harvey (dino game)
Created: Jan 08,
2023Published: Mar 28,
2023Last modified: Apr 25,
2023
Word count:
521Backlinks: 4
A Dino game.
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An entry for the ludum dare jam 52.
Playable here: https://russmatney.itch.io/harvey
postmortem
started in a mindnode
> Overcooked-like
>> Collect and plant seeds
>> Water with tools
>> Collect and deliver harvest
> Overcooked not like
>> No item space issue
>> No combinations or recipes
>> 2d
>> No orders, pure production
>> Ai bots that work for you
> First day all brainstorming
>> Trying to spec further ahead
>>> Clearer vision of potential game
>>>> Something fun in here?
>>> Clearer idea of scope of work
>>>> is this reasonable in 2 days? in 9?
>>>> could take this much farther and spec out and estimate all the work
>>>> call out unknowns and scary problems we might have to solve
>>> Better idea comparison
>>>> this has been purely emotional so far
>>>> but we should be able to compare estimates and benefits
>>> benefits of this idea
>>>> desirable topics to explore (enemy ai, boss battle, new genre, etc)
>>>> we ought to call out and compare the pros of our decisions!
>> working on the idea evaluation process
>>> improving brainstorming + idea quality
>>> improving spec-ing and estimation
>>> improve overall game dev path trajectory
>>>> (towards what? my taste? general success?)
>> accumulating ideas - cross-jam tasks
>>> just like library, asset, pattern accumulation
>>> mono-repo as a game jam accumulator
>> took whole first evening + night + morning to decide
>>> strongly influenced by talking it out and external opinions
>>>> i ought to build up and make my decisions with more reason and confidence
>>>> not just going with a socially confirmed answer
>>> good ideas, but difficulty choosing, paralysis analysis
>>>> happy to advance those ideas further along
>>>> ultimately just went with an overcooked clone, which i _have_ wanted for a long time
> juice
>> squash and stretch (+ knockback) shader
>>> instant improvement
>> found camera juicing talk
>> (math for programmers)
>> inspired 'juice' note break out today
>>> collected and watched several juicy youtube videos
>>> built list of juicy effects
>>> inspired to build boring games with tons of juice
>>>> juicy snake
>>>> juicy crate box clone
>>>> juicy chess?
> sounds
>> barely got some sounds in
>> rough DJ api used
>> ready to add more sounds via DJ improvements
>> ready to dive into a godot sfxr to get my sound-juice improved
> HarveyBots
>> quick AI implementation discovered!
>>> subclassed the player
>>> good leverage from actions API
>>> already had a list of actions, helpers for nearest action's source node
>> ActionDetectors and eval_current_action
>>> Detectbox api refactored mid-jam
>>>> inverted to let players own action registration more
>>>> i wanted to know what actions the player 'could' take in the world
>>>> the original impl only registered actions when players were able to perform them - a bit conflated
>>> maybe the actions shouldn't be on either the objects or the player/bots?
>>>> the obs/bots should be able to implement the predicates themselves, shouldn't they?
>>>> maybe not, maybe the rules are in-terms-of them all equally
>>>> i fear impling this in a non-clojure language, but i ought not.
>> fun AI! happy to have impled
>>> and proud - they add life to an otherwise static game
>> earned more behavior tree/GOAP impl experience
>> fun answer to how-to-make-it-easier-on-the-player
>> i liked the idea of competing with the bots, mario-kart style
>>> competitive farming?
>>> plant a seed, water it, deliver it = score points
Backlinks
A hackathon of sorts!
A deadline!
A reason to start (and finish!) a new project!
A game jam is a time-frame for making a game with other people, usually accompanied by a theme and some constraints (like time, game-engine other arbitrary rules).