One year later. . .

So a year past.  

During that year, I still found bugs in the project. Funny thing that each friend trying it found a different type bug. Helped me fix it too. Some none at all which was a sign of it being refined. The reason for that being delayed was somewhat ambitious and complicated systems. I mapped out some sketches. Progress was fine from the start. Using placeholders, realizing this is an old engine that will be not as accessible(no browser/mobile just Windows)as I'd like it to be but complicated enough to my liking. It was just the type of game I remember playing younger.

Just used AI too which kind of makes me feel like I devalued the project somehow. Tech is here, so here I go. I was already using fragments of AI to do even designs(it slop anyways cus events could be frequent and managers didn't give a damn for paying me too) but never used it for my own art. Art takes time and effort. I just make games for fun, or to prove something to myself. Wanted to do it as a kid too. For personal milestones too. To feel like I left something more of myself on my own game over someday.

Below are some of the images I used to make game over screens, and the output variations. As my friend said, try to keep 10% of AI to make it good, so that was good advice. I respect and value the creative output of humans but when we're talking game development, it is also the scope of technology, and the Pandrora's box is open when it comes to AI. Wanted to try it as a tool to speed up development(took around 4 months total from start to finish working on it almost daily). Also, there is no other way I'd make an ending involving squirrel boxing without AI usage.

Also did the music by myself which was basically the same melody re-edited to sound different fitting for the mood of each level. Something to fit a pixel RPG from the 2005s. Last were sprites. Some made by me. Some handy RPGMaker XP provided ones too. Lastly the aid of Moonpearl's sprite creator tool from a decade old blog page.

Now the levels were the most complicated part, since I wanted party member representation as items as well. The player can have more than one Vapour, so extra logic to think about etc. There are also a lot of game over screens, since I wanted more variation to explore. Once I forget most of it, this will be fun to revisit again. The story was also planned out, so that you wouldn't get stuck too much while also giving alternative routes to achieve a goal. As for Lore, I don't recall but deciding factors were assets available, and ones I could make while keeping a twist of some conjoined world that would make sense to use handy assets for. Just the good ending is finding a way out passing all the gates with all character parts present.

There is also a secret admin room with teleports, and a bunch of sandbox switches just I forgot the order in which to play with the gatcha machines on the 3rd level to open it. If someone manages to do it on their own I'd love to hear about it! :)

I couldn't make this type of game using Unity, HTML, or Godot with my skills, so here it is. A personal blog for the game.