Magelusion - LOWREZJAM 2020, I've Got a Problem

So… Many… Distractions!!

I’m horrible! This is definitely something I fight in almost every game jam I enter… distractions! What distractions, you may ask? I have spent WAY too much time trying to tweak the water particles to behave more like water… a very tough order in the first place given that I haven’t studied fluid mechanics in game, and it’s difficult to find a tutorial doe 2D particle water that I could adapt, so just on that front I spent probably the majority of a day trying this method or that method out just to revert back to the way it was originally.

After burning a day on that I kinda felt just mentally burned out, and didn’t spend too much time coding the game the following day. I did put steam particles in… but, even now, they don’t quite feel like how I was intending them too, and that really only took me maybe an hour.

The day after that I further “wasted” time by setting up the environmental fire to be lit and extinguished by the player’s fire and water magic respectively. I suppose, in the long run, that may not have been a total waste, as I could turn that from a “Oh look that this fun little effect” to something that can be used in a puzzle… maybe I’ll actually do that after I finish writing this post.

I DID Get Something Done, Though

In general, since my last post, I think the biggest thing I managed to get done was the creation of an “air pusher” (you know, stand on it and it shoots you in the air), and a “wall switch” that can be used to turn that air pusher on and off… truthfully, that switch is designed to be blind to whatever it’s set to toggle, but still, it only works with the air pusher at the moment.

The Other Things

I’m still have plans to put in several mechanics for puzzles, such as water acting as a weight that can be used to trigger other elements, such as a door (I need to add a DOOR! Gah!), or make platforms visible (I’m killing myself here!), things like that. I want to have the fire melt “ice blocks” and turn that into water, and steam. Originally I was thinking the “steam” created when the fire interacts with the water could be used as a “lift” mechanism… but I’m starting to think I’ve run out of time for that.

I also want a little dialog system, if for no other reason than to be able to convey to the player how to, you know, play the game! I need a menu system… and…

OH! Audio! LOL! There’s still no audio in the game! I have a bunch of royalty free audio assets I think I can use in this game jam, such as sound effects and music, but I’m thinking I want to find some creative commons audio. I haven’t decided yet.

To Sum Up…

So much left to do, and only about a week left to do it! Let’s see what I get done with the time I have left!

Sadly, I have no new shader to share with everyone, but, if you are interested in downloading the source for Magelusion it is available on github… link also available on the header of these posts!

Also… can’t leave you guys without screenshots, so…