Hey yall, I’m back, haven’t died yet! >w>
I was serious when I said I probably wouldn’t get much done last month, so I don’t have much of a progress report this time.
As someone suggested, I slightly increase the speed of walking, jumping, rushing, etc. I also threw in a quick run mechanic, and although it’s fun to run through the old levels, I’m a little skeptical of this addition. There’s a possibility I’ll remove it, but regardless of if I do or not, I’m going to try to design levels better and rely on the run mechanic as little as possible.
That’s it for December, as for the past two days, I began work on the new Autumn level. A good chunk of time was just me zoning out and figuring the level layout in my head, but I think I’m getting somewhere with it. Considering how spacious I made the previous levels, I’m trying to downsize this one a little bit. I just hope I am not over-correcting and making the level too cramped.
So I don’t know if I’ve said this already, but my hope is to have a sort of demo put together and out by the middle of March, since around that time would be the one-year mark of when game development for Bloatland began. I’ve got a big ol’ list of things I’m going to start chipping away at these next three months. I don’t know if this goal is overambitious, but I feel like it’s a good thing to aim towards, since Bloatland has been in this early stage for a really long time now.
Anyways, that’s that, hope you all had a great New Years and holidays. I’m personally feeling really good about this year, and I’m hoping I can accomplish a lot in 2026.
Random suggestion for when the game is in a much more complete state, or whenever your comfortable, but maybe there could be some type of sandbox where we could make our own levels and stuff?
As cool as that would be, I don’t think it’ll end up happening. A sandbox level creator isn’t really something I planned on putting into the game, and there is just way too much on my plate for this project that have a much higher priority.
Made a little more progress this week. I think I got the main section of the level laid out, all I got left is to figure something out for the offshoot areas. I also got two pretty big environmental mechanics implemented, they’re both basically just moving platforms, but I think it adds a lot to the new level.
I am seeing that we’re almost halfway through January and I’m worrying a little lmao. I didn’t think laying out a level would take this long, but I guess when you actually sit down and think really hard about every little aspect of your level design, that’s how it’s gonna be.
I’m hoping to have a build out by the end of January at the latest, but honestly I was hoping to have it out sooner. I’ve still got a ton to do, and I’m just hoping that three months is enough time to get it all done. >~>
Hey, no worries! A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is bad forever.
Not sure if a “worth the weight” joke is too cliche for this forum, but I’m sure the game will be worth it. Take your time and don’t burn yourself out, we’ll be here whenever you’re ready.
Yeah I don’t think I’m gonna meet that January deadline lmao. Since my last post two weeks ago, I’ve gotten sick twice, and have been spending all my free time on unrelated art stuff. In short, I haven’t touched the Bloatland project at all the past two weeks. >~>
I know a lot of my discouragement right now is being caused by flu brain or whatever, so once I kick it and feel better, I’m hoping to get back to work on it and have something out in February. I do appreciate what people said, because this is definitely the time for me to hear that it’s ok to delay projects and take care of yourself, I think I would’ve really beaten myself up otherwise.
Sorry for the news, or lack of, I’m hoping to get back in the swing of things soon.
I try to think about that initial burst of motivation at the start of a project – it’s reproducible. For me, it is reproduced when I love life and do not force myself. My default mode in health is to do hard work, so this works out.
There’s truth that if we never work on it, it will never be done. We navigate by our bodies, which demand sleep every 16ish hours. It’s reasonable to imagine it demands a longer rest over longer periods.
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Yeah definitely, I agree! I’m trying to do better about not forcing myself to work on certain things when I’m not feeling up to it, and I think in this case it worked out, because I’m now getting excited again about working on this project after taking a long break.
0.1.7 is finally up, with a new and improved Autumn level!
Summary
A new, rough level has been added, Autumn V2. Includes all three Acts
Logs and Minecarts have been implemented
Villagers have been tweaked, and can now throw held objects
The input method of performing a ground pound has been changed to simply holding down while in the air
Continuing to hold the attack button during a rush will make the player run
The player’s horizontal speed is now slightly faster
A bump hitbox has been added to players head
Slight adjustments have been made to Mountill’s boss fight
Better camera movement and door transitions have been added (still needs work)
Other adjustments and bugfixes
A very big guy owo
I think this new rendition of the first level is a good improvement, although there are still some sections I’m not sure about, and may change depending on peoples feedback.
It’s still a little rough, so I’m hoping to begin working on some of the art and polish, as well as continue improving the level design and game mechanics where ever I can. Add a tutorial too.
Thanks for waiting and understanding, and just sticking around for so long. <3
-The camera being a bit more smooth feels really nice! Adds a little something that I didn’t even realize was missing, if that makes sense. I’m not super sure how to phrase it properly.
-The very big guy is adorable. No further notes on him
-Not sure how I feel about the ground pound just being holding down now. I don’t think it’s a bad change, but it’s one I’m probably gonna need some time to adjust to.
Everything else either functions fine enough to not be worth mentioning or I didn’t really get to experiment with. New Autumn doesn’t exactly give you long stretches of nothing to make use of the new run.
Yeah I feel the same way, I didn’t realize the camera needed those little touches until I already implemented them!
I figured some people would feel iffy about the simplification of Googals moveset in general, and it’s definitely something I’ve been trying to be careful about to avoid over-simplifying her. That’s why I’m curious to see if people end up liking the simplified ground pound after getting used to it, or if people end up feeling like it’s inferior to the old ground pound. I know someone was recently asking about where the backflip went, which got me pondering again about if these changes to the moveset I’ve been making a good ideas or not, so I’m interested in if others think these changes were good ideas.
That’s fair, I kinda just threw in all of the solutions I had at once for the pacing problem, the run mechanic and the downsizing of future levels, which both ended up conflicting with each other. I always viewed the run as a crutch for existing pacing problems, and didn’t want to rely on it too much. However, due to how much I’ve been using it and how fun it is, I wonder if I need to take the run more seriously as a part of Googal’s moveset. I’m also worrying about the new level being too cramped and overlapping, so now I’m looking into slightly expanding and adjusting the level design. I just wanna see what more people thing of what’s here currently before making any more drastic changes.
Sorry for the brain dump lmao, I like talking about this stuff. >w>
VERY cool map, though I ended up having issues with one pesky villager in the water transformation room really close to the chief because the water makes you drop the item, and the villager just keeps picking up said item and tossing it around, making you have to finick around to try and pick it up. They’re too cute to stay mad at though so I persevere…
Dunno if they can just freely enter and exit rooms and that was just a really unlucky incident, but it was still funny nonetheless.
I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think I ever playtested that room after giving Villagers the ability to throw objects lmao. That’s a really funny flaw to discover through!
So with how the code is set up, basically anything can “exit” when they touch the dedicated area, that’s how you get the honeycombs out of the building, and by extension, anything else that walks or is thrown into the exit area. Enemies and objects cannot enter doors that require player input to enter though.
So I’ve been playing with the idea of giving Googal a slight redesign, mostly clothing, with a few very tiny changes on the body. Wanted to have a more appealing design, without over complicating it too much where it becomes difficult to draw repeatedly. Also, using both clothes and body design, I wanted to make each body part a little more distinguishable, to hopefully help make manipulating and expanding her body easier to work with, as well as just make it a little more readable for the player of what is what.
I’m personally leaning towards the right one, I feel like it fits her best. I got rid of the boots since I felt they were to difficult to draw consistently, also I don’t think anyone minds seeing a little more skin.
Also I was thinking about returning to my “Swallowed by a fish” idea for the WaterBalloon transformation, since movement doesn’t make sense anymore and it is just way too similar to the Blimp Transformation. I think my only issue was that I wanted Googal to be more present with the fish idea, so I picked a middle ground and went with this sort of mermaid form, where some aquatic creature swallowed her lower half.
I definitely agree that the third one looks best overall! I would maybe swap the gloves and headband with the ones from the second outfit, though. They’re both a bit small and hard to make out, and I’m worried they won’t show up well in a platformer game that’s zoomed out by nature. Also, that belt needs to visibly restrict their growth and/or snap at some point. I don’t think you’re legally allowed to have characters with prominent fasteners on their clothing in WG/inflation media and not have them pop off.
Yeah that makes sense, I may do the longer gloves and headband then!! Also yeah I haven’t thought of that with the belt, I’m gonna have to figure out how the belt affects the transformations, and when it pops off. So I’ll have to experiment with that too!
