Sonic Grid game jam post-mortem

Since it has been almost a year since my last game, the purpose of creating Sonic Grid and the Sonic Fan Works Game Jam was to dust off the rust and get the kid and I into crafting a fun project to start the summer. I found out that Sega is kinda ok with people using Sonic to better their artistic abilities and that's exactly what I was looking to do with this project. My daughter had been futzing with Pico8 and MBoffin's adventure engine at the end of the last game jam and she had taken an interest in trying to craft pixel art after my last game. So she focused that energy into her Sonic Adventure game, while I tried to piece together something for my game.

I had been working on a game many months ago that ran into a wall so I wanted to move forward with a project to both simplify my goals and better utilize screen language and animation. I figure I know how to make an image appear and disappear on screen, so now it's time to see how I can really combine what I want and what I know. I looked through game images for inspiration. I have a file folder full of screenshots just to give me some ideas when I don't have any. However, I was stuck on trying to figure some sort of strategy game. Then I stumbled across a screenshot for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann on the DS and it showed the mech on a grid which is kind of where the idea of Sonic running on a grid came from.

Once I sketched it, it looked like a tower that Sonic was climbing up. I couldn't call it Sonic Tower though because that would conjure up imagery of knights and princesses and I really wanted it to be retro. Sonic Grid eventually stuck though I really don't know how to describe it. Crazy Climber meets Mine Sweeper? I didn't even know if it was a fun game to play (all I see when I play is image positions and patterns) so I asked the kid about the first level and she gave it a thumbs up which was really sweet of her to say. Hopefully it's true.

Half-way through the project I was able to get a functioning plug and play system going. The code easily could be cut in 1/3, but I'd have to be a better coder for that and when it works I just kept moving forward instead of changing the system. 

With things moving forward, the real world decided to be a bit more chaotic and I just couldn't get the game anywhere near where I wanted it to be while still being able to submit it to the game jam. So with what little time I had left, I just stuck together what I could and moved to create a build that should be fully playable. That being said, there are a few things that probably should be explained.

Why do characters introduce themselves when they aren't in the game?

I got the idea of trying to do multiple dialog text boxes one night when I just didn't want to keep coding level animations. I had first tried to do a textbox system that works with characters popping up every time they spoke similar to UI you would see in some higher grade visual novels like you see in Yuki's4P. I got it to work, but since this was early on it didn't ever seem to mesh with the retro look I was going for once I really started coding. I then ignored it and reprogrammed the Tutorial text box which was cleaner, but ultimately still unsatisfying. Finally, I just decided to do manga styled dialog screens with multiple text boxes. I got it to work, but that was my test code and it didn't go much further than that.

Who makes a Renpy game without a story?

I have a story concept, but once I realized that implementing it would take time away from completing levels I made the decision to focus on making more levels than making more dialog. There is a story for this game, I just didn't get a chance to actually work on it. Plus I don't really know how to code with anything else so I stick with Renpy and Renpy games with little to no dialog probably shouldn't exist.

Why have an island with levels?

One of the main things I wanted to work on was trying to put a circle system in place after I played through Eiyuu Senki. I just thought  it was neat to be able to rewind back to first position and experience events with triggered switches. Unfortunately without a story that never went anywhere. The idea is that Sonic would work his way around the island to specific locations and talk with people, but it got canned to focus on finishing up boss #2.

Are you going to add more?

Maybe? I have completed art for all of the bosses and have a system to really plug and play for the rest of the levels. So I like to think I will.

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Things I'm Really Proud of:

My kid: I really didn't have to help her program her Sonic Adventure. I showed her some game concepts and let her play the Legend of Zelda and then she ran with it. I'm darn proud of the major improvement she has made after this long break.

The tutorial: That tutorial works like a dream.  

HTML works:  I couldn't get it to work for either pico8 or Renpy and now I have two games that have them with more clicks than all my projects combined.  My internet is too slow for me to properly gauge whether it's a good way to play though. It's sooo twitchy. It does make me want to put a web build on the other games I've posted.

I didn't bork the game once: A huge part of my last 2 games was just figuring out why it crashed and how to fix it. That really didn't happen this time. I struggled with implementing concepts, but I didn't have to struggle to find the error. That's progress in my book. I think I might be growing as a person.

That people joined the jam: It's exciting to see people craft something. I'm glad people had fun and I got to play ssome cool things.

Things I wish I could have implemented:

Dialog: There is a story here that needs to be told. I think. This is big as something needs to break up the levels so it's not just level after level with little variety.

More levels: I have my boss art drawn out and ready to go, maps planned out and ready to go, I just didn't have time or energy to get it coded before the birthday celebration.

Super Sonic: I have an idea on how to activate him in the code already, just need to figure out what to do with him when he's there.

Sonic Island animation: Completely pointless, but Sonic's supposed to be traveling the island and I need to animate that. There is a lot of personality that can be added so I just need to set it up.