updated site, added a devlog - 02 Jan 2022

Let me start off by saying welcome! On this site you can find my “make-your-own-level” 2D platformer game. Rather than being a game that tells you what to do, you will be in charge of the experience!

The site now contains a devlog and an about page. Before it was just one page containing the game. Since this is the first post of the devlog I thought I could describe what I’ve done so far.

I started development on this game, which does not really have a name, during the summer of 2021. It’s basically mario maker with a duck. I’m using the godot engine. Using an out-of-the-box engine simplifies a lot of things though the ability to easily export to HTML5 and wasm is the main selling point for me. I choose godot over other available engines because it is easier to use, gives more control and is less bloated than the alternatives. Since it is open source it is comforting to know that if I run into some engine quirks that hinders me from achieving what I want I can always fix it in any way I’d like.

In future posts I might ellaborate more on development details but since I’ve worked on this game for ~6 months it’s a bit hard to summarize all of that in one post. I will just give an approximate list of what’s in it so far:

• 3 modes: edit mode, play mode and "live editing" (edit while you play)
• a playable character, the duck
• some static tiles such as grass, ice, and bouncy slime
• some interactive objects such as stealth spikes, boxes, and springs
• some enemies
• some weapons, not sure what to do with these yet but they're fun to use
• saving and loading levels
• and more!

What I have so far is the basic foundation of the game. As more items and stuff are added there will be a superlinear increase of possibilities. I believe there is a critical mass of functionality which once reached will give the player a near endless amount of things to do. Right now I’d say were definitely below that limit. When I’m playing around with the current game I have fun for a little while until I feel limited which kills the creativity. So the current plan is to just add more stuff until that is no longer an issue. Simple enough, right?