GBJAM7 Day 8

Weekend is actually less productive than weekdays. Although I had the whole day to work on the game, I didn't get much thing done.

Play GB Studio games

I spent a few hours playing other games made by GB Studio on itch.io to get inspirations. I found many inspiring examples.

Firstly, the Untitled GB Game by Chris Maltby (the creator of GB Studio) has amazing narrative. This GB game is about making a GB game in a game jam was made by Chris in a game jam (tricky sentence!) In the dream of the game developer, player need to collect 3 out 4 gems (gameplay, narrative, graphics, music) to win. Music was not needed, because Chris hasn't implemented SFX in GB Studio yet. (LOL)

The Legend of the Mist Prince is an extremely well made game, apparently inspired by Zelda (the minish cap?). It feels almost like a real Zelda game. Didn't have time to beat as the world is huge. The sprite animation is great. Some effects are very impressive, for example, walking in water. I have no idea how to do that in GB Studio.

Other notable games I played today: Pokémon Rescue, The Mall, Make Way, Animal Crossing Demon.

Asides from games, I also found many useful example projects: Veund's sprite based combat, Text-Input System for GB Studio, GB Studio Menu, Real Time Combat for GB Studio, Battle System for GB Studio. From some of these projects, realised there is a newer version of GB Studio under development (1.2.0-alpha.1), which have a few new features that are very handy. One of them is to set animation frame using variable. This function is essential to make the new menu.

New Menu

Using the new version, I made a sprite with 0-9 digits (10 frames). I use 3 digits for confidence and data, 1 digit for APL and Nature. 8 actors are used, below the limit of 9. For 3 digits numbers, I need to calculate each digit using modulus, and set the frame using the digit variable. I also made a few sprites for data, APL and Nature. Now the menu looks pretty nice!

Quantum Gate Puzzle

The other thing I did today was to add a new puzzle (perhaps it's good for the Quest 2 of taking graduate course). Basically, I made X gate, H gate, |0> and |1> state vectors. When X gate is put in the same line as a state vector, it flips the state. The state is connected to the rock. The player needs to move X gates around to remove the rocks. The basic mechanism is implemented, but the puzzle is rather trivial. Need to think harder about the puzzle. Adding H gate is trickier, and I am not sure what it should represent. I will probably leave it after the game jam.

Plans for tomorrow

Tomorrow is the last day of GBJAM. I actually have half day more on Monday because of the time difference, but I should submit the game tomorrow, and leave the time on Monday for polishing only.

The most important thing to do tomorrow is to make all the arts. Most of the art assets were downloaded  and not made during the jam, which is not allowed according to the rules. 

I should finish the quantum puzzle, and come up with at least one more puzzle/stage for experiment. I should also improve the Schrodinger's cat stage, because it is only a random number generator. Pretty lame. 

I would really like to implement Veund's sprite based combat or Battle System for GB Studio for the QE and final defense. I think that will significantly improve the gameplay. Not sure how difficult it is to implement.

If I have time (extremely unlikely), I will try to make some SFX. Adding a Zelda puzzling solving effect to the quantum gate puzzle will be very cool!

Ok, just one more day to go! Keep working!