June DevLog: A World Restored!

The biggest win this month has been the successful revival of the lost Tilemaps I spent a week on just a while back covering all the zones to be available in the Alpha demo.

After the tragic loss of the Battle Gem Ponies files during what I call The Great Calamity, one of the losses was the overworld layouts I converted from graph paper doodles to playable micro-worlds.

I was disheartened for a bit while I thought they were gone for good and I'd have to make each one again, which was a shame because of how happy I was with how they turned out (including all the little touches I didn't have down on paper that made me love these Work in Progress towns & routes. 

After checking through old hard drives and google drive accounts on a whim, I came across the corrupt backup files for Battle Gem Ponies and came across the tilemap data. After importing that into Unity and reassigning some missing scripts and prefab data I was able to make somewhat salvageable versions of the maps and just do touchups on what's left. 

And in case you're wondering what the Letters are all about, each one stands for the object being spawned on the invisible layer of the map. W for walls, D for doors, R for readable objects, N for NPC paths, and T for triggers affecting game data and cutscene events.

Some maps recovered better than others, but at least they're mostly all there. It definitely beats starting from scratch and its now easier to remember those extra little touches I put in place. Don't mind the placeholders in these screenshots too much by the way, these tiles exist just so I can tell what everything is supposed to be, everything's getting a major polish up and new sprite from scratch once the Alpha is all laid out and playable.

Now I completely remember how the old way I layered these things was really hard to follow. I needed to come up with a neater way to tell my future self where every object goes in a clear and concise way. (Instead of vague nouns and layers left in the order I drew them)

The new way I'm going about organizing these layers is a specifically named ID system where 0 through 7 describe the depth and a simple name describes the subject belonging in that layer. 

You'll have things like dirt on layer 0, water over the dirt on layer 1, decorations over the water on top of that, then step effects from wandering characters, the characters and interactibles themselves, then things covering their feet, things hanging overhead, and tints to change the colors of everything on a tile.

There's also things like reducing script redundancy. Instead of having different scripts for NPC AI, Partner Pony AI, and Player inputs all using similar code to navigate the world and animate, I cut those parts out and made a more universal script for handling character movement and animation that the objects could share (Getting rid of some bugs and reducing future dev time in the process).

You can see here that I've been using a little journal for notes and doodles. I keep this next to my composition book of graph paper maps on my desk so I can jot down ideas for the game during those long minutes where the computer is frozen up compiling something in Unity. I figure it's a healthier habit than constantly opening social media.

I think it's all the little optimizations like that which can improve productivity and keep my willpower flow going, cuz lord knows it's just all that determination and all you guys cheering it on keeping this project alive.

A big thing I let eat up way too much of my time was all the app store maintenance that needed to be done since I haven't checked on those accounts in a while. Had to do things like update Unicorn Training to run on 64-bit devices, reconfirm publisher info, and figure out this infuriating two-factor ID thing. 

If you've been following me for a while you'll remember me putting all Unicorn Training earnings toward getting a Macbook since it's the only way to legally upload a game to the app store. But I guess the number of hoops to jump through weren't enough for Apple's taste and now developers need at least TWO Apple devices to publish. One modern Mac product and either an iPad, iPod, or iPhone with at least iOS9 is required.

Basically what it comes down to is I can't just rely on my Macbook and need at least 2 devices to keep my games on the app store. Luckily I have a busted up (as in chunks missing, unreadable screen, nonexistent home button) iPod Touch Gen 5 that just barely qualifies and I can get away with that for the time being. 

I've really been bogged down with work, weight loss, and depression. On top of the 42 hour workweek having me sick of staring at Unity by the end of the day, I've been waking up super early to get a workout finished before heading to work so that when I get home mentally exhausted I don't have to worry about forcing myself to become physically exhausted too. I have more time and energy to throw straight at BGP this way and every little optimization like that counts.

Working out for a solid 2 hours a day is a must as well. I have a year's worth of depression gut going on and literally everyone I interact with lets me know it (daily). So skipping that more than 1 day a week isn't really an option if I wanna return to my old happy go-lucky super healthy self. 

It's silly because the main reason I'm in such a rut is because I wasn't able to get this game done a year ago like I wanted. Life problems all started stacking up around the same time, immediately after graduating college. Welcome to adulthood, amirite? 

But that's enough with the boring stuff. Gotta remember what this is all for... Battle Gem Ponies!  

Getting this thing in the hands of the people is priority #1. It's long overdue and this prototype phase needs to wrap up by the end of next month if I want to actually make a 2020 release date. 

It's important to get a demo out and strike while the iron is hot too. Fans are starting to get upset over Pokemon's shortcomings. Seems like I'm not the only one tired of seeing the highest grossing franchise of all time not putting those billions back into the core product that made them superstars in the first place. 

I wanna show the world what one guy can do with enough time on his hands. A passion project that checks all the boxes of game design, storytelling, visuals, music, and characters. Then I wanna REALLY go nuts on the sequels to show what that same guy can do with more resources. 

But for now... All eyes on what can be done between now and the 1st of August. Looking forward to showing off some gameplay, folks.