Below is one of the first two devlogs for the game. They originally appeared on the TIGSource forums and can be found here: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=69154. Moving forward I will post devlogs on Itch.io and TIGSource.

[December 24, 2019]

Initial Development
Seeing as the end of 2019 is nearly upon us, I figured my first devlog should discuss some of the ideas, and mechanics I have implemented so far. The initial pitch for the project was based on my desire to not actually make a game at all. Originally I was more focused on implementing a game engine. When making games, I tend to have a million and one ideas, and it's quite easy for me to lose focus when a new idea hits. When I started in January, I hadn't actually stayed committed to a project for more than a few weeks. The last time I'd stuck with something was a fan game that I'd shelved last year. My general consensus was that the design of a game engine is already fairly established, meaning I could work on it without being distracted. It seems to have worked out.

Now, let's get some gifs going.

Why Gameboy?

So it should be fairly obvious by now, which limitations I've put on myself. Primarily I chose this style in attempt to make development easier for myself. I'm not really artistic, so by limiting myself to 4 colours and small sprites I'm hoping to avoid spending large amounts of time creating artwork.

I've also given myself the restriction of the Game-boy's resolution of 160 by 144 pixels. This isn't a huge amount of space, and it's why I will try and design most level elements to be 8 by 8.  Generally I want to have most (if not all) level elements as some variation of a square or rectangle. By keeping the building blocks of a level small, I will be able to create more complex and spacious levels. I want to avoid the problems that I see in games such as 'Super Mario Land 2' or 'Sonic Triple Trouble' where it's quite hard to see upcoming obstacles.

This philosophy also applies to the game's protagonist. The design is likely to change over time, but his current form is intended to give him a smaller presence on the screen. A challenge when designing him was portraying different movements, given the limited space. I gave him a large flat body, so that his limbs would always stand out against it. I'm planning to only use the brightest and darkest shades for the backgrounds, and so I've tried to avoid using them too much on him.

Level Creation
So far, I've spent the longest amount of time creating an in-game editor so that I can quickly prototype and test levels. I've been playing alot of Super Mario Maker 2 this year, and I really enjoyed the ease that comes with switching between gameplay and editing at the press of a button. The current version of my editor is quite simple. I added mouse support fairly early on, as trying to place blocks using my keyboard was really slow and tedious. I've added a few different items to place down being: Blocks, Coins, Platforms, and Fake Blocks.

I hope that they're all fairly self explanatory. I'm hoping to use the fake blocks in some clever ways to allow players to reach certain areas quicker or out of order. The coins currently have no real purpose. I'm considering adding a shop similar to 'Hollow Knight', where the player could buy items to aid them during the game.

You may have noticed some dotted lines in the level-edit view. These represent the boundaries of the game's camera. The idea is based off a similar system found in 'Super Mario Maker 2', by placing a wall of blocks across the screen, you are able to stop the camera from panning past it. I really like this from a level design perspective, as it provides a nice 'end' to a section. My implementation is based on rectangles defined in the level, the camera is able to freely move around these areas, trying to keep the player in the center of the screen. It is also possible to overlap these boundaries. When the player is inside of an overlapped area, the camera will try to conform to the most appropriate region. This can be seen in the GIF above. I designed it so that when it transitions between areas we never show anything outside of the regions. This should hopefully mean that the player will never see anything that they're not suppose to, and also means I don't have to fill these areas with extra blocks.

And that's some of the work I've done so far! I'm really looking forward to properly working on the game itself in 2020.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a fantastic new year!