Devlog 1

This year for LOWREZJAM I decided to try and make a game similar to the flash classic "Motherload"
I really enjoyed this game growing up, and it still holds up really well. I figured trying to make a 64x64 demake of sorts would be challenging and fun. 

I've custom built an engine over the last few months, and this game jam will be my first test run actually making something in the engine. It is built on C# with a C# scripting API. The engine is agnostic to platform and rendering. So I am using MonoGame to generate Windows builds, and Blazor for Web builds. Expecting some challenges along the way as the engine is not mature, but excited to push it a bit. 

My main goals for Day  1 were generating a large mutable tile system, player movement, and a simple camera. I am happy with my progress so far, and excited to see where Day 2 takes me. 



Thanks for reading!

     Devlog 2

Before posting the log for yesterday, I found a name I liked "DrillBit" so I am going with that. I like that it captures both the Mining and Low Rez sides of the game. 

I was also feeling inspired to put some branding together (props to my wife for help with the logo), and am stoked on how it's looking. I will likely use this to influence the art direction a bit. 

Now, back to coding! 

     Devlog 3 & 4

Another two days down! 
Day 3 I focused on getting my itch page set up, just to get that out of the way before the deadline. Especially since I had my branding complete. 
I also got the branding in-game for my title screen. I made a down-rez version of the logo in photoshop to fit the resolution. I am pretty happy with the result. 

Day 4 while running things on my itch page I realized I had some memory issues with the tile system. Not too surprising, running C# on the web is a bit wacky. 
I managed to refactor the system to favor memory usage over performance, and things seem to be working nice and smooth still. 
I also started planning  out my HUD, but am only half-way done getting that implemented. 



My next plans are to finish up the HUD and to get ore collection, and ship upgrades working. Once those systems are complete, I should be able to focus on tweaking the gameplay, UI, art, and polish. (oh, and SFX and music if I have time!)

Lots to do, but happy with the progress!

     Devlog  5 & 6

I've made more progress in a few areas over the last couple days. 
- Finished my HUD
- Mocked out the rest of my UI
- Worked on the artstyle some more
- Fixed some camera issues
- Started working on the ship upgrading portion of the game

Still lot's to do, but I am really enjoying the game so far. The core loop should be fully functional in the next day or two, and then I can start polishing things further and making sure it's fun!

Here is some footage of my progress! 

     Devlog  7 & 8

I've let my logs get a little behind, but that's okay! More progress has been made. 

I've added a shop where you can sell your ores, to clear your inventory and earn credits!  Then, buy some essentials, like fuel, health, and upgrades. 
I want to tweak the UX some more if I have time, but it's functional for now!

Upgrades are complete. Damage and Fuel Use have been implemented. 
I've started playing the full loop to figure out some of the game balance. I think I need to work on the ore spawning, and upgrade trees a bit more to steady out the game's progress. 

Devlog  9  Tragedy Strikes

Memory Access Out Of Bounds

Why? From where? I do not know. 
My custom engine is using Blazor to run it's web builds. This is a pretty new feature I have been playing with, and it seems I have some memory issues. Due to the nature of running C# on the Web, this isn't too surprising, but alas, after a few hours of poking at things, I can't quite determine the cause. 

It was at this point I decided to abandon web for this game jam, I can fix issues with my engine at a later point, but only had a couple days left to finish up this game, and there is lots I want to do and polish. 

Devlog  10  Tragedy Averted

I was a bit sad I wouldn't have web support. I like the ease of sharing games on the web, I have a feeling web games get a bit more traction for jams, and I also would love to try and squeeze in some mobile support for phones that support it. 

So I thought to myself, what does my engine actually require, and can I work around this issue?
The obvious choice for running C# on web, is Unity. So let's give that a try. 

First, what does my engine require, and can Unity run it?
- it requires a game loop to run (MonoBehaviour.Update)
- it requires some input to get keyboard input (InputManager.GetKey)
- it outputs an array of colors, which need to be converted into something we can render to the screen (I just used a Texture2D set to Point filtering, and a UI Image to render it)

So there we go, easy Unity support, which meant easy WebGL support. Things seem to be running silky smooth again. Yay!

Excited to wrap up the gameplay loop with win and lose conditions. Keep tweaking and balancing the game progression. 
Add some juice, and time permitting I have a big list of stretch goals, like audio, mobile support, and whatever else I can scope creep.