General Thoughts

Whoo boy do I have my work cut out for me. I have just begun setting up my first level, and the mountain of things I need to do is sinking in.

In no particular order, here are important to finish before I can have a proper “first-level” completed:

  • New Assets. My game takes place on a beach, but I have no beach graphics.
  • A Game Manager. What is going to control this rail shooter? How will zombies know when to spawn? What will move the player’s character?
  • Audio Manager. This is just a staple, I might even be able to copy and paste one from another project.
  • To Design, Actual Levels, add in needed collision mappings, and other things 3D.
  • Create a start screen
  • Add sound effects
  • Add music
  • Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

The most pressing thing to me, right now, is the level design. I can’t have anything without a level, and I can tell already that my level of design skills is severely lacking. After that, I’ll worry about the game manager that facilitates the game.

I need to start marketing this thing. And look, I’ll be frank with you, it ain’t much to look at right now. But I do want people to play this thing, and that’s not going to happen if I don’t maintain some sort of regular online postings.

My plans, or hopes more like, for this weekend are to get another, perhaps slightly edited, video on YouTube. I’ll make a post on my mastodon because I made one last week and haven’t done anything on it (and don’t know how to!). Finally, I’ll consider making either an Instagram or TikTok before the end of the weekend, and start plugging my stuff everywhere.

All that said, I have another observation I’d like to share. This week, like many weeks I will estimate, I had too many obligations to make any progress until the weekend. I spent a good amount of time this morning relearning things. How exactly do I create a collision from a mesh? How do I make this scene local? That sort of thing. It makes me want to make some documentation, but then the question of where it lives, how is it organized, and yadda yadda. I’m hoping that after I relearn these things enough times, I’ll just know how to do it. This makes me sort of interested in writing some small tutorials, mostly because I think it would help solidify these steps in my head. I am, however, trying to keep my free time focused on completing this STILL unnamed typing game, so I feel a bit conflicted about using my time to do things like writing tutorials.

Things I did

  • Relearned how to add collision to gridmap tilesets.
  • Scoped out the first level in Google Sheets
  • Created the first section of the game
  • Fixed a lag issue with my gridmaps

I’m going to focus some this evening on trying to put together something of another devlog. I don’t know if I have enough B roll to make a video, honestly.

I also need to think of a style of video. I immediately think about how much I LOVED the Adult Swim ads when I was a kid, but I don’t want to just completely ape their style. I can’t currently think of a fresh spin on black background white text, but hopefully, I can think of something unique.

~ Marcus

P.S. You can watch my Second Devlog Here

Prompt Used: “I want you to analyze a body of text for actionable items. I am going to send you an entry for a game development log. This log belongs to a single developer. I want you to analyze the text to determine what the next steps should be, ending with a single motivating quote. If you understood this message, say “Ok!”. Afterward, I will send the text that will be analyzed”

Chat GPT 4 Game Dev To Do

Based on the developer’s log, here’s a breakdown of the next steps and actionable items:

Actionable Items:

  1. Level Design & Assets

    • Acquire or design beach graphics for the game.
    • Focus on the actual level design, incorporating collision mappings and other 3D elements.
    • Complete the first level to facilitate further game development.

  2. Game Manager

    • Develop a game manager to control the rail shooter.
    • Design the spawning mechanism for zombies and the movement for the player’s character.

  3. Audio

    • Implement an audio manager (potentially reuse one from another project).
    • Add sound effects.
    • Integrate background music.

  4. Marketing & Promotion

    • Start regular online postings to keep potential players engaged.
    • Post a new or edited video on YouTube.
    • Make a post on Mastodon.
    • Consider creating accounts on platforms like Instagram or TikTok to reach a wider audience.

  5. Documentation & Tutorials

    • Document recurring challenges and solutions for future reference.
    • Consider writing small tutorials to solidify understanding and help others.

  6. Video Development

    • Gather enough content (B-roll) for the development log video.
    • Determine a unique style for the video that differentiates it from commonly used themes (e.g., the black background with white text).

  7. Other Miscellanea

    • Design a start screen for the game.
    • Name the game.
    • Address any technical issues like lag with gridmaps.

Motivating Quote:

“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.” – Barry Finlay

This quote reminds the developer that while the tasks might seem daunting now, with persistence and dedication, they can achieve their goals.