well enough, I stumble upon an error at day 6, I find the solution at day 7.  Again sorry :(

These stuff are important, as important as the gems, it cause the player to be careful in the game and not too careless when playing, the game's level design are large, so packing extra. But the is another issue for these, the player can cheese the game D: If you look closely at the gif, the coins reset regardless if the checkpoint is activated before or after being collected. The player can just take all the coins, activate the checkpoint and died on purpose, and taking the coin again since it is resets. Autoload couldn't help either, the coin are added to the scene by tiles, so they aren't part of the autoload group, and thus resetable. I might fixed this someday, but this issue will stay.

Well that's a lot of words to type, There some positive feelings along the way when making this project, it feels satisfying that I've done actually this far for a project, fixing bugs and handle issues, made an innovative design, and actually finished a project you love and care. I now felt it. I am still determined to finish this game for you people who is here to watch my progress, thank you for seeing this.

Although I think I should say this at the day this finished, okay. And that's all for today people, good bye and will see you tomorrow ;)

Day 9, day 8 was focused on the coin for checkpoint issue, still not yet fixed, maybe someday :( There are two stuff I added today that a bit for the gameplay, but mostly for the setting and environment, here the gif about the lantern and the dripstones.

The player now has light, I mean, this game took place in a cave, so make sense its dark and the player carry a light source. The lantern's rope behave the same with the grabbing rope, only this time it can't be grabbed and the added light at the end of the rope, it cannot be interactable. The dripstone fall if the player was below it, I planned to give it 50% chance not falling (most likely applied), and destroyed if being shot(most likely not applied).

This is made to make the cave feel like well, cave, with the added challenge of the darkness, and watching out for the dripstones. The environment of the game is important to me, if I'm too careless, the environment feels off, or even ugly and unfit for the settings at the final product. But still variety can be great for a game's environment, I'll can make variety to the game's, it's potential is pretty much limitless at default, so why shouldn't I? It can be long to add, but possible :)

Well that's all people, goodbye and will see you tomorrow ;)

Day 10, I officially give up about the coin issue, I'm just gonna make the player being restored at the checkpoint instead of the time being restarted thing. Now that is out, now I talk about the lever and the moving platform.

Here's a very short gif

The lever when pulled down, the platform moves, that's it. The moving platform can be made to move without the lever, these are only for platforming purpose. The lever can be made for something else entirely like for door, or new thing.

Now I'm sorry I didn't really make innovative or cool designs, but I hit a idea block, I don't have any ideas, the idea storage is empty. I planned for stairs, but it didn't really work out. Maybe I find a random generator, combining other people's design to a new good one, or even go out for a while and get ideas in the process, all this are possible.

Well, that actually all people, good bye and will see you tomorrow

Day 11, finally got some neat things added here, three ideas today that is not mundane :D Now lets see it

Here's the great gif. Changes to another converter

The lever that being pulled to control the moving platform, gone and being changed. Now the lever open a passage for certain amount of time, the blocking passage (gonna call it pillar) have a certain length, this can be extra challenge.

Note: The lever can not be reseted while being active, so the player must wait the timer.

The moving platform is going at a specific path at specific speed, few seconds and another pop out, this is for platforming purpose, better then the controlled one.

Note: The player do not move along the platform when jumping

And the last one is the springs, bounce player at specific height, again platforming purpose.

It feels great having ideas again and implementing them successfully too, especially if the designs are changeable into something interesting, adding the potential to the designs and the mechanics around it, the only thing stopping it is my decisions, and that at least is a bit easy to overcome :)

And thats all people, goodbye and will see you tomorrow ;)

Day 18 or 17, let just call it 18. Alright the prototype is finished. Its all done, officially playable.

In the prototype, only the gems and few secondary mechanics are added to the game, and its a very short metroidvania platformer with barely ten rooms. The art is also does not animating, it will be pain to make animation for the art, especially this early, maybe someday. There are few tutorials, but I didn't know if its count as interactable, and same for colorblind, I don't know if I have to add the colorblind feature and not just shapes to call it a colorblind friendly. The basic controls are in the pages.

And of course, you can give feedback in the page's comment, it can be a bug or glitches reports, or an idea for a mechanic surrounding the core features. I will see them and most likely reply on them.

Here's the link, or just click my profile and see it for yourself if you are not a link user.

Well that is all people, good bye and will see you someday ;)

Also before some of you ask, this is not a horror game >:(

Day 19, I'm now focused on the animations. Thought it will be a lot pain, turns out it only a little bit of pain (unless I go to all things must be big and animated thing)

So, here is the gif, I screen record it so it a little bit weird and laggy feel, and also that 'ss' thing, somehow it exist, I don't know what happen. sorry :(

or just look at the png version, this is 3 times the original size.

The animation of the player for now is really just idle, run, and jump. The rest is on the way.

This is already big for me, the idle and run are easy, jump is a bit more, it will be like this (not important, you can skip to 'Done Explaining').

1. When jump is started and the player goes up, it will play the first 2 frame (from the bottom set of frames);

2. Then when player starts falling, it plays frame 3,4, and 5;

3. After frame 5, it plays frame 6 and 7;

4. When the player land, it will play the rest of the frames before play the idle animation

Done Explaining, don't understand that? Its okay, it is not important anyway :)

Now about the attack, still making the structure because there are no such thing as dash attack animation, even if they exist, it might not fit with the player's dagger dash.

About the shooting, not even planned yet. But most likely just pebble throw, I change shooting arrow to throwing rocks.

I still care about this game alright, trust me. I'm absent for days just to make the game's prototype. 

Well that's all people, goodbye and see you tomorrow ;)

Day 21, the animation for the player is finished, maybe I will make some fixes for it, but still. Now only the gems is need of animation. Also extra movement bits.

Here's the footage, a little bit less laggy now.

 All the player's animation is presented up there, the shoot is more to throwing now, and the bullets you throw are now rocks, which is because a little bit logical to throw random rocks than arrow that you can use for defense, and also it eliminate charging bow shenanigans :\

Now the second one I wanna talk about is that the player can jump few frame after falling off a cliff, but I do discover a new unintentional feature. The player attacks and dashing few frames after the dash you can jump again, it can be similar double jump (maybe) and I can use it as mechanic , but I don't know maybe make it just an easter egg or something. I had no idea how difficult it is for players to do this jump so I don't know whether I should added this jump or not, it might has an impact for the platforming. Maybe someday in a prototype update.

Well, that's about it really, I'm busy for other stuff so a little bit less time to make the game, but still a lot of time in my opinion. Still this game has potentials I sure it has, just need some good inspiration for the game and we're great.

Well that's all people, good bye and will see you someday ;)

Day 22, the gem's animation is finished :D the texture of the gems (and red platforms, green wall, rock throw) is done.

Here's the gif, which is in my opinion the least work done to it (for now at least :\  )

If you thought this is perfect loop, trust me its not.

The gems is more different shape for colorblind players (still don't know if this enough to claim it as colorblind friendly), the controls (attack and shoot) can be hold and still activating after a second it activated and the projectile is now rock, not arrow. I'm not gonna show the rest because it will take more seconds of footage.

And also I completely forgot to say this, but if you don't notice, I made the room smaller, its now 192 pixel wide and 128 pixel tall (or if a tile's length is 8 pixel, 24 tiles wide and 16 tiles tall). It limits the room's content and puzzle to work with, making it a bit easier and quicker for me to made and make a little more cramp feeling.

Now I'm working on the world's tiles and maybe more art for other thing to made, but its small and simple enough to not be a long pain to make.

My time for the game has increased overnight :) but someday will decreased overnight :( I can do more for the game now, still no inspiration but at least I made something.

Well that is all people, goodbye and will see you someday ;)