June 17, 2025
Visual tweaks, bug fixes, ang general changes. Will update demo, hoping to add sounds effects soon (before working on new levels/features)
I got the new game button actually working as it should.
Platformer based on momentum
Fun little tweak to parrying. You can now parry and block your own bullets.
I GOT A SAVE SYSTEM! Now the levels you have unlocked are saved, along with your best time for them. I just have to make them now...
Yup, I can save and load shit now. I just need to add this to my main project for level information, such as which ones are unlocked, completed, what their high scores/best times are, etc.
Side project to test saving and loading JSON strings before adding them to my game
Performance stuff. Fuck ton of enemies and it's running fine. Btw, the bug where bullets are still moving got resolved. Also no enemies clipping through walls, which is fantastic for me.
Added chromatic aberration. This took like two hours
Basically the past hour
Welp, caught a bug on video. Anyway besides that...
Finished level 2. And did some UI stuff. Made the cannons which are technically new enemies (but they're so simple that you can't really call them that) and got a kill count which resets when you load a checkpoint.
Some minor buffoonery
But for actual devlog stuff, I've been working on level 2, and added hit effects for enemies. Not a bad start today.
Very frustrated today. Was hoping to be working on new levels, but instead I had to do a bunch of problem solving.
First: a working pause system when you press escape. You, all enemies, and all bullets stop when you pause and you can return to the main menu (it's rough, but it's a good work in progress)
Second: the enemy AI. The stick guys had a tendency to occasionally launch each other out of the map. Since you need to kill them to progress, and when they're in free fall out of the map they're technically still alive, that basically soft-locks the player. Basically everything I tried to do to solve it just caused the problem to get worse and broke the enemy behavior, so in the end I had to just gut the enemy AI system, and it seems to have worked. We'll see...
Began level design: made the first level, as well as everything to get the levels working. Will probably develop the levels further, as well as adding a save file system.
Made various tweaks and added new features. This took a looooot of time.
1) Added some wind effects for when you're sliding/moving fast to add some visual flair.
2) Added a fully functioning checkpoint system, that accurately saves your position and the enemies' position, as well as whether or not they're initiated.
3) You can no longer heal when you're talking to npcs.
4) Along with checkpoints, you can actually die when your hp depletes
5) Minor bug fixes. Most notably an issue with the player's jump buffer being broken.
That's pretty much it
Made a local/room saving system. I tried to get it to save lights and time, but decided it really wasn't worth it. Took a lot of time debugging. Will use this to set up the checkpoint system when I end up making actual levels.
I got 99 problems but a devlog ain't one
(bad overused joke)
Added simple NPC dialogue
Torches
From yesterday before I started tracking with Hackatime.
Performance test with a lot of enemies. My PC is able to keep a decent frame rate despite a lot of enemies, bullets, and lights.
Been working on this for a while already. How it looks atm:
Game I'm working on in Gamemaker Studio 2: Run and Gun platformer with simple graphics, complex momentum based movement, and a focus on lighting.
This was widely regarded as a great move by everyone.