One Small Step, One Giant Leap

Hello, people of Earth! I'm Lawrence Dosher, not an alien, but instead one of five developers for Space for Sweets. This is our very first devlog!

My own contributions were programming player movement, as well as level interactables, collectibles, and respawning. Player movement is simply how the player gets around the level, but from the get-go, we planned out several mechanics to make movement more engaging. There's double jumping, ledge-grabbing, and sliding, each of which give you more options to control your character. We're taking some inspiration from the platformers of old, particularly PS2 mascot platformers that gave you plenty of tricks to pull off and feel cool about. As for the interactables, that's the system that lets you just use stuff in a level. Are there some enemies blocking off a path you need to go through? Pull a level, drop a box, and have those enemies patrol a different area! Collectibles are the items you need to gather to win the game. While I initially planned for them to be like coins scattered throughout a level, we've recently pivoted towards having them be things you receive by completing objectives throughout the level. The respawn system is what activates when the player gets caught by an enemy, causing the player to return to the last checkpoint they passed by.

Angel's contributions this week were coding the camera system and the cops. The camera operates in third person for the player's general movement, but you can go into first person in order to look around. First person will also be utilized for throwing objects to distract enemies, when that gets added into the game. The cops are the first enemies in our game, and they're meant to be the main kind of enemy you'll be dealing with. Initially, they would chase after the player if the player was detected by one, but we've decided to simply have the player respawn whenever they're seen by an enemy. You can't really attack these officers, but you can distract them to have them move out of their original position.

Robert's contributions were models of various sweets, a billboard, three different crates, and most importantly, models for the main character, the cop enemies, and a baby in a stroller, who is going to be the centerpiece of one of the level's objectives.

Elizabeth's contributions were textures for the sweets and props modeled by Robert, along with the first white box of the main level! Being the very first iteration, and one that was made while we were still figuring out the mechanics of the game, the main level has some major work to go through before it's done, but it was pretty important in helping us get a grip on how we want the game to play.

Jay's contributions were rigging the model for the main character and the cop enemy, with animations currently being underway! He also began work preparing sound effects for the game.

For now, though, that's all I have to share. Thanks for reading!

~ Larry