Dev Diary - 15 May

10 May 2021

Everything is done except a cutscene to tie it all together. I've learned so much over the course of this project that I always feel there are a million things I could add. "What if you don't have to rescue the crew, but that gets a better ending?" "What if doors open when certain enemies are killed?" etc. It'd be great to implement them all, but there comes a time when the game needs to be finished. It launches this month, and that means all the quality and time I have has to be dedicated to what is left, not what I want to change. I already know what kind of cutscene I want, so the rest is just animating and potentially adding a few art pieces.

11 May 2021

The cutscene is a wrap! It looks great, and it really does end exactly how I would like it to. One struggle throughout this process is that because I've gotten better, I want each new part to be as good as I can make it. Unfortunately, that takes away from the vibe of the game. I could have fully animated out an intricate cutscene with dialogue and intense music, but the game definitely has an unpolished charm to it that would make a grandiose ending seem offputting. I think this is the way to go.

12 May 2021

With the ending cutscene finished, all that's left is the credits. Fortunately, as I've been collecting audio, I've been holding onto a list of all the usernames and profiles of any open-source sound files I've used. It makes life a lot easier than trying to scramble to find the old ones. Other than that, most of the work was done by myself and the little bit of help I got on the art. Feels a little pedantic to just write my name over and over, so I'm skipping parts like "design" or "programming" that I can't even slightly add other names to.

13 May 2021

And now the credits are finished. It's funny, I thought each of these steps would be a few hours long, but these are pretty full workdays solely dedicated to individual elements. I just really want everything to feel good. The words should be on the screen just long enough. The font should be just big enough. The spacing needs to be just right. I think I have a comfortable balance between "what was the point in credits if it took 3 seconds" and "why is it so long if it was made by 1 person."

14 May 2021

The rest of the music in the game is a bit chiptune-y, but I wanted the ending to be a sendoff. For the most part, the main theme just "da-nana-na"s over and over to make sure it stays quietly in the background without drawing attention. For this, I wanted a quiet piano piece as my way of saying "this was a lot of fun, and I'm happy to send it off." It's nothing extravagant since I'm still pretty new to the music-making software, but it feels nice. Hopefully it doesn't feel too out of place.