Hey all, this is my first devlog!

Today is the release day for the Oculopolis Demo. It's a big day for me because I started programming and making pixel art back in October/November of 2020, which led to the idea to create a 2D game. I was so enthusiastic about programming and making art, I decided that this is what I wanted to do full-time. I was not happy at my job so this to me was the perfect opportunity to try something new. I left my job December 31st, 2020 and have been working on this game and taking time for my mental health. 

This is also the first video game I've ever made outside of practice tutorials on youtube. I started this game in Game Maker Studio 2, but long story short, the engine wasn't intuitive for me so I made the switch to Godot. The game initially was supposed to be a metroidvania with the whole world interconnected and various upgrades and such. I decided to scale it down a few months into the process because I was overwhelming myself and I moved to a more linear shooter format. I was playing a ton of Zelda 2 and Kero Blaster at the time so there was definitely some influence there.

I'm going to share some artwork I made while brainstorming ideas. Keep in mind, this is a 30 year old's artwork and not a 6 year old. I'm not ashamed, I can admit I suck at drawing. 

Idea: King with a bow. Don't know why I was so drawn to this idea. When I sketch or doodle, this is what I end up making so why not bring it to life?

Here is the first iteration of the king in GMS2:

Idea: Enemies were variations of eye balls that would attack you. Not the most original idea, but it was pixel art that I could probably manage since I was a complete newbie. Also, the game was originally called, "The King of Oculopolis." Oculopolis came from brainstorming what an island full of eye ball monsters would be called and it just stuck.

Here's when I switched to Godot. The bow was controlled using the mouse and you could fire in all directions. My first real attempt at tilesets and pixel art.

Idea: Golems as a boss type. Ended up being my driving force for marketing and easy for me to draw and animate.

Idea: Player had a sword and shield as the main weapon and bow as secondary. 

This idea didn't stay in the game because switching weapons from sword/shield to bow was a little bit out of my comfort zone programming wise. Ran into so many bugs I decided to have it bow focused and just a shooter. I want to revisit this idea in the future though because if it weren't for the weapon switching, I liked fighting with a sword.

Added an outline shader to make the world pop a bit more. Kind of a pain at first, but eventually just added it to NPCs, enemies, and the player. 

At this point, around April 2021, the game was finally taking shape and felt like a video game to me. I wanted to add controller support, but getting the bow to control with the right analog stick was too confusing to me. I was defeated after days of researching and experimenting... Then I had the idea while playing Super Metroid, to have the bow in a fixed position and the ability to point up and down. This solved my controller issue and ultimately made it more accessible. 

Fast forward to June, I started a small group to playtest my game. There are things I would have done differently facilitating a playtest, but it was honestly the best thing for my game because I made some vital changes. I worked on tightening up movement, added prone, and ledge grab (don't get me started on the pain in the ass ledge grabbing was for me...this would have to be it's own separate post.)

There's been a lot of frustrating moments and taking days to a week off at a time plus trying to promote on social media has been hard for me. One day, I'd go from deep feelings of regret leaving my job to pursue game dev then another day feeling very accomplished, fulfilled, excited, and motivated. I've learned and accepted that as a game developer, not every day is going to be productive or better. In reality, there's been a lot of times where I had to take steps back to move this project forward.

Overall, I'm really happy with how the game feels and plays and I'm ready to continue developing and improve my art and programming.