Game Jam, Day 3: Make Like a Tree

Pete Shumate

Pete Shumate

— 2 min read

Okay, we got our littler caterpillar friend moving yesterday. Caterpillars don't exist in the void: therefore, this little guy needed a leaf on which to scurry.

"Easy!" I tried to convince myself. "That shouldn't take too long." And it wouldn't have, if I'd had some foresight.

(My lack of foresight caused by inexperience is going to be a running theme for the next few years. I'll get better. Eventually.)

The steps, in order:

  • Upload the leaf as a tileset in Godot and notice I'd set the multiplier too high.
  • Reduce the size of the leaf back to 64x64 pixels. Wait, that's too small.
  • Realize my game window is 1,000x1,000 pixels.
  • Quietly curse the concepts of both ones and zeroes.
  • Mumble "Well, the playfield is 1000x1000, the leaf is 64x64. Make that playfield a 1024 square and multiply the leaf by 16.” I acted like that wasn't a completely unhinged thing to say.
  • Upload Leaf 2.0 into the tileset and set its scene as a child to the Main node parent.
That caterpillar is in stealth mode. No, I didn't make poor color choices.
  • Let loose a sigh of relief that Cate (that's her name now, and she's a she, it's been decided, now the game is called Cate's Dinner Date) can move around the leaf.
Oh, great. Cate's appetite for the void is insatiable.
  • Say a slightly louder curse after realizing Cate isn't bound to the leaf.
  • Make this pie chart to give myself some time for a mental reset.
This image is for all of my gamedev kin. We all feel this way, right? IT'S NOT JUST ME, RIGHT?!
  • Eat a pork and lime-cilantro rice burrito while watching a YouTube tutorial.
  • Deny that the one simple procedure I watched would keep Cate on the foliage.
  • Do the one simple procedure.
  • Choke on the burrito when it works.

That was all day. Hours of work and I managed to keep Cate leafbound (ooh, Leafbound isn't a terrible name, either). I also thought about all kinds of things I need to go back and fix in the sprites. Like, if the leaf is supposed to be partially shaded, where is the lit portion of the leaf? That's only the entire theme of this game jam what is wrong with you Pete get it together. I should be absolutely defeated.

But I'm not. I have this weird kind of hope in my stomach. I had a problem. But I fixed it. Godot is starting to make sense to me. It's still confusing if I don't concentrate, and I don't have any kind of muscle memory for getting things done in the engine, but I'm starting to get it. I can't be frustrated at that.

Tomorrow: maybe we'll see some mushrooms? Maybe motor oil will start streaming out of my charging port? Who knows?

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