Last week, my weekly sprint report detailed how much time I spent trying to create art myself that ended up looking pretty mediocre, with a promise that I wouldn’t spend so much time doing so going forward.
Sprint 2: Basic navigation for all Freshly Squeezed games
- Start new game
- Options lets player see credits
- Create menu screen background art
- Create options menu screen background art
While I had time off from the day job, I also found myself preparing for the holidays. I managed to make time to work on game development between wrapping presents, eating cookies, and preparing a meal for Christmas Eve, but my priorities were definitely not on putting together a Freshly Squeezed game.
What I did accomplish was finishing up the simple art and buttons for the main menu screens. I unfortunately did not do anything to get a playable game implemented yet.
I created the basic menu structure that all Freshly Squeezed games will use going forward. I hate second-guessing myself, though. Did I spend too much time making a menu for a game instead of a game?
It’s not as if I spent too much time making a generic menu system. I already had a menu system I coded a long time ago. And it isn’t as if I was perfecting details that didn’t need to be done.
But perhaps I could have worried about that menu once I had a game I could release, or even after release. The second Freshly Squeezed game won’t be made until this one is released, so in terms of prioritizing the work, I probably could have worried about the menu later.
But last sprint is done, and I can focus on game play in the next one.
I have already started working on creating simple conveyor belts, reminding myself that they don’t need to look beautiful so that I don’t spend too much time on them. I tried to finding conveyor belt art on sites such as OpenGameArt.org, but the few I found were very tiny or the wrong perspective.
So I made this, with four frames of animation so it is clear which direction it is going. This will actually make up two different sprites: the left and right sides of a conveyor belt, with a middle section being a third piece I still need to create.
Perhaps I could put an arrow on it to make it clearer since it is meant to be seen as a still frame most of the time due it the game being turn-based.
I don’t know how much time I will have to work on this project this week. My wife has already indicated that she wants some house projects to get done during the break. But I hope that by the next report I finally can show off some simple game play.
Thanks for reading!
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