October and November 2024 Sprint Review
Sprint reviews will be shared on this channel, as they will be my way of documenting the activities I have accomplished over the last month. However, since this is my first one, it will have a few extra sections.
Why Sprints?
For those unfamiliar with sprints, these are typically a way in the engineering world to divide work into functional blocks with deadlines based on a backlog of work. In my case, I have put everything for a level into the backlog as individual tasks. I will have a sprint that will last three weeks, during which I will pull tasks from the backlog to complete. In my case, there will be
art tasks (i.e., creating a cloud asset) and development tasks (i.e., fixing a bug where the user can jump three times). After those three weeks, I will do a one-week reflection. This time is dedicated to understanding what was working well and what wasn’t and planning for the next sprint. This structure works well for me because it gives a dedicated focus time with a plan in place, but it also ensures that I give myself time to look at where the game is and course-correct if needed.
Quick Catch Up (Jan-Sept)
Since I hadn’t done sprints before, I wanted to summarize what has happened since I officially started working on the game in January.
Well, first, the game has officially been kicked off. It is called “Captain Seaward and the Adventures of Backwards Island” and has a main character: Captain Seaward. The game has an entire plot and map laid out (although that is entirely sketched out on paper).
Since starting, I have switched from a pixel game to a 2D HD game; however, it is still a side-scrolling game, a la Mario. This came in the form of me trying to figure out my art style and getting myself to stop having imposter syndrome when it came to my art, as well as getting myself to stop looking at everyone else’s art and trying to match. I needed to find my way, and eventually, I did.
From the development side, with the help of my partner, I got all of the basic mechanics up and running (pun intended). I have a Dialog Manager that works with how my game will play out. There is a state machine in place. I spent a lot of time building out signals (and generally understanding their functionality in game design). I removed the companion as a separate entity and put him in the Captain's backpack instead. The companion’s name is Whirly, and he is the navigator and maps hoarder. I am sure many other little things were accomplished during those 9 months, but that’s enough of the catch-up.
October and November Sprint
I figured lumping these two months together made sense since I was in Japan for a good chunk of October. Here is a list of the things I worked on in bullet form. If you are interested in more details or have any questions, please comment below. I am happy to adjust this section in the future and answer anything I can along the way.
I migrated to Godot version 4.3 for several reasons, including the new tile and parallax nodes.
I updated my background with the new parallax node, including a new piece of art (see the intro image).
I updated the tile set from “gray box” to actual tiles since I did the art, which involved much learning on the Krita side.
I inserted a dummy set of assets for anything in the scene (clouds, trees, shells, etc.).
I update the camera to zoom in when there is a dialog moment
I added some checks based on user behavior to drive what dialog will display
I ran a POC for how to use shaders to make trees sway
I ran a POC for making a poisonous bottle effect
And, of course, I squashed many random bugs I had created along the way.
Stay tuned for next month’s review, and have a happy holiday season!