Game Off 2021 - YourWaifuIsALie

Blog and documentation for Game Off 2021 attempt.

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Game Off 2021 - Day 14

November 15, 2021

Time and scope

So far the hardest and most time consuming parts have been things I don’t even need to do for this game.

Actual basic game features (like menus, setting up turns, etc.) have only taken a couple of hours each. However, at the current pace I’ve worked so far (~30hr in 14 days) I doubt I’ll have a polished product while doing everything myself.

I think that’s fine. “Complete a game” is still even if it’s super jank.

To keep the goal in mind, I think I have to keep the following in mind:

• No more tangents for “ideal” implementations. Program exactly what needs to be done and refactor as a lesson after the jam
• Spend more time. Time is the limiting factor and only working a couple of hours on a weekend means I won’t finish.
• Identify specific assets that need to be made. I haven’t done any of that yet and it’ll likely take the most time
• Cut “planned” features? I’m not yet sold that this is required given progress so far
  • All of the cut effects for battle should be straightforward to implement and not take much time
  • Need “something” to transition between battles, side scrolling doesn’t seem much worse than other options
    • Bare bones only side to side movement. Might cut the “movement bug” glitch progression if necessary and purely use it to transition battles
    • Rogue-like decision branching can probably be implemented in a pinch, but it feels less thematic to the vision
  • Cutscene/narration system is really desired, but also the thing that can most likely be cut
    • The “bug-level” concept can serve as the narrative device. Every battle won by bug glitches the game further until the end just bluescreens or something?
  • Art assets seem relatively straightforward to do myself. They can be low-animated low-quality assets for “charm”
    • At least 1 character and 3 types of enemies (and 3 battles, and 3 “bug” mechanics to discover)
  • SFX and music seem unlikely to myself. I should probably just find copyright free sound to implement
    • Mainly due to lack of experience with all sorts of audio including using a DAW. Stretch goal if I have something before the deadline

Time take for programming done so far?

• Menus + transition: 3 hr
• Battle data structures: 7
• Data management: 1
• JSON serialization/deserialization: 4
• Boolean logic: 2
• Turn order: 3
• Events: 2

So with that + an updated design doc was is the time expectation?

• Options menu (res/windowed/volume + storage): 2 hr
• Basic battle system (acting/ai input/cleanup): 3
• Battle-overworld transition: 2
• Overworld movement: 2
• Finding + implementing sound: 3
• More battle effects + bug effects: ?
• Art assets: ?
• Graphics and animation controllers: ?
• Bug-level implementation: ?
• Total: 12 + ?
  • I estimate one devoted weekend’s worth of programming for most of the systems. From there it’s all assets + content + stretch features

I don’t think any of the remaining programming tasks should be particularly hard but I still have no idea how to estimate non-programming elements due to my inexperience.

It’s strange to be so optimistic when I technically don’t have anything playable right now and no assets. We’ll see if that’s misplaced confidence.

Progress

• Updated the design doc with more concrete numbers and goals to re-evaluate scope and roughly estimate remaining time

TODO

• Figure out unit tests in for Unity/C#
• Figure out how to make Unity play nice with Git
  • Specifically non-text assets like textures, blender models, sound effects, etc.
• Keep playing with Jekyll, fixing things like links
• Continue nailing down specific battle mechanics and overworld power-ups
  • Bug-themed things
• Main character designs and 2d “sprite” (probably cutout animation) for both overworld and battle
  • Can visualize the rest of the world around the main character for consistency
• Start programming
  • Options
  • Overworld
  • Battle
    • Player Input/AI input and completing actions
    • End battle conditions
    • Attach graphics to objects and playing animations

Time Spent

29.75 + 1hr