Last week was slow for the game due to real-life work, so I thought I'd make a new enemy on video to make up for it. The majority of it is in low-res as I haven't tuned my OBS yet but hopefully I can get that cleared up next time. I would have streamed it, however, Youtube will not accept my verification and I cannot try again until January.

Artwork

It was a short week due to Thanksgiving, but I was able to get some smaller ticket items rolling. No major mechanics were implemented; I prefer to have longer sessions to tackle these so I can do them in one sitting.

That said, I was able to get the initial artwork for the drillpod done that will send the player from the ship in space to the planet. I also got the majority of the initial artwork in for a cinematic sequence where the player is cloned in a glass pod filled with water. It's pretty rough at the moment but I just needed something for the player spawn sequence. The idea is that when you spawn in, you see your character get cloned, then sucked out of the glass chamber, into the drillpod, which is then shot down to the planet.

I still have to include the beginning of the cloning animation that shows the skeleton forming, and adding clothes to the guy. I plan on making a variant for female players as well. Also, sounds, better lighting, etc, but overall, I'm pretty happy with the temporary art for this.

I may end up scrapping this entirely and doing something lower res and zoomed out if it looks good.

Shader

Shaders always seemed like a black box filled with witchcraft. I had this urge to see what the game would look like if it were forced to utilize the palette I chose for the game (EDG 32). That means no gradients between colors due to lighting, modulating, or blending. With some google-fu, I was able to get a basic understanding of shaders and got it to work. I gotta say, I think it looks quite nice and that I'm going to keep it.

I also started planning out the procedural level generation restructuring so that it happens incrementally over time instead of all at once, basically freezing the whole game for 5 seconds. I did, however, do some work on the level transitioning. Each time it generates a new level, they are bigger with every iteration, and the third level spawns the boss. These are arbitrary decisions mainly just for testing and will most likely be changed in the future, but just having this functionality will allow more level generation functions that will be necessary.

Miscellaneous

I then messed around with various things like lights so that the game is illuminated about the level intended after applying the shader. I created a new plant and wrote a better script for it than I had on the previous plants for better gamefeel when bumping into them and shooting them.

Next Steps

This next week will be less productive as I will be spending it out of town for work. I'll likely only be doing planning, laying out foundations, and maybe some spritework if time allows.

That's all I got. I'm looking forward to sharing further progress with you guys. I may throw together a gameplay video next week just so you can see what the gameplay looks like while traversing the procedural levels, as that is the most important part of the game.

Welcome to My First Devlog Entry!

Hello and welcome! I'm excited to share my journey as a game developer with you. For the past 15 years, game development has been a passionate hobby of mine, often sidelined by the demands of daily life. However, I've been presented with an opportunity to allocate more of my time to game development, and I'm thrilled to introduce you to my new project. About two months ago, I dived back into making prototypes and stumbled upon a concept that pretty much hooked me immediately.

”Guck Below”

Enter "Guck Below" – a procedural roguelite set in an alien abyss where strategy and agility are your best friends. Guck Below is quickly shaping up to be the game I've always wanted to create. In these two eventful months, I've implemented the majority of the key game mechanics:

• Procedural Level Generation
• A Dynamic Grappling Hook System
• Guns and Ammo Varieties
• An Intense Boss Fight
• Five Unique Enemies
• A Variety of Item Pickups

…along with many minor systems such as different ammo types, a reloading mechanism, flares, and a lighting system.

The current prototype is already a fun experience complete with graphics, an immersive soundtrack, and sound effects (some of which made by my 5 year old daughter). Check out this boss fight video for a good idea of the gameplay.

Current Focus and Future Plans

I've committed to developing Guck Below into a full-scale game under my new venture, AcidBath. You can expect weekly updates on this devlog. You can also follow me on Twitter/X for more frequent snippets of my progress.

As I navigate through the intricacies of brand development, marketing strategies, and business planning, I'm also solidifying the game's upcoming features. This past week has been mainly creating AcidBath, this website, and researching game marketing and social media. Honestly I hate all of this but it seems to be a must if you want people to know about your game. Building the website was actually pretty fun but it was extremely frustrating browsing website builders that don't allow the most basic forms of customization. Its 2023; why is it still the best option to write them from scratch??

The immediate roadmap for Guck Below includes:

• Introducing Level Up Systems
• Adding Game Modifiers
• Optimizing Level Generation
• Item Delivery via tunneling Drillbots
• Expanding the Arsenal with Grenades, Utility Items, and a more robust Inventory System
• Implementing Saving/Loading
• Introducing a Radar Feature
• Developing New Weapons and Ammo Types
• And Finally, Tackling Multiplayer Integration

I will also be adding additional mobs, AI, and refining current implementations. I've got a lot on my plate but I'm looking forward to all of the above.

Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to posting additional updates.