'Horrified Hector' DevLog

[Seurat107 (Alex Syiek)]

Hello Playdate Devs and Curious People!

I'm so grateful for this wonderful community of artists who have been instrumental so far in making my game development debut project a lovely experience. I've always had ideas kicking up in my head, but never thought I could get them down into something real. Then the Playdate comes along and makes me excited about designing again. Of course, Pulp is so beginner-friendly, but also has caused my brain to tie in knots the past week. But this forum has been sooo necessary as I embark on this journey.

So! 'Horrified Hector!'

After being inspired by a Youtube video one day, I got to thinking what kind of games I enjoy playing. Horror is my favorite genre/theme of gaming. Okay. What would a horror game on the Playdate even be like? I think - screaming, running, ghosts - great - something spooky, rather than scary, Luigi's Mansion - cool. I thought of the funny running through hallways in and out different doors Scooby Doo trope. And somehow I remembered how much I enjoyed the little ice sliding puzzles in the original Pokemon game back in the day. And I guess I combined them to create Horrified Hector, a constantly running man who has to escape ghosts.

So, I'm a week into development. Of course I'm doing the thing where every time I get something to work, I get excited and expand the scope of what I'm planning. I have to keep reminding myself to keep the scope manageable, or I'll get burnt out and never release the thing.

That being said, at the moment I'm almost done with what I'm planning will be 1 of 4 sections/worlds. the game takes place at Duke Scarums' Estate deep in the forest. You begin in the main foyer and move around using the d-pad. Every time you move, you go running headlong until you hit an obstacle. So finding your way through the rooms becomes a puzzle as well as exploration. I'm thinking the area layout will be

-Entryway
-Basement
-Garden
-and then maybe Servants' Quarters/Kitchen/I'm not sure yet, suggestions welcome

Each world will have 8 or so puzzles that are interconnected. That's the current plan. We shall seeee...

So I guess I'm just gonna share some screenshots/footage of what I've worked on so far? I feel like I've learned so much and took so many large and tiny steps this past week that chronicalling it all might be overkill. Without further ado!

I spent far too long on this main menu screen, and I'm still not happy with it. Every time I sit down to create an actual puzzle level, I find myself obsessing over some small change here. I try to set up the idea of Hector's movement here, but still not sold on its effectiveness.

It was important to me to be able to see Hector up close, cause facial expressions in goofy horror like Luigi's Mansion or Scooby Doo are my favorite detail. So, I figured I would create an internal monologue for Hector that is triggered upon interactions with certain objects or in certain "cutscene" moments.

This opening Forest section I made, at first, simply because I wanted to make some spooky trees. But then I figured I could make it a way to show the player that pressing the d-pad in a direction one time will send you flying without need for further input.

Once the player has entered the Estate, I knew I had to ramp up the complexity slowly. So I start with a puzzle that is small and free of many obstacles to direct the player through one of two doors at the top.

The foyer at the start of the clip is kind of the main hub of this area, you're able to go upstairs, and once you retrieve a key there, can venture down either of the left or right halls.

I think that's all for now. I have so much more planning, puzzling, and polishing to go, but I'm proud of the work I've done this week. And that's part of why I'll be sharing a devlog regularly. To remind myself of my growth, and naturally, to keep myself accountable. And hopefully inspire some other new developers to get into the scene, as I was inspired by seeing this community's work.

Happy Weekend,
Alex
Seurat107

[Seurat107 (Alex Syiek)]

Horrified Hector! DevLog #2 - 9-20-24

This week has been trying. I set a goal to get a demo out for the game by Friday, which is today. And...long story short, it's out! I'm very excited to get some of y'all's hands on the game and hear what you think, as there's still plenty of room to grow and learn.

You can download the FREE demo right here!: https://seurat107.itch.io/horrified-hector

As for what my week looked like:

I changed the opening Forest area to be a winding road, so that right off the bat, the player gets used to the fact that one button press sends them moving until they hit a sprite.

I coded in variables for various items the player can pick up, including a key, a crank (more on that soon), and a secret hidden item. OoooOoh.

Having these items allows the player to interact with aspects of the map they couldn't before, like a locked door. The satisfaction of exploring a location like the Spencer Mansion in RE is something I am acutely aware of, and I wanted to convey that sense on a smaller scale here.

This freaking crank mechanism took me days. Pulp crank language unfortunately isn't highly documented, but thanks to the dev forum again, I finally was able to put the crank to use in the game. (@scarboy , your code that labelled and displayed the total crank and direction was a life and time saver. I would not have been able to visualize it any other way. here)

I finished off the week by adding a transition from 'The Foyer' into 'The Basement.' It was fun figuring out this little animation.

Other things I tackled this week:
-General polishing of tiles and sprites
-Making certain puzzles easier/harder based on friends' playtesting
-Fixing the music in the game, because I didn't know that music in Pulp can be... weird. But by changing some fonts around and playing with volume/attack levels, I think it's starting to sound pretty nice.
-getting rid of redundant code. In the past couple weeks I figured out how to do some tasks more efficiently, so going in and getting rid of some redundancies was needed.

Overall, it was a pretty good week, and ultimately, I put in a bit less time than last week. But I hope that continues to be the case, as the foundations for many of the systems are now in place. Here's to further development, and please, try out the demo and let me know what you think!

Happy Weekend,
Alex
Seurat107

[Seurat107 (Alex Syiek)]

Horrified Hector! DevLog #3 - 9-27-24

This week I started work on the second area of the game - Duke Scarum's Dungeon!

I knew I had to figure out more of a transition between the falling screen of the end of the demo I released last week and the discovery of this new place, especially because the colors were going to be swapped around. I spent many hours (mostly procrastinating) getting this animation/fade in running:

I like it, but working with mostly black tiles is very limiting. I'll get used to it, I'm sure.

So, with the introduction of the crank in the last area, I knew I wanted to ramp up its usage here. In this first hub room of the dungeon, I don't clutter it up, but present a gear to be interacted with, as well as two blocked off exits:

One of the blocked exits will require you to get four MacGuffins from around the dungeon to open, while the other, with a little experimentation on the gear, can be cleared by cranking.

These retractable/protractable spikes are shaping up to be the main feature of the dungeon at the moment:

Other than that, I tidied up some code, and created some new sprites and items to be used in the dungeon area. My wife was visiting me on tour this week, so I wasn't as nose to the grindstone as I have been. Which was honestly so lovely.

So while this week wasn't as prolific as others, it was exciting and head-scratching, which are two good things.

Happy Weekend,
Alex
Seurat107

[CSyiek]

Do you mean you'll experiment with the gear as the dev or the player will experiment with it?

[Seurat107 (Alex Syiek)]

@CSyiek The player can experiment, bad wording on my part, lovely question on yours.

[Seurat107 (Alex Syiek)]

Horrified Hector! DevLog #4 - 10-27-24

Well well well, it has been a while. A month, to be exact, since my last devlog. Part of that was me feeling driven to complete more and more of the game and not spend time writing about it, and the other part was me just enjoying the outside world.

My initial goal was to be able to release Horrified Hector! by Halloween (for the spookyness), but I think I'm going to miss that goal by a bit. Better a late good game than a rushed bad game.

Since last writing, I completed the dungeon area, and moved on to the third world, The Garden!

The Garden kicks things up a notch again, introducing the use of water pipes. These pipes, when activated, serve as conveyor belts of a sort, that will deliver you to a certain spot on the stage. The player will have to figure out how to make it through these rooms by manipulating water.

And also, manipulating spikes and water combined! By shifting spike positions, the water will shift positions, allowing passage to new areas.

This is the largest world in scope and surface area, and I expect it to stay that way. My idea, at this point, is to have the final world be more streamlined, driving the player to the end, rather than the first three semi-open-world areas.

I hesitate to give more about the area away, so as to not give away secrets for future players. But I'm happy with it.

Apart from The Garden, I went back and tidied up some code, and edited some early sprites and events to be more in line with the level of coding in Pulp I've grown to over the past couple of months.

The amount of items Hector can interact and comment on keeps growing, and it makes me happy to share his point of view on his surroundings. I hope others will also find this horrified hero charming!

While it's been a while since I've written, things are moving along swimmingly. Oh, actually, if anyone reading this has ideas on how to better implement a save system, I will gladly take advice. I've yet to figure out how to reliably store a save variable. Upon entry into a new area, the player's game is saved, but when I close and reopen the game, it more often than not starts the player at the previous save point. SO, that's a problem I'm looking forward to tackling in the next couple of weeks.

Happy Weekend,
Alex
Seurat107

[Seurat107 (Alex Syiek)]

​HORRIFIED HECTOR!

​​​

​It's out! After two months of fun and frustration, I completed my first video game! I'm very excited. Both for myself, for finally doing something I've wanted to my whole life, and for you, 'cause you get to play it now! I'll postmortem in the future, but for now, I'm resting and enjoying playing more Playdate games!

Check out the full release here:https://seurat107.itch.io/horrified-hector​

Happy weekend!
Alex Syiek