Dev Log 00

Hello there!

I wanted to start making Dev logs for BloodSpiller but I thought I'd start off by giving a little backstory on me, the game, and my plans between now and release!

Inspiration:

At a glance it seems like the inspiration is obvious, and for the most part it is!

As a classic 90s kid, I grew up playing all the classic platform games, my favorites being Super Castlevania IV, Mega-man X, Super Mario World, as well as a more then healthy love for horror movies.

There's also a healthy dose from the series SplatterHouse, another retro 2D side-scrolling horror game about saving your girlfriend, which also had an entry in the 2010's which had a "kill enemies to refill health" mechanic I really enjoyed.

On top of all of these, I wanted to add a layer of humor to the game through the dialogue to add some extra fun to the game.

Making Games:

My desire to make games is equally as old, having spent countless hours in the early versions of Game Maker, as well as various versions of Unity, Unreal. I even focused my career around programming, in the hopes that one day I'd be able to use those skills to create a game of my own.

After years of messing around, multiple half baked prototypes, I discovered Godot and after seeing a set of Castlevania style tilesets for sale on Itch.io, I decided to give it a solid try.

Scope:

First and foremost, having now spent several years in software development and maintenance, I understand the danger of scope creep and feature dreams inflating a game.

My goal is to release small, complete games that don't require years of bake time but are still fun and engaging to play.

So far, this what I have in mind.

- 10-15 levels: I don't want them to be super long, enough that you could see the end and think "I could do better". I'm doing it "Sonic Style" where there's two "Stages" within each level, with a boss at the end of the second stage.

- Power ups: I know I want to have some sort of upgrade system, probably a combination of timed pickups and permanent upgrades such as extra damage, faster fire-rate, more health regeneration for killing monsters, etc. Still working out the fine details of that.

- Secrets, Achievements, and Unlockables: One of my favorite things about both Indie Games and Retro gaming is the speed running/ completion-ist communities. I want to give the players as much information about their run, secrets to find, and even possibly difference player skins to unlock. I'll also be adding a heap of Steam achievements as well!

What's Next?:

Right now my main goal is finishing any of the more complex systems and making sure that I won't run into a wall adding something later on.

There's still a few bugs in the projectile trails I need to fix and some other small things with the collisions to make sure everything runs smoothly at scale.

I have an artist working on some custom tilesets for me that I'm REALLY excited about! I absolutely love pixel art and having some made just for this is like a dream come true.

I want to have a demo together in time for NextFest in the spring, so I want to polish the first level I have as much as possible so I can get it out and start getting some feed back from everyone!

If you've read this far I appreciate your time and I look forward to sharing more in the future! I'll try to do these at least once a week to give everyone some insight on how things are going. I'll also be streaming working on the game most days on my Twitch page.

-DGG