May Mileage May Vary

Hello and welcome! This is going to be a short little update, possibly the shortest I’ve ever written.

The reason? I’m writing this in an airport terminal as I await my impending flight, and doubt I’ll have time for much of anything else.

So, without further ado… here’s what I did.

Doorways 9 Continues

In my previous, tragically several-week-old post, I talked about making enemy attack patterns and how well that was going. And, indeed: it was going well. In isolation.

What felt like a pretty satisfying attack pattern in my test scene quickly revealed itself to be a bit frustrating when placed into an actual level, where it could interfere with the player’s movements. I’ve said previously that I’ve found Doorways 9 to be at its best as a “harassing your computer” simulator – a petty struggle against your computer over who gets to push the Buttons ™️.

The new attack pattern didn’t really align with that in the way that I’d hoped. It was too aggressive, like something that belonged in an arcade shoot-em up. It rather rudely interrupts the player’s ability to navigate the UI, and to interact with the game, generally.

I mean, that was sort of the point, I suppose. You don’t cut across your screen with a giant laser beam and not expect something to get disrupted. However, this was just too much – a constant distraction.

So, I started experimenting with some of my fallback ideas – mechanics that played a little more in-line with my pre-existing systems.

Today's mechanic testing is dedicated to the twelve million pop-ups you get whenever you open Microsoft Edge for the first time. #gamedev #godot

— My_Kneecaps (@mykneecaps.bsky.social) 2024-05-24T20:42:02.802Z

The most noteworthy of these so far is the spam mechanic – a.k.a. “adding more buttons to the screen on the fly to screw with the player”. This includes:

• Sneaky checkboxes that sign over your rights to the makers of Doorways 9.
• UI elements that do nothing but make navigation more complicated.

…And, naturally:

• Buttons that just kill you.

I’m pretty happy with how these are playing out in testing so far, though it’s still pretty rough around the edges. I want to figure exactly how and when I’m going to spawn this stuff in (suggestions welcome!), and what sort of animations or sounds they’re going to need. I hope to have something more complete on that front in the next week or so.

I’ve also got a few other design ideas on my mind, but I’m probably going to save those for later. I’m trying to actually pace these posts out, for once.

The Diseasen’ Season

Of course, I likely would have it this done already, were it not for the solid week I spent languishing in bed.

…There’s not much to say about that time, really. Around the middle of the month, I came down with a fairly standard head cold, which then decided it’d like to stick around in some form for a solid 6 days.

It is spring in New Jersey, so it’s the time where everyone catches this stuff. I just wish I could get sick during a lull, rather than when the ideas are flowing. Oh well.

At least it had the decency to line up with a Valheim update.

Thy Geekdom Con

Fortunately/unfortunately, my cold faded just in time for a series of back-to-back, extremely busy weekends – the first of which involved a trip out to Thy Geekdom Con.

This was my second time attending the convention, which is held annually near Philadelphia. It’s not a terribly large event, but it’s fun! It also had a pretty good ticket price, especially given that it seemed to be much bigger than last time. I’d recommend it if you’re in the area – as an attendee, at least.

And… that’s the status update! In the time since starting this post, I’ve actually gone from waiting at the airport to being on the plane – which is probably my sign to stop here.

As stated previously, I’m going to be busy for the start of this month, but I hope to be back with something soon-ish. Maybe something for The Dragon’s Table, too. If I’m lucky.

As always, thanks for reading! Have a great rest of your day!