#gloomyghostdev

I'm a solo indie game developer, and I am starting from scratch. By that I mean: I don't know what I'm doing.

I'll be learning to program, how to use game engines, how to make assets—everything, from nothing. And this blog will record it all.

Like most beginners, I have a big idea and no clue how to make it happen, but that's what I'm doing here. I'm figuring it out. This blog is more for me than anybody else, but if you want to, come along with me! The road is long, but the final product is worth it.

I don't like technology, and technology doesn't like me.

- spent several hours trying to figure out how to switch between chest types without needing a million different scripts

- gave up and found a tutorial

- spent a long time setting up the script and array

- abruptly lost over an hour of tedious progress and couldn't see a way to get it back or to replace it

- almost cried

- managed to get the progress back

- decided now would be a good time to set up a backup

- downloaded the github plugin

- made a github account

- tried very hard to get the backup system working, godot won't let me enable the plugin because the SAVE PATH IT CHOSE won't open

- almost cried again

- it's one in the morning and i'm pissed off and tired and frustrated

tomorrow's GOALS: figure out the fucking backup, work on loot spawn, don't kill anyone

I spent the entire first half of my day staring at code, moving back and forth between different scripts and trying to figure out what I did wrong. I got frustrated. We went out to spend some time with friends and when I got home with a fresh set of eyes, I sat down in front of Godot, looked at the five (5) item management scripts, and asked myself:

What the fuck am I doing?

I mean, like, I know what I'm trying to do. I know what I want to accomplish and the thing is that I've gotten so wrapped up in trying to set up systems that make later development easier. And that's great, I am one hundred percent on board with figuring the complicated shit out first so you don't have to go back and do it later. But when I really asked myself what I want this game to be as far as items go, I felt really, really stupid, because it's this:

Two collectable item variants, and an on-screen UI to track how many the player has picked up. That's it.

So, I come back to the question: what the fuck am I doing?

I'm positive I can set up what I want with a single script and probably less than 25 lines of code. It absolutely does not have to be as complicated a system as it is right now. I just want two animated sprites the player can pick up, and a number that will rise on the screen for each of them. These items don't even do anything, really. One of them is for lore purposes and the other is a type of currency, so what the fuck am I doing?

So I took the evening off. Drank some water. Played some Hollow Knight.

And tomorrow, I'll try again. I'll wipe the five (5) scripts and focus on what I need for the purposes of the game I am trying to build right now, not some super-complicated imaginary future game. This isn't hard. I know it isn't hard.

Tomorrow, I'll try again.