Yesterday, I was packed with motivation and energy, despite having doubts before the event. I managed to work until 4 A.M., wrote clean code, and felt rested after just 4 hours of sleep.

My game is a Pokémon-style game (Sterket is monSTER + pocKET instead of POcKEt + MONster) with the gimmick that since the creatures are tiny, you can fit multiple of the same species in one pocket, which is good since they also have low HP and die easily and permanently. I really like some of the creature designs, bios, and name puns I came up with, but I'm reaching the point where my coding is getting sloppier, which slows down adding content.

Things that still need to be done: * Buffs/debuffs * Enemy AI (I'll probably just randomize it) * Win/loss state. * Some menu between fights.

The game concept I have could work well as a roguelite if it was expanded upon. I won't have the time to implement the required mechanics, but there could be a lot of "build" potential if you were offered different creatures and items at random each run.

Anyway, here's one of the creature designs I sketched last night.

This Sterket spends most of its time swimming inside a milk-filled pouch on its mother's belly. Each day, the mother lets it outside of the pouch for a bit longer until it's fully weaned and able to breathe in air and water.

Fun fact: I designed this Sterket by taking the debated Pokémon tradition of basing the fire-type starter on a Chinese zodiac animal, picking one that hadn't been chosen yet (the ox), and using it for the water-type starter instead.