Time to jump into the 4x4x4 with gusto! So I rolled a journal with some page tabs, a plus sign, a railcar, and a pufferfish. Oooooookay.
I'm still working on the design, but here are my thoughts:
Thinking of the player being the pufferfish. Stage will be a sunken train car (tipped at a random angle). Player can duck into train windows to avoid baddies. You need to collect journal pages that give you the ability to resist attacks. I might also use the train emoji as a double entendre. Because reasons.
There are bad things under water. Sharks, fishing lines, horny squid, etc. Player can puff up to avoid mobs for a while, if they can't get to safety. Obviously this is a limited resource, either by total usage, or over time.
Got some great work accomplished today, and started pulling together the final idea for the game. You'll play as a pufferfish that's going to use the wreckage of a sunken railcar to survive long enough to collect the four pages of the mystic journal. You'll need to avoid enemies while doing so. You can duck into the rail car temporarily to avoid damage, and swap out journal pages (you can hold one at a time). The pages have different effects that will help you complete your mission.
Got some solid progress in tonight. I'm almost finished with the HUD, which now displays a minimap on the right, your collection of journal pages in the center, and your health on the left. The only thing missing is a brief description of the page you're currently holding (and what it does).
There is some debugging data on the railcar. The windows are action points that rotate along with the car, which is important because the angle is randomly set each game. It's a minor detail, but I'm big on that stuff. Moving close to a window allows you to duck in for a moment of safety, and swapping out your journal page. The play field was expanded to 5 screen widths, which should be plenty for this little game.
Progress stalled this week as I had to deal with a bunch o' Real Life™ stuff.
But I did get the first boss (mostly) completed over the weekend. It's a shark that charges you upon approach. There's a little bit of a puzzle behind defeating him. All I'm missing at this point is a death animation and having him drop something on death. The next boss is a giant octopus, and there's an equally simple trick to defeating him.
This weekend is mostly spoken for already, but I might get some dev time in Sunday. *crosses fingers*
Mine ended up being a really weird action + adventure game, where you explore a little patch of ocean floor and try to escape impending tentacle and teeth-related doom with the help of your trusty rail car.
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