Improve My Game Jam 26

Day - 0 (March 22, 2023)

     Before I even got to work improving "Fighting Over It". I needed to decide what I wanted to achieve with this game jam. 

     The original plan was to create an online multiplayer party game. This, however, turned out to be incredibly difficult since the game is fast-paced and physics-based. Anyone who has experience with networking games probably just winced in pain just thinking about it.  

     Overall this was causing my development speed slow to a crawl, and rather than making new fun mechanics or creating new art, I was stressing about Unity's built-in physics non-deterministic nature. Banging my head on the wall trying to write a decent feeling, yet accurate reconciliation. And trying to maintain a server-authoritative structure. 

     After a lot of thought, I decided on scaling back and developing the game with local couch co-op in mind and having Parsec as our unofficial online multiplayer solution. This will allow me to develop much faster, so I can get a more accurate representation of the end product out sooner. This is good because I can get feedback from users and learn what people like and more importantly what they dislike. Without wasting a ton of time networking just to learn I need to remake everything.

    So that is where my head was before starting this jam. I had more fun developing these past 7 days than I have been for months. Without further ado, this is what I achieved this week.

Day - 1 (March 23, 2023)

     On the first day, I decided that I wanted to start on a blank slate. So I opened Unity Hub and created a new project. Then I needed to implement the movement mechanics from the old version of the project. This was easy I just copied over the code from the old project and removed the bits of netcode.

     Since the game is now local couch co-op multiplayer I needed a new menu screen to facilitate multiple players on one screen. I had a lot of fun with this menu. When you click the play button the screen gets separated into four colored corners, and when the player hits A on their controller or left click they will spawn in and can move about their corner of the screen freely until the game starts.

     Finally, I ported over the melonball map from the old project and modified it to work better with the local multiplayer in mind. Since every player now has to be on screen the level needed to be smaller. In the end, I think made the level more intense and fun, so that's a bonus.

Day - 2 (March 24, 2023)

     Uhhh... I didn't get anything done on day two. It was not because the Diablo IV beta came out that day. I also definitely did not get the max level in said beta.

Day - 3 (March 25, 2023)

     Day three was spent implementing the Melonball game mode mechanics. This includes scoring goals, spawning the players on their team's side, making sure the scene resets everything's positions after a goal is made, and a match timer. I also worked on some UI animations when the player scores.

Day - 4 (March 26, 2023)

     On day four I did some bug fixing and added the ability for the player to select their team as well as some cool menu animations for selecting a team. I also started working out the theme for the melon ball level. The rest of the day was spent play-testing and tweaking / polishing values.

Day - 5 (March 27, 2023)

     WHAM! Some may have read that and thought of that one Christmas song, others may think about the sound of a hammer hitting something. Day five was spent creating a sound for the hammer hitting the trunk of the tree in melon ball. 

     On this day I also received an early version of the melon ball theme from composer/producer Manu Beker. Who I had met with earlier in the week since I didn't want to make my players' ears bleed from my poorly done rendition of twinkle twinkle little star on piano.

     I had created some more environmental artwork but I wasn't feeling quite happy with it. Whatever an issue for another day I guess.

Day - 6 (March 28, 2023)

     Hey, look at that, it's another day! Today I revamped the entire art style. I decided to lower the resolution on all the environmental sprites which I feel contrasts much better with the other artwork and vibe of the game. I also decided the change up my color palette which made it much easier to see the important gameplay parts, while also giving more color variety in the scene. I also added particle effects to the environment which gives it a more dynamic feel overall.

      I finished off day 6 with some more bug fixing and polishing. 

Day - 7 (March 29, 2023)

     The final day of the jam I spent wrapping up everything I needed to do. I built the game out for Windows and WebGL. Playtested both versions. Organized all the information I recorded for a devlog (You're reading it right now). Created a page on Itch.io and uploaded both builds to it.

Retrospective

     I had a really fun time with this jam. It gave me a reason to kick my dormant project into gear. I got way more done than I initially expected. I'm overall really happy with my work. I didn't get everything I wanted to be in this version finished but I got other things way further than I could have ever expected. If for whatever reason you made it to the end of this way-too-long devlog I hope you enjoy playing "Fighting Over It". All constructive feedback is welcome!