Bounce away the cold!

It’s like the swinging 60s in here!

Spin those platforms right round, baby!

It’s been a while since the last devlog, hasn’t it? Well, no time like the present to get back into it!

The Steam store page for Go! Go! PogoGirl is now live!

In the previous two devlogs I’ve talked about the changes I’ve implemented in Go! Go! PogoGirl based on player feedback. And now there’s another one…a big one. I’ve already mentioned how the positive player reaction to the demo has motivated me to take this game further than I had originally intended. And now I can tell you what I meant by that: Go! Go! PogoGirl is coming to Steam! Yes, shocker, a PC game is coming to Steam.

A new version of the Go! Go! PogoGirl demo has now been uploaded! I originally didn’t intend to update the demo, but I have changed a few major mechanics in the game that made the old version a bit too outdated for my liking. Changelog You can now twirl (almost) anytime. You can now stomp (almost) anytime. Stomping at the very peak of your jump will result in a super stomp.

The Go! Go! PogoGirl demo has been out for over a week now, and I want to thank each and every one of you who has given it a shot. I really appreciate it!

The latest Go! Go! PogoGirl demo has arrived! Check it out!

We all know that PogoGirl’s got the moves, and now she’s got a brand new one! And you’ll get to try it out very soon…

I’ve been working hard on Go! Go! PogoGirl, and I think it’s time you all get to play it! Well, at least a bit of it. That’s why I’m releasing a new demo!

Seasons change, even in Go! Go! PogoGirl. I’ve already shown you spring and summer, so let’s take a look at fall next! Fall is where things cool down after a hot summer, where the leaves turn that nice brown color and cover the ground. Things become a bit gloomy, but in a good way. I’ve tried to recreate this in Go! Go! PogoGirl. The red sky adds a sense of twilight, while also signaling that you’ve entered the second half of the game, where things are about to get serious.

A platformer game needs some platforms, so let’s look at some of the platforms you’ll encounter in Go! Go! PogoGirl! First up, we have the Countdown Platforms. These can be bounced on a total of three times; on the third bounce they drop out of the stage. They change color with each bounce, so you’ll know when to get away. Since they’re pretty stable, you can both stomp on them and charge up a high jump!

Last time I mentioned that I was doing levels for Go! Go! PogoGirl and that I changed my Tiled setup to make the process easier. Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve now made all levels in the game! While I do enjoy making levels quite a lot, it’s a very tricky thing to get right. Good level design is an art. And while I don’t consider myself an artist in that regard (or any other regard, actually), I thought I’d share my process of building the levels for Go!

A game has many facets, and developing a game is like climbing a range of different mountains simultaneously. I’ve worked on several different things in the past few weeks—water effects, powerups, HUD elements—but there is one major aspect of the game that I haven’t touched in quite a while. Levels. Yeah, sometimes you get caught up in all the coding and designing and pixel arting that you forget about other major parts of the game.

Powerups are a staple of video gaming, and platformers had some of the best around. Sonic’s elemental shields, Mario’s mushroom, Kid Chameleon’s transforming helmets…there’s a lot of good stuff in there. It seemed obvious to put powerups into Go! Go! PogoGirl as well, but for a long time, I wasn’t quite sure what to put in. Powerups need to enhance and support the gameplay; you can’t just throw in anything you want.

Gamedev includes a lot of fun activities, such as messing with physics, making lasers go pew and making stuff explode. However, there is also a lot of dry stuff that you have to take care of. And I’m taking care of that stuff right now, because…well, because I’ll have to eventually! First of all, I’ve modified the menus a bit. So far I’ve been using my own solution to create menus, and while it was a bit hacky, it worked pretty well.

It’s been a while, but I’m back in style! After spending a few frantic weeks finishing my Master’s thesis, I’m back in the pogo-saddle. So, it’s time for an update!

After all the shader shenanigans I needed a break and decided to work on something less technical and more gameplay-related: Enemies!

Last time I put water into the game. Now I made the water better!

Remember in the last post when I announced that each season would have its own unique stage gimmick? Well…here’s one!

If you’ve beaten the SAGE2020 demo of Go! Go! PogoGirl then you will already know a tidbit that I hadn’t really made public until then: Go! Go! PogoGirl will feature 4 seasons to play through! In this devlog I’d like to talk a little bit about the idea behind that and what you can expect. Seasons will basically act as worlds. This means that each season will have a set of completely unique levels, it’s not the same levels over and over with a different visual style.

SAGE has come and gone, and I’m still reeling from how quickly it all happened. I guess the only thing to do is to pick through the rubble and try to make sense of everything! First off, I knew from the beginning that Go! Go! PogoGirl wouldn’t set SAGE on fire. It’s the Sonic Amateur Games Expo after all, and people mainly want to play Sonic games. Hell, I used to mainly want to play Sonic games.

On September 5th 2020 the virtual doors of the Sonic Amateur Games Expo will open for the 20th time, and Go! Go! PogoGirl will be a part of it! If you haven’t heard yet, I will publish a public demo of the game for everyone to try out. Naturally this is very exciting for me (and I hope for you too) but naturally, this also means work. A lot of work.

Collectibles are as much a part of platformers as actual platforms. Whether it’s Sonic’s rings, Mario’s coins or Banjo’s notes, it seems like platformer worlds don’t have littering laws because these things are everywhere. And that’s good, because it’s really fun to collect them and sometimes they even help you out. Extra life, anyone? So of course Go! Go! PogoGirl will also have collectibles. After some thinking I settled on gems, because…I dunno, they look pretty and sparkly and coins are pretty overdone.

When you have a player character that should always bounce, a couple of obvious questions present themselves: How should they bounce? How high should they bounce? How quickly should they bounce? Questions like that form the basis of the entire gameplay concept, so it’s very important to tackle them as early as possible…even if you’ll often end up tackling them a few more times before the game ships. Here are the answers I’ve worked out for now.

Welcome to the first post of my new Go! Go! PogoGirl devlog! Here I’ll post long-form updates on the development of Go! Go! PogoGirl, sharing my experiences, crying about the bugs I encounter, and more. Developing a game is a journey, and it’s more fun when you can drag people along with you. Stay away from the radio though; I pick the music. Okay, so let’s start off by explaining what Go!