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PogoGirl Devlog #6: Springtime Is Here
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.
The Little Things in Games
Developing games is a huge - and some would rightly say insane - undertaking. Even small games can end up being a surprising amount of work, and the end result tends to not reflect the actual project scope during development. The fact that games get finished at all is something of a miracle, to be honest. There are just so many things to consider, so many elements that have to be worked on, so many thingamabobs that have to be kajiggered in order to get a game working right.
PogoGirl Devlog #5: SAGE: Aftermath
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.
PogoGirl Devlog #4: Road to SAGE 2020
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.
Strange Hitboxes Can Make Your Game Better
Let’s play a little game. Which of these following statements have you caught yourself saying when dying in an action game? A Oh come on! That bullet was nowhere near me! This sucks! B Oh come on! My attack phased right through him! This sucks! C Oh come on! That bullet should have killed me! This sucks! I’m willing to bet that you’ve never said C. And the reason for that is obvious: We play games to have fun, and losing isn’t fun.
PogoGirl Devlog #3: Shiny Shiny Gems
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.
PogoGirl Devlog #2: Bouncing Science
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.
PogoGirl Devlog #1: Introducing PogoGirl!
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!
Streets of Rage 2 Design Docs
A few years ago, Yuzo Koshiro posted a pile of old game design documents for Bare Knuckle 2 aka Streets of Rage 2 on the Ancient blog to commemorate the release of Streets of Rage 2 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. These documents gave a deep insight into the game’s inner workings, technical aspects, designs and even some cut content. They were an awesome resource for one of the most awesome games ever created.