As I reach and stretch for new features to add into Space Carrot, the 0.2.x phase of development focused around the goal of “creating a navigable world” I have opted to conclude this particular push and move into my next phase of work.

Space Carrot ends with a few notable features that are technically world navigation functions but really are starting to bleed over into the player management, action managment and UI realm, all work for later.

I added a light switch. That may not sound very impressive, but what it really means in code speak is that I added an action trigger that only functions during a very particular collision event to conditionally change the visibility of a “shadow” over the current room, simulating a lighting event. A lot of little systems (all of which will be useful later) had to be implemented to make this a reality.

I also added my first animation.  This is a simple conditional animation of the player walking versus standing based on movement.  This should have been really simple, but I had (again) shortcutted my design work and leaned into single use sprite pngs. Going forward as I bring the world to life in my next phase of design and development I have a bit more confidence about creating animated objects and more.

Paranormal Pickle is the next phase of work, and it begins today, less than two weeks after Space Carrot.

This phase is really very much me leaning into populating the world, filling it with colour and art and objects and life.  I have dabbled in this a little as can be seen from the handful of decorative things like switches, doors, and pallets.  But I have a whole store to design, and these then 33 other rooms to fill with shelves and furnishings and wall decorations and windows and more and more and more.

In other words, this is kind of a creative phase more than anything.

That doesn’t mean I’m stepping away from the codebase tho. 

The other side of this is the other layers of the game like the menus and a welcome screen and even just a splash logo (because all games need a studio logo and title cards, right?)  There is a lot of coding and button interaction and the like which I need to study up on and figure out.

To all that effect, what that means is that in the first subphase of Paranormal Pickle, 0.3.1 I’ll be focussing on three main enhancements to the game:

First, a title card, which will allow me to implement a mechanism to delay starting the game pending player interaction. Right now the program just jumps right into the game on load. Games don’t ever really work that way, do they?

Second, I want to fill the world with furniture and life. I’m going to start with the main room: the store front, filling it with shelves and decorations. In this effort, I also want to add something I’m calling (to avoid confusion for myself in the code) lively decorations, which are essentially background objects that have animation cycles.  Think flashing neon signs or trees rustling in the breeze or steam blossoming off of something hot. All of this brings the space to life, and I think I actually know how to do this. It’s just rolling up my sleeves to make it happen.

Third, I want to add a basic popup menu system. This is pretty self explanatory, but it will need to be something that grows and adapts, so maybe I’ll narrow this down to two “tabs” of things I want the player to interact with. 

So, there it goes. The game progresses.

It’s funny. I have started following (and being followed by) other developers on social media, and as proud as I am of the work I am making from scratch and this being my first attempt at a real game and all, I still look around and feel a bit out flanked by so many great game devs out there building amazing things. My game is going to be pretty 8-bit in style and play, so hold that up to  a full 3D triple-A production and it all seems about thirty years too late. I have always had an interest in retro games, of course, having lived and played through that era, and now I’m finding that the retro vibe very much fits with my coding abilities. What I guess I’m trying to explain is that maybe this is all impressive to some and way less impressive to others. But I’m aiming for something simple and fun and achievable with Pleck’s Mart. And right now it feels like I’m aiming just about right.