Hey. It's been about a month since I've updated this feed, and I wanted to fill you guys in. I don't really want to write a boring spiel, but I'd like to seem honest and transparent, even if that forces me to sound a little boring. Sorry!
Right now, the elephant in the room is probably Block Sandbox. Even though I said that I wouldn't, I have to call it off for now. It's not dead, but I'm putting it aside until I've finished other projects which are closer to my comfort zone. There were three main problems that influenced my decision:
The gameplay left a lot to be desired. The biggest problem with the game was that interactions between different elements didn't feel natural or satisfying. They all made sense, but none of the features opened up huge gameplay possibilities, which is bad enough in sandbox mode, let alone for designing puzzles. I didn't complete all the planned elements, but I felt that this was an inherent problem with how elements were being designed and not just a temporary issue.
Poor performance. At the default world size you could do whatever you wanted without any slowdown, but on larger sizes it would start to lag with certain setups. I made some big performance improvements during development, but I never truly solved the problem. This type of game isn't something I have much experience writing, which was a bad decision for my first game project. Which brings me to the third point...
It wasn't really the game I wanted to make. I originally set out to make "a game about a sandbox", but I think that I failed to reflect the game part of the equation. It's kind of fun to mess around and draw with the different elements at first, but that's the same kind of fun that you get from messing around in, say, MS Paint. And it didn't feel like my game, or even my simulation. I'm not sure how to put that into words. It just didn't have the spirit that I want to put into my work, if that makes sense.
I'll figure out how to fix those issues when I get back around to Block Sandbox. Which will happen eventually! That's my promise.
But with Block Sandbox now in the background, I have another project to take its place. I came up with the idea a few nights ago, and have been prototyping the engine. I'm planning to be less secretive about this game's development, but for now all I will say is that it inherently addresses all of these issues; It's unquestionably game-y (a player character, enemies, one unified objective, etc.), it’s closer to my comfort zone, and, if anything, it has too much of my personality and design philosophies in it! Not that I would consider that to be a bad thing.
Here’s what liquid physics look like in Block Sandbox! It isn’t completely accurate, but I think I’ve made a good balance between performance and accuracy. This also shows an example of a scrolling map, which is a feature I’ve been working on for the past few days.
jeffalo’s nightcore addiction has gone too far
i cannot stop watching things at 2x. everything else feels slow. help.
Sorry that I haven’t been posting about Block Sandbox stuff as much lately. I know you guys like GIFs but I can’t really make them for random optimizations and code fixes and such
Flashback Friday (new thing, I guess!): Here’s “Time is Ticking”, a stupid and silly JavaScript/DHTML thing I wrote last year. It will turn one year old in nine days! I’m posting it here because I’m pretty sure none of you knew that it even existed. https://doubledenial.github.io/random/timeisticking/
The longer I spend developing, the more inane my tooltips get
Block Showcase: Fire
Some days, when life gets you down, you might just feel an urge to BURN SOMETHING!
If so, then great news: I’ve got just what you need.
Fire is one of the many elements at your disposal in Block Sandbox, and it can do just that. Take this wheel I built, for instance. Why did I build a wheel? I don’t know, but I hate it! Time to take it out.
Much better. Large wooden structures can be destroyed with ease by even a tiny fire source, just like in real life! Isn’t arson fun?
But fire isn’t just for show. It can interact with other in-game elements and cause nifty chain reactions.
Be free, sand!
During gameplay, fire will prove itself to be a devastatingly powerful ally, and sometimes, a worthy opponent. How? You’ll just have to play the game to find out. That’s all for now, see you next time!
(this message was brought you by dan, who is currently in prison for multiple counts of arson)
Here’s the first real look into my newest project, Block Sandbox, which is currently eight days into development and written in pure JavaScript.
It may look simple here, but it will have a bit more to it than just a basic sandbox to mess around with.
The block palette is still subject to change at this point. In fact, I’m thinking of vastly expanding the scope of blocks available, as I have quite a few more ideas that aren’t incorporated into the game yet. This is the project’s tough first half of development; I expect the second half to be really fun, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s a state of development that I’ve wanted to reach in a project for a while, and it’s exciting for me to see it being slowly realized here.
See you on the flipside!
I like it when a persistent error gets me to thoroughly think through my code and make several improvements before I realize that it was just caused by a typo somewhere
I updated my profile picture to be more on-model with the official character design earlier today. Did you notice?
I also updated my banner a few days ago. I’m not fully satisfied with it yet, but it’s a good start.