So after playing around with making a lot of little tech demos/mockups, one of which I posted here, I felt the urge to actually start the process of porting and expanding my game for the Etiquette Jam, You Do Jump. I made that two years ago, which is crazy to think about how much time has passed. I'm hoping that be posting about it, I can keep myself accountable and keep up the motivation to keep working on it! I used to make a lot of little games with Stencyl in high school and college, but I never really made anything but jam games, so it'll be a different challenge to work on a more long term project. The jam version of You Do Jump was also the first game I've ever programmed outside of drag and drop interfaces, so I'm sure I'll be learning a lot through making this! It's also way more complex than anything I have ever made before.
In my head You Do Jump is a platforming take on the Baba is You formula, combined with block throwing mechanics in games like Uurnog. For example, unless the [YOU], [DO], and [JUMP] blocks are next to each other, your character won't be able to jump.
Currently I have four main initial objectives as I begin building this out.
1. Platforming Physics
This one is currently in a pretty good place, starting with SquidGodDev's platforming tutorial as a base. I've been working on making this more extensible, because in theory, any object can become the player, so any object spawned has the potential to be controllable/playable character. This side of it works out pretty well so far, though still have some kinks to work out.
2. Picking up and Throwing Blocks
Blocks need to be pushed around, and be able to be picked up, and thrown. This is my main thrust right now, starting with pushing, which I haven't quite figured out. Due to the mentality in the above point, it's all about making these objects able to push each other, so trying to figure out how best to accomplish that has been tricky so far.
3. Rules System
Haven't started much with this yet, but pretty much need some kind of system that oversees the level, and checks what rules are active, based on blocks being next to each other. I plan on trying to iterate through all possible blocks and determine their interactions. This will be the next thing to think through once I figure out block physics.
4. Assets
I started with the player and block, but still need to start building out some more of the graphics. Usually I need to feel like I'm adding that polish and personality to it as I'm going, or I lose steam lol. I'm enjoying how the player looks so far, but I'm still thinking about the blocks, especially with making sure they are readable on the actual hardware, so not totally sold on the design.
Well, thanks for reading, and hopefully I can keep more regular updates here as I keep pushing through development!