2021 Update

It's been a while since I interacted with this webpage, more than a year in fact, and all I did at that point was add some projects I worked on. So I figured it was time for a proper update, not that much has happened, but because I feel like it's good to document progress for future use. So, What have I been up to?

2020

This year is a blank slate for me. Trying to think back on the pandemic is nearly impossible since it blasted by so quickly. But I actually managed to accomplish something, something i'm pretty proud of.

During August, I participated in my first Brackeys Game Jam. This year, the theme was "Rewind". Me, and many others, had the idea of time travel pop into their heads immediately. I realised that this could quickly get out of hand in terms of scope. However, fortunately for me, I was showing symptoms that week, and had to stay home. Unable to work, I was able to spend 8+ hours a day working on my game.

The finished result was Time Knight (creative name I know), a third person adventure platformer where you played as Time Knight, a knight with the power of time (questionably). You could create a shield that stopped projectiles, dash forward (in time!) but also rewind time backwars (Sort of like Tracer from Overwatch)

When rewinding time, you'd move along the blue line shown in the GIF above, until you end up where it ends. It was a cool ability to make but I didn't really end up finding a good use for it while playing, except maybe for when I fell off the map but even then it only worked 50% of the time.

The game received good reception over all. Nothing winner-worthy (though many thought so) and many seemed impressed that this was all done in one week. As usual, I went way too overboard and decided to make EVERYTHING (except the music) myself. All animations, models, and programming is hand-made. So yeah, pretty proud of this one.

2021

Odin's Eyes

After time knight I was excited. I wanted to make more. So just 6 months (!) later I joined up for the next Brackeys Jam. This time, the theme was "Better Together". This one was tougher for me. I had a couple of mediocre ideas, but I ultimately ended up on "Odin's Eyes".

In Odin's eyes, you play as his birds, Huginn and Muninn. Odin has lost his remaining eye, and now you have to help him find it. You use one of the birds (I honestly forgot which one, I think it's Huginn) to call Odin to it's location, guiding him through traps and other hazards. The other bird's only function right now is to MAYBE be able to extend the camera a bit. The camera tries to keep both birds in the view at once, so you can get a pretty extensive view of the puzzle if you position the correctly.

I had a lot less time for Odin's Eyes, as I was working during this time. I still made all the assets, and most of the animations, but it is visible that I had less time for polish and general game design. I had some fun making this, especially the traps and the rolling boulders, but not nearly as fun as when I made Time Knight, which made me feel a bit beat up for a while. I learned eventually to enjoy it for what it was though, a finished game project that I made myself.

I was going to participate in the August Brackeys Game Jam, however I had just moved to a new city and started a new job, so I was all out of time and mental energy to do it. Maybe in February 2022 I'll make a comeback.

Bring Out Your Dead!

Over the course of 3-4 years I have on and off been working on a larger project. A Plague-doctor game, where you try to find the cure for the black plague by combining ingredients and testing your way forward. I've mostly been posting stuff on Twitter for it, but I figured it deserves a mention here as well.

As you can see, it is incredibly rough at the moment. Most of it is greyboxing, and there is NO polish what so ever. But it is slowly getting there. I work on this project now and then whenever I feel like it, and so far it's worked out pretty well.

The most recent addition to the game was being able to discover new items, and note them down in your journal. I was very happy with how it looks and I am hoping to keep the handwritten design into the final build of the game. Every time you pick up an ingredient, or create a potion for the first time, you get an entry in your notebook. I managed to get it to perfectly fit three ingredients into one page, and you can flip pages back and forth to look at what you've got discovered. These pages also contain good-to-know information for creating cures with them in the future.

One of the most glaring fixes that are next, is the first person arm. I'm sure you've noticed how outright FUCKED it looks. I was going for a mitten-esque look and then somehow decided that the index finger was still going to be visible. So yeah, A new arm with a new armature and rigging is next on my list, along with some animations. As part of this I am also planning on adding a few bones to all the items in the game so that when held I can just manipulate the sockets in the bones to make all items snap nicely to the hand without weird rotations.

So that's a little summary of what i've been up to game dev-wise. I am hoping to get more regular with updates but we'll see how it goes! Last i said that it took 2 years for me to post another update!

Until next time!