Progress

UI Framework

One of the things I'm loving and hating about using and learning MonoGame is that I have to build so much on top of the framework and UI is no exception. I love that I'm creating my own framework system for the UI, but I hate how long it takes to do it. After today, I can now create * Menus * Buttons * Labels * Progress Bars * Message Boxes (experimental)

Still working out the kinks in the message box element with word wrapping properly.

Gameplay

Gamplay is at the 80% marker for implement for me. The core functionality is there, so 10% more would be tweaking and balancing things out, and the last 10% are things that are stretch goals to implement.

One of the challenges with the gameplay design that hit this afternoon was the world size. Originally, I had a camera system that would follow the character with a semi-center lock view as they moved around the bounds of the world area. Everything else was designed around that, including enemy spawns and balancing the randomness of the enemy spawns. I found though that having the larger world size and the camera follow made the game feel weird to play. It just didn't work at all, so I had to adjust.

It's now a world size that doesn't require the camera to follow the player to see everything, which meant everything else had to adjust around that, so a good chunk of time was spent there.

Audio

I'm not an audio person and I hate that. I'm terrible when it comes to sound design, so my game is going to be lacking that quality hard. I do have one song that I'm using as the background music that fits the mood I'm trying to set in the game great. The sound effects though, man I'm terrible. I played around in sfxr for a bit and got some things that are alright.

Post-Day Conclusion

All-in-all, i'm pleased with the progress made today. I'm nearing completion, which means my first Ludum Dare submission. I've been keeping track of progress using a kanban board on Asana, which has helped a ton in getting thoughts organized. I've been streaming while doing this, and the people coming in to talk have been great and help to keep me motivated. For now though, it's sleep, that I need.

Hope everyone else is making good progress. See you at the end