New Start

Hello! Welcome to the first devlog for a basic platformer 2 (and my first devlog ever). I can't promise that these will be a frequent thing, but I wanted to do something nice for the anniversary of my first published game.

Let's start with a brief history of the development of this game.

Five years ago, I released a game that is now known as a basic platformer. It was nothing special, but it got my foot into the game development door. Not long after, I started development on a sequel, but my approach was somewhat different. 

For one, the engine was different. A basic platformer 1 was initially published as an Unreal Engine 4 game (though I more recently updated it to Unreal Engine 5). This decision was done out of necessity only. I initially wanted to develop it with Unity because I heard that it was the most popular engine for indie games at the time. However, the laptop that I developed this game on was several years old at this point, and for some reason, I couldn't properly install this engine. I chose Unreal because it ran on my laptop and was supposedly the best alternative to Unity. With that said, I struggled to work with this engine. It would take me much time to figure out basic things. By the time I got a new laptop, I was able to use Unity, so a basic platformer 2 started its development on that engine.

Second, I started from scratch. In a basic platformer 1, I used a side scroller template that I modified slightly. In a basic platformer 2, I largely started from scratch. I made aaron's model in blender, and I tried to program the character using Unity's built-in character controller. Things were going smoothly until I noticed a few problems that I'll get into later.

Third (and most regrettably), I tried to develop a basic platformer 2 as a basis for another project. I originally wanted to turn this game into a completely different and highly ambitious one that I have wanted to do for years. However, partway into development, I realized that this would not work out. Developing a basic platformer 2 was looking far more complex than it should be.

I resorted to starting the project over again. Even then I encountered some problems that I did not know how to solve. More recently, I decided to start over once again but with a new engine. As of now, a basic platformer will be developed with Godot 4.

Furthermore, I am no longer interested in developing a basic platformer 2 as the basis for my other ambitious project. I will eventually work on that, but it will largely be its own thing. If I reuse assets between these games, it will likely be limited to visual assets only. Right now, a basic platformer 2 is a bigger focus than that other project.

With that said, here is how this game is going now. 

aaron can run and jump just fine. When I was working in unity, I encountered a problem with inconsistent movement. This was especially true when the jump height was inconsistent. I tried many common fixes, and none of them worked to my liking. That is one of the major reasons why I decided to switch to Godot. So far, I have not encountered those issues since switching engines.

Four years ago, I showed off some Unity footage of a basic platformer where aaron fired a weapon at an enemy. I have yet to implement enemies into the current version of the game, but this weapon is a work in progress. I plan on it being a shotgun that shoots five bullets at once. One thing that I added that was not part of that footage was the shotgun's recoil. When aaron shoots the shotgun in the air, the recoil will send him flying away from the direction of fire. I've come to enjoy attacks in platformers when they facilitate movement somehow, so I hope to do the same here.

One last thing I added was a standard melee attack. It does not affect aaron's movement directly, but he can run and jump while doing it. Meanwhile, he completely stops when using the shotgun on the ground. The melee attack will serve as a quick and mobile alternative to the shotgun when the arial propulsion or wide spread is undesired.

That's all for today's update. Thank you for reading!