The goal of this challenge is to make a game and try to release it (or have it going through the release process) within 90 days of starting the project. The game I’m working on is titled Magigunner (for now). Below you can read about days 8–13. You can expect updates every 3–6 days until the challenge is complete!
90 Day Challenge
Start Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2019
End Date: June 17, 2019
**Sorry for the lack of images this update was taking a second to get out so decided to release it before it got too old
Day 8
Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get much work done in the coming days I started Day 8 by refining the boss’s AI. I made it so that the boss pauses after each charge attack giving the player time to attack the boss. This led to me giving the boss health and a killable state as well as the player so both the boss and the player could die. Outside of updating the boss fight I also updated the state machines for the rooms so they could handle manual room design (such as for boss fights or traps) and the Lightning Simpistol so that it shot instantly and accurately (the effect on it was delayed and caused the aiming to be hard).
Code Overview (Day 8):
— Adjusted Boss AI
— Made boss killable
— Boss can kill the player
— Updated Room state machines to account for more manual design (boss fights)
— Updated Lightning Simpistol to shoot accurately and instantly
Day 9
To make the boss fight more manageable I knew the player would need a variety of spells available to them. Day 9 was focused on giving the player the ability to carry multiple weapons. I added holsters all over the player’s collider so they would be able to carry up to six guns (hopefully I’ll be able to add better/more later). The guns and player “hands” (orbs) were also updated. Now the player can pick up a gun and put it on a holster on their body. If they need it they can grab it from the holster.
Coding Overview (Day 9)
— Added gun holsters to player
— Made guns holster-able
Day 10
For the past few months, I’ve been applying to/interviewing for a fellowship program. On Day 10 the final round of interviews took place literally all day. Good news is the interview is out of the way (weight off my back). Bad news, wasn’t able to get any work done on the challenge.
Coding Overview (Day 10)
— No coding was done
Day 11
Honestly, the all-day interview wore me out, but I was able to get a little work done on Day 11. I went back to focusing on the boss fight, specifically the attacks the boss would use during the fight and how those attacks would be chosen. The boss already had a charge attack that was basically a mid-range melee attack. Since the player would have the Teleport Simpistol for movement and the Shield Simpistol for defense I decided to give the boss a ranged projectile attack and AoE super attack. The projectile would be used to attack the player from far away and force the player to get closer (close enough to be charged into). The AoE super would happen every quarter to half a minute and would force the player to teleport into the sky to dodge it.
After messing around with the attacking portion of the boss’s behavior tree I was able to get the boss to choose between the charge and projectile attacks based on the player’s distance from the enemy. This means that if the player wants to win fast they should get close to the boss force him to charge then when the boss is tired after the charge shoot as much as possible. If the player stays back then the boss will keep firing projectiles and launching its super (not the most interactive strategy, but I feel it’s good for my first attempt at boss fights).
Coding Overview (Day 11)
— Added projectile attack to boss
Day 12
Later in the week, my team has an intern being on-boarded onto a few projects. Magigunner will be one of those of projects thus a majority of Day 12 was spent organizing the project. I organized the main development scenes and the project’s overall file structure. Once that was out of the way I spent a few hours building out a treasure room and adding more environmental elements (lighting and crystals) to the boss’s room.
Coding Overview (Day 12)
— No coding was done
Day 13
Sadly, Day 13 was another day where I wasn’t able to get into the project. I spent a large part of the day working on one of my team’s client projects. However, this will be the last day within the next week or so that I won’t be able to tend to the challenge project.
Coding Overview (Day 13)
— No coding was done
Conclusion
Due to general life, I wasn’t able to get as far with Magigunner over the last few days as I would’ve liked. Though I feel good going into this week. It looks like I won’t be able to finish the tutorial loop by Day 14, but a few extra days won’t hurt as long as the experience feels good. The next few days will be focused on completing the tutorial loop core interactions (treasure room, boss fight, and end portal). I might also start doing soft playtesting within my development team to start getting opinions on feel and direction.
Goals Going forward
— Add ammo and spell cooldowns to guns
— Add boss AoE super
— Add intro animation/fx to boss
— Create “end portal” for tutorial sequence
— Finish tutorial sequence ASAP
— Polish tutorial sequence
Changelog
— Adjusted Boss AI
— Made boss killable
— Boss can kill the player
— Updated Room state machines to account for more manual design (boss fights)
— Updated Lightning Simpistol to shoot accurately and instantly
— Added gun holsters to player
— Made guns holster-able
— Added projectile attack to boss
Magigunner 90 Day Challenge: Days 8–13 was originally published in Magigunner on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.