I've spent today polishing up the game and started working on redesign/improvements now that I have the basic skeleton in place. I was able to get all 3 date levels working in the same scene, so any changes I make to that code won't have to be duplicated in 3 different places :D I then added black fades in and out for all the scenes, along with fixing the bug that was stopping the game from finishing and going to the win scene.
I did some design tweaking to the date intro page, adding a back button and dots to show which page of content you're on. I also updated the text itself and created the system to show the different text for each level on the win screen, it's still filler but it's ready to go. Honestly, all the text is filler, for now, some more so than others :P How about, it's still not shippable text.
Finally, I added the ability to save and resume your game, with the main menu updating to show which level you're on. I'm happy with the progress that I've made, but there's been other progress afoot as well!
Jessy has been kicking butt at designing a character for this Frantic Dating, she's done all the initial sketching and is currently doing linework and figuring out the different layers she'll need so we can swap faces quickly and reduce sprite sheet size. I'm so happy with how it's turning out, this game is gonna be hella sexy!
Step 100/1000 It's weird making it this far, I had thoughts at the start that I'd have given up before 100, but now I'm here 1/10 of the way to my goal. I've made a lot of progress, but as always I find it easier to focus on my failures instead of my successes. I find the days where I don't get anything done or where I stress for an hour instead of just spending the 10 minutes needed to do the current task, those days outweigh the ones where I make massive progress, where I solve a hard problem, or where I really dig in and do 8+ hours of work. I'm trying hard to focus on remembering all the progress and good days and to be proud of that. However, I still feel like if I don't get upset about the lack of progress or motivation some days it will be far too easy to then make excuses for myself, leading to me losing steam and eventually giving up. I only think this because it's happened before, way too many times on way too many things. I always get tired and want to stop, and hell why shouldn't I take a break? Everyone else seems to, and I need some time to rest. Yeah, that'll help.... but really if I look at my average day, I do get a lot of rest. Just taken in 10-20 minute breaks here and there. I either need to try and condense those and work for longer amounts at a time or appreciate those moments I do take off more. I know that if I give in if I start saying I can just take this afternoon, this day, this weekend off... soon it turns into the thing I wanted to do... it's abandoned and in a year's time, I'm just left with the feeling that I gave up on another thing. That failure really builds on me.
With this, with making games, with working towards a future for myself that I want.... even when I'm tired, even when I push to do that extra work that I don't want to do.... I look back now at all those times and I'm proud, I'm so happy about the things I've learned, what I've already created and the path forward I've made for myself. It's been hard, but after this year I'm not looking back and seeing another project I gave up on, another thing that proves I'm a failure. Even if I failed multiple times along the way, even if none of the games I've made so far reach anything close to what I'd dream, I did it. I've made games, people have played them and I've created a pipeline that allows me to continue making games.
Here's to 2021 being great, if I can do what I've done in 2020, then I can do anything :P hahaha, or at least make a game about anything!
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