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i love this!!!! scratches such a specific itch

UPDATE ... SORT OF?

hi! it's been a while. i actually never stopped working on the game, but i never really got anywhere either. 

in hindsight, i think it might've been a mistake to base this game off things i already knew how to do. it made the first few steps really easy (my sprite walks! hey, dialogue, i remember how to do that!), but it also resulted in every new addition breaking the wonky custom template i was so proud of. initially it was kind of fun to pick everything apart and rebuild it all over again (except better this time, optimized), buuuut... well, by the third time it was mostly just frustrating. 

i'm not sure why i never thought of switching engines until just now - i've always wanted to give Adventure Game Studio a try, and this would've been perfect. 

right now i'm kind of on the fence when it comes to submitting what i do have - it's better than nothing, but i kind of hate it in it's current state, and i'm not sure if that's the best way to end this! maybe i'll just upload the game in the state of the gif above - walk around, stand on the dock, The Good Stuff. not really a game, but maybe what i'm most comfortable with? 

regardless of whether or not i end up submitting anything, i don't feel like this was a waste at all - just wish i'd gone about things differently. i look forward to checking out everyone else's games!

thanks! i definitely want to lean into that vibe more with the gameplay.

 i've been thinking about it, and my initial idea of doing fetch quests (gather x amount of flowers, things like that) feels like it kind of takes away from the concept of befriending the lake monster. instead i want to try to focus more on dialogue - so instead of "hey can you gather x amount of flowers" they could say "i really like flowers", and when you walk into town there's a flower shop with a shopkeeper who might talk about that time the lake monster stole some lunch from a fisherman's boat or something? 

that might be a little too complex, but something similar to that at least

UPDATE #1

before i start, i do want to make sure i mention FriendlyCosmonaut whose tutorials (in combination with Nathan Ranney's posts on amazon) have taught most of what i know about game maker! 

it moves! a lot has changed (from a static image, at least), but since it's still pretty basic i'll just go down the list:

• slightly refined player sprite! i like their lil footsies
• player movement! 
• the beginnings of a custom camera
• the dock! 
  i'm really happy with how this turned out. it's just the camera switching to another target, but i really like how it gives the monster it's own little  "scene" within the room
• super simple room transitions (they're really awkwardly put together, but they work well enough for now)
• added depth (walking in front of/behind the blocks)

WHAT'S NEXT?

while i really want to talk more about gameplay ideas, there's something i feel like i should do before i start making plans:  figure out how to move those blocks between rooms. i do have an idea of how to go about this (give each room it's own "inventory" of sort in the form of a ds_grid, store all relevant instances when leaving the room, then respawn them when the room starts), but it's the transporting of the blocks that i'm afraid might give me some trouble. so that'll probably give me plenty to do tomorrow! 

that's all for now, i think! after that all that's left of the essentials is dialogue, but i think i might put that on hold until i've got some more areas/gameplay sketched out

thank you!! 

hello! i've joined this jam a couple of times in the past, but never managed to find the time. however, i'm on break now, so i'm excited to finally participate for real. i'll be using gamemaker as my engine and photoshop/aseprite for the graphics.

MY GOAL

my main goal is to make something with a beginning and an end. that might be a little weird, but aside from tutorials, the only game i've ever made was a little proof-of-concept thing with a "press X to start" screen slapped onto it at the very last minute. making something with a goal that people can finish would be a pretty big step up.

there's a bunch of other things i'd like to accomplish as well, but i think i want to flesh out my idea a bit more before i start getting carried away.

THE IDEA

honestly, it's pretty simple: you're a kid, and you really, really want to ride on the back of the ancient water monster that lives in the nearby lake. so your goal: befriend them! have a chat, do some favors, maybe give them a present. 

the mock-up above was just a quick one with the default aseprite palette. i want to try to give it sort of a point-and-click aesthetic (to mask the reality of you essentially doing fetch quests).  

couldn't resist messing around with that mock-up some more before posting. i think my next step might be adding some real quick and dirty character movement to try and see how it feels.