devlog#02 Finish 2 worlds and join the competition

Now it almost comes into production stage, it means that what I most consider is every level but not the core game idea. When most of the programs and art are not big deal, the level design comes to be another problem. Level design needs to add more stuff and put this in a level to make it more challengubf. I am still studying for this. There are not many things could share now.

Use Script batch deal with some boring stuff

Now come into code. Now there are almost 25 scenes in the game, it means that if I would like to change common things in the scene I have to open many scenes change it too. Such as background and every scene there is a script with level id. It’s boring to change it one by one. So I use ScriptableWizard to write a popup window to batch deal with the logic.

There are many scenes use the same background music, but I didn’t put it to the scene object instead of use ScriptableObject and load from Resources in the runtime. Using Unity ScriptableObject is very cool because it could put some UnityObject like Sprite,Texture2D,AudioClip in it.

After these methods, I could focus on the level design instead of doing some boring stuff.

Change the main character

if you saw my main role in the past you will find I change the main role. The reason is very simple. The role I draw is not very nice and I really like the character asset. And I decide change it. Luckily I have learned pixel art before so I could draw some new actions! I didn’t think I should draw everything by myself when making games. As a commercial game, quality is the most important thing to consider. But commercial game asset is not unique.

Salute the classic

As a gamer, it would be very insteresting that add some retro factor in the game. Such as main role appear animation I refer to the megaman :

There are others just waiting to be discovered in the game.

TextEffect

When play paper mario, it’s text effect is very impressive for me. I tried to use Unity make this effect several times but failed. Finally I found that TextMeshPro examples have a similar effect. programming is use script control the mesh vertice of each letter. I try to code it for a while, and it looks not bad!

How to solve Chinese Pixel Font

As a game developer living in China, use Chinese pixel font is necessary. But I found there is no good solution about it. Beacuse there are only a few Chinese pixel fonts: ZPix，FangZhengPixel, wenquanyi. Zpix and FangZhengPixel are expensive for a solo developer( almost $1000). And wenquanyi is an open source but it need to ask for authorization and it’s format is not ttf, so it’s hard to be used in Unity.

Finally I found a way to make my own pixel font. I would like to try this method in this project, if it is useful I will share it.

Join the Competition

These two weeks I most of time making the demo for join IndiePlay and GWB in China.

Although I know that there are too many excellent developers, but I think the game could have some exposure.

The advantage of joining the competition is that there is a deadline that you must make the demo out.

Making this game make me feel very weird sometimes. During the development sometimes I feel very upset and feel the game is too simple and it’s not fun to play. But finish a great level I feel glad. These feelings repeat many times. And finally I feel touch when I play the demo.

Mistake of Store Page Publishing

publishing store page at the first time is very important! You must make a great video and then publish it. I didn’t do well so my wishlist is a little low.

There are some algorithm in steam. So when you first publish your store page he will give you some exposure! So making a good trailer when you publish store page will give you more wishlist. And when you release the game, steam will send an e-mail to everyone who adds wishlist.

What I do next

Almost continue making the levels. The Boss fight now looks silly, I need to improve it to be more challenging.

Maybe next time I write the devlog is the time to announce the game release.

GamePlay Video

In order to join the competition, it needs a gameplay video.So I record one, here it is.