Devlog 4 - The Fifth Day

Day 5

5 days have passed since the start of the game jam, which is surprisingly quick but I guess I’m just having a good time with this project because of the saying “Time goes faster when your having fun”. Anyway today I worked on the following:

• Added ability to change tools
• Made move tool better
• Added delete tool
• Partially added orbit tool via extensions
• Created sprites for move, create, delete, add force, orbit tools
• Added FPS counter
• Added version number to main menu
• Realised collisions don’t work between multiple of the same object

The first thing I did was add the ability to change tools. Although this seems simple and could appear to be done at a later point, in my opinion it was best I did it first so that I knew what tools I would be using and could start creating sprites for them, allowing me to work on making all of the tool icons positions in the GUI which I decided would be best to put in one row at the bottom of the screen because there isn’t many tools so I could have a neat simple line at the bottom, which looks quite good.

I then worked on improving the move tool. I did this because whenever I tried to move any objects, if the same object was over another object, it would move both at the same time, putting them in the same place. Therefore by improving it so it can only move one at a time, there is less frustration for the player and makes it better.

Next I decided I should keep doing the tools and that adding the delete tool would be easiest so I should do it next. I did this tool because with orbits / adding forces I would need to choose two places / objects and with creating objects I would need to add a sidebar with all of the objects and I think in order to not cause too much stress by only spending time on one task today, I should do the delete tool then do something else that’s simple. This will allow me to feel better and be less likely to panic, helping not only my mental health but allowing me to focus easily on the project.

Next I added FPS counter and the version number to the main menu because by doing small tasks, it helps relieve stress so like I said before, helps me with continuing the project.

Afterwards I decided to start work on the orbits tool which in order to try to save time, I decided to do some of the code as an extension so that I can use less time coding the same thing over and over again, although it probably won’t be as optimised as possible, I do have a time limit because this is a game jam. However I decided to stop half way and have a break for the rest of the day because I still have plenty of time until the end of the jam and I only need to do a few other tools, improve collisions and then improve the background and if I have time, finish save.loading and a settings menu which in my opinion, is a short list for 4 more days, at the time of writing.

Thanks for reading