Devlog 1 and project introduction
In the spirit of the Finish Your Game Jam I'll be posting DEVLOGs during the development of Hugton Loves You. They'll mainly be short daily updates, but for this first one I thought I'd give a bit of a background about the game.
HUGTON WHO-TON?
Hugton Loves You will (I hope!) be a short narrative game about a writer working from home who receives a stress-relief plush toy from their best friend.
The game was originally conceived for the Cliffhanger Jam earlier in the year, but a day into that jam I dropped it (and came up with another idea - which I also dropped after a day. In the end I made Vault, which looking back was the right choice). I dropped it because the scope was too big, and I had misgivings about some aspects of the design.
WHY IS IT SUDDENLY VIABLE NOW?
If the scope was too big for a game jam then, why am I attempting it again now? Good question! And there's a bunch of reasons.
- For the Cliffhanger Jam, I started designing it after the jam started - so I was doing both design and implementation in the jam time limit. This time around the design is all done, so I can just focus on making it.
- It's been redesigned so the scope is smaller this time! In particular, two fairly involved in-game mechanics have been removed completely (another two have been added, but they're much easier to implement). Also, one of the new additions is HUGTON himself! Originally the stress-relief object was going to be something else, but a plush toy works much better narratively as well as mechanically.
- I spent October making 3D models as my thing-a-day thing. I deliberately made objects I needed for my game ideas, so most of Hugton's 3D assets are already done \o/.
- The focus of Finish Your Game Jam is just working on something. It's not a big deal if the project isn't finished by the deadline, just that you made meaningful progress. So if it's not done by the end of the jam it's fine, just as long as I get some of it done.
HUGGING HEDGING MY BETS
I also have a SECRET SCOPING WEAPON up my sleeve! If I get halfway through the jam and the project is going badly off the rails, I'll switch completely and work on another game!
PIG MISSION is an extremely simple idea I started for the the Stop Waiting For Godot Jam but didn't finish, and should be easy to put together in a few days.
(if I can't finish PIG MISSION either I'll submit a five-minute Bitsy about how I'm a terrible project manager).
WILL THERE BE ARTIFACTS?
The game design was locked down before the Jam theme was announced so there won't be any big plot-related artifacts, but I'm hoping to get at least a reference in there.
NO TIME TO SLEEP IT'S DEF CON DEV LOG ONE
It's day one! So far I've been doing meta-planning stuff. I picked out the royalty-free fonts I want to use and set up a Trello with all the tasks and asset lists. For the rest of today I'll be making 3D assets and doing 'start of project' stuff like setting up a git repo and tidying up the itch page.
Here's my 'today' task list in Trello (I might post this in every devlog).
SPOILER: I probably won't get all of these done today.
Best of luck to everyone participating in the jam. Have fun! And take care of yourselves. Finish your game, but don't let you game finish you. Can't wait to see them all in the showcase!
