#chromatic

Core mechanic is in place!

Or at least the framework for it. I've kind of coded level 1 of the Yellow power, with a lot of placeholder. But power switching is in and the basic framework is complete.

This is obviously a pretty major milestone, and I'm psyched for it. Next, I'll have to code one more power and get proper placeholder stuff in for people to actually test it in a way that feels somewhat real. Speaking of testing, I've gotten the sign off from a good number of friends to be regular Chromatic playtesters, meaning they'll be regularly up-to-date with the content currently in the game in order to test the new things that are added >:)

Coming up, I've got this week off work, which means a lot of Chromatic progress! I think with this extra week off, I really want to try to get the power switching test run into the game in full, including the new power, some extra polish / feedback, and a test challenge / area that will give players a good idea of what gameplay will feel like when switching between multiple powers. I also have the goal this week of doing research around other places in NYC to playtest as I'll want as many eyes on this as possible. If Chromatic is a game about changing colors, I need the color changing to feel as good as possible.

Here's hoping, or knowing, that I'll be able to focus this week! >:)

Today we're talking about establishing and maintaining momentum.

The bad news is that it's been two weeks since a devlog. The good news is that I've completed everything I thought I would and more.

The new room is a go, along with some other secret sauce that I think is going to be a nice glue for the game's collectible system. It is technically a new kind of collectible. I really need to stop doing that. I am making a solemn vow right now that there will be no new kinds of collectible in the game. I don't need any more. I don't need any more types of collectibles. Hello future me. You do not need more types of collectibles either. This new type of collectible still needs to be animated, but thats a wider scope goal that will wait until later.

I'm now moving into the next week of getting the color switching mechanic to work. This will mean that I have to code new power ups! I think I am going to need to code 2 (sadly neither are the red one, which is next progression wise so really 3) for this stage of testing, and then do some playtesting work to figure out what works best for people. Another goal of mine this month and next is to get out to some playtesting events and get this in front of random people.

The challenge I face going forward will be to find an effective way to channel momentum through the various stages of work: ideation -> scoping -> scheduling -> working -> testing, which will constantly be happening in parallel for different features. It will be difficult to, for example, continue to scope and schedule a new feature after I finish one feature and move on to testing. I'll have to be very deliberate and proactive about that. I feel it's a skill I'm bad at but improving, and probably the number one most important thing for a project like this. Using JIRA helps with making things easier to organize, but you do have to put some effort into maintaining it.

One thing I find kind of funny about having this sort of workflow on top of a normal life is that things very much just get worked on in the order you have time for them. If I have to spend an hour on the subway, it's an ideation day. If I have to spend 3 hours on a train, it's a working day. John Mulaney said that coke addicts see the world in terms of surfaces. I say that indie devs see the world in terms of work sessions.

You're gettin good with that sword!

I'm sure that between the Deltarune, Splatoon, Xenoblade, Zelda, Splatoon, Hello Kitty Party, and Kingdom Hearts announcements, many of you have one question on your mind: What's happening with Chromatic?

I'm doing better than I thought possible by a lot, actually.

Last week, I thought I had about 3 weeks of work ahead of me. This past Sunday, I got on a plane from NYC to SF (for work) and literally just hammered out game work the whole time. And I finished probably 80% of what I wanted to finish in 3 weeks.

That's awesome. For one thing, it means that this stretch of work will be done very shortly. I have to finish like an animation and 3 sounds. We're gonna wrap it up like that, and this week I aim to both finish it off and start other stuff, basically cutting my time estimation in half. For a second thing though, it means that there's a way for me to speedrun development somewhat under the right circumstances. I'm left asking myself: how can I replicate this? How can I leverage the forces I tapped into on this plane ride to be as efficient as possible?

I think the main thing is lack of distraction: On a plane, no one talks to you, you don't have anything to attend to, and most importantly there is no wifi. I think that if I want to take this project as seriously as possible, I'll have some sort of regular session where I sit somewhere and replicate these conditions; turn off my wifi and just go somewhere somewhat boring to lock in, maybe with timed breaks for snacks and things like that. My girlfriend suggested doing this at the library with some regularity and I'm very keen on that idea. I will update with how it pans out.

In the meantime, I'm mostly excited for my flight home, and so is my JIRA board, which has already served to remind me of some loose ends I need to tie up before I can close this arc of work.

Today we're gonna talk about how to make games and how to write about doing that

Been a bit without a devlog, which is fine! With the new chapter 1 patch out a bit of a break was definitely appropriate. And it's not like I haven't been working. This will be a longer devlog, so table of contents:

Devlogs going forward

Into the unknown

Into the defined

Devlogs and Updates Going Forward

So I'm now mostly working on new content, slash parts of the game nobody has ever seen before. Because of this, I'll be talking a bit less about the literal content of the game that I'm making to not spoil anything, while still mentioning enough to keep things interesting. These logs will also as a result become a bit more autobiographical, I'll talk more about my thoughts on the game and how development is going, how my life is going if that's relevant, etc.

I'll be sure to still keep things interesting and on topic! But there might be musing here and there ;P

As for updates to the game, don't expect a ton? Some new stuff that doesn't need to exist for chapter one will go into the first area and that will be in future updates. And I will also be taking notes and bugfixing from playtesting sessions.

The biggest way I will update players in the future is through mini demos of little pieces of the game, such as interesting rooms, boss fights, or challenges. Little web playable snippets of the game are a good way for me to give potential fans sneak peeks of the game without putting huge chunks of nonlinear map out all the time. There are concepts of a plan for what the first one of these will be.

Into The Unknown

So I'm now doing stuff that I haven't done in a long long time, designing new rooms and new content for the game. I have been working on this over the past 3 weeks or so. It's exciting and fun! This decision making phase is really where the important parts of game dev happen, in my opinion. That's scary to an extent. I want to make the right decisions such that this game takes the shape that I want. But this is a part of the process you can't really get through with any sort of tutorial. You very much have to trust your instincts. Let's see if mine are worth listening to. Nervewracking. Feeling very "arms in front yelling babababa" about this.

All that said, I think I kind of forgot my workflow for this sort of thing, so I've been freestyling a bit, but that sort of thing doesn't work for me so well. So I've created a JIRA board and scoped out the next 3 weeks ish of work. I'm also going to work on my scoping, estimating how long tasks will take me and comparing them to how long it actually takes me so I can scope properly. My goal for the forseeable future will be 5-10 hours a week. Speaking of...

Into the Defined

This next week I'm not setting any concrete goals for myself as MTG championships are this coming weekend. But after that I will start a more regimented / structured pattern of working on this project. June will be a good month for Chromatic.

I'll be finishing up a piece of the game I've spent a good bit of unstructured time working on already, that being a bit of plot stuff between chapter 1 and the second area. I really like how it's looking, but we'll see if I can execute on it.

Anyways, I'm going to submerge myself in cards for the next 120 hours. See you later!