I had a lot to do this last month, I started my Internship (finally) and I’m still getting used to my new schedules and adapting to it.

I will divide my update this month in 2 parts: GameMaker and my Ghost Game. Easier ones first.

GameMaker

If I remember correctly, I said in one or two updates before this one that I wanted to try GameMaker, well, this day finally happened.

I started browsing some youtube channels, searching for references and I found about HeartBeast and his awesome tutorials. A couple weeks ago I found out about his new course on GameMaker: The Action RPG Course.

It was almost exactly what I wanted to learn on GameMaker, the course was something around $10 so I bought and started following it. Here is what I’ve done:

If you remember my older updates, this is almost exactly what I wanted for Midnight Journey, just some minor tweaks and doing the art and the game would be good to go.

BUT. I got pretty disappointed when I found out I could only create 10 scripts on the trial version and 20 sprites, so I can’t finish the course because of those limitations. I don’t agree with this approach, just not being able to export the game is a good enough limitation in my opinion. But hey, maybe this way works for them because I’m really thinking on buying the desktop license ($99). I’m enjoying GameMaker more than Unity for working with 2D.

PS: Unity finally has Tilemaps on Beta Testing, maybe I can stick with Unity because of that.

Ghost Game

This is actually the first time I thought about giving up on a game idea (and not just saying I will put them aside for I don’t know how much time). Designing Levels is way difficult for someone who isn’t a designer. I have no clue about what to do and how to do it.

But hey, I might not be a good designer, I might not be able to design good levels, but I’m pretty sure I can design something. So I will change my approach on this. Anyway, I worked on the Intro Scene, the Main Menu Scene, World Map and started the Second Level. You can see it on the video below:

It is all just a prototype yet, but it can say what I want for it.

I also did a Smooth Follow script for the camera, which you can see on the Second Level. This gave me idea to also use the camera as a Gameplay Mechanic, the player could be able to manipulate it using the Human or the Ghost to see the environment to think more about their actions.

My approach for this game right now is to do just 2 levels, the Tutorial Level and the other one shown on the video. After that I will start putting together the art, music and sound effects. Maybe after that I will ask for feedback over the internet.

Plus: I’m getting into Adventure Games with Visual Novels elements lately (like Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick and 999), I even made a prototype for one (Ace Programmer). And I wrote a bit on ideas and scripts on this subject, so maybe next updates I will talk about them.

What I’m going to do this month

• GameMaker: Not really sure, maybe evaluate my finances to see if I’m able to buy the Desktop License, finish the Course and see what I can do with it.
• Ghost Game:
  •  I want to finish designing the second level and transform the Tutorial Level in a Tutorial actually.
  • This month I also want to start doing the art, basic musics and search for sound effects.
• Visual Novels: I still have to think more on the ideas and keep writing the scripts