Might have an idea for #FediJam 🤔 No details for now as I still have to think a bit more about how to approach it, but it would fit the topic nicely 😊

Ok, so here's a rough sketch of my current idea for #FediJam.

It's a puzzle game.

You are a rain god in training and need to help your folk to get enough - but not too much! - rain on their fields. Each level consists of a field with rain requirements that you need to cover with a number of (Tetris shaped) rain clouds with varying rain amounts. In later levels that will also require overlapping clouds.

Needs some more fleshing out, but that's the current pitch.

Spent some hours today on getting my brain back into Godot & figuring out how to implement grid based drag'n'drop. Consider the art still being placeholders (shoutout to @kenney for the awesome pixel assets!).

Still need to work out UI and UX - currently not sure how best to solve that the clouds will make it more tricky to see how much rain the field needs. Also still need to add the rain requirements & of course so much more. But hey, it's a start!

#FediJam

I think going with 16x16px for the fields below and clouds being on a 16x5=80px grid makes it clearer we are in the clouds and that the fields are down there.

Easy change!

Need to see what I can get done today without getting in the way of recharging, the last week was full of coding already, plus some stuff on top that cost energy...

#FediJam

Phew, that was a lot of work today on my #FediJam game, but now I actually have the basic gameplay implemented!

I can now load a level from a definition in a json file, create the field from that and spawn the clouds (though they still spawn all at (0,0), that still needs some thinking), and also detect when the goal is reached (though the rain requirements are not yet visualized).

That's progress!

UI's obviously not remotely final, I just wanted to visualize the detected solution somewhat ^^

Tried my hand at a custom tileset for the first time ever. Nothing amazing, but I think it works. And I added some sheep 🐑😊

Also, the game now got a better working title which also might end up being the final title (I'm not 100% sure yet): Cloud Shepherd.

And now I really need to get myself away from the PC and into bed, it's way too late 😬

#FediJam

Baaaaaah 🐑😊

Ngl, while these sheep are only meant as decoration, I've totally fallen in love with them now 😅

#FediJam

Now the sheep also have a guard dog (thanks @janinahimmen for the suggestion :D) and I've finally added some rain requirements! Also rescaled the clouds to a 48x48px grid to ensure a 6x6 playing field fits into a height of 360px, for better scaling of the game across various resolutions, did some further work on the tileset, added some baby sheep too, and probably a bunch of stuff I forgot...

Still a ton to do but I'm having fun!

#FediJam

Close-up of the sheep and their very alert guard dog. Woof woof! Baaaaah!

Yes, those details are a ton of fun, even though they add NOTHING to gameplay itself 😅

#FediJam

Less progress on my #FediJam game the past few days thanks to work, but as of now there are now also some trees and water with regards to decoration (that's all also still going to get randomized in patterns), and the clouds now spawn somewhere on the screen instead of just in the upper left corner. I still have to optimize that code and iron out some bugs, but at least it's doing something.

The fence assets also got some update and look less flat now. So far I'm enjoying doing pixel art! :)

Not much to show for it yet, but I spent quite some time during the weekend on creating more UI assets, working on some issues in the code, finally implementing proper cloud spawning, preparing menus, adding some first SFX etc.

Currently a lot of loose parts that are slowly starting to come together.

I've also read some posts and one paper on polyomino tiling 😬

#FediJam

More ground work on my #FediJam game... Level selection is now working (I still need to connect things up with the json files and the level renderer, but the pagination logic is there and the buttons are dynamically attached to specific levels), I figured out how to make the fonts look better, several UX improvements etc.

Next steps are a basic main menu, level start, wiring up the UI elements, in short, bringing the pieces together.

And then SFX, some juice, and lots of levels.

Cloud Shepard now has artisanal sound effects! 😂

Lovingly handcrafted by yours truly 🤭

#FediJam

Lots and lots of detail work, pixelarting, desparing over bugs, experimenting, ...

Things are really starting to come together now for Cloud Shepherd!

Fun fact: I spent hours trying to find a font for the title that I would be happy. In the end I used my (new 😬) graphic tablet to just write it myself 😅

#FediJam

It works on my Deck! 😄

#FediJam

The evening was spent on implementing a dialog thingy, to hopefully allow for an actual tutorial.

Also: Welcome to Nimbus, the trainer of our Rain God in training! Their portrait is obviously still a placeholder, my first attempts at creating some art for there were a catastrophe 🙈 I need to watch some more videos on how to do that properly.

#FediJam

Ok, a first public preview of Cloud Shepherd is now up at https://foosel.itch.io/cloud-shepherd ! 😬

Consider the levels only a demo (I focused on architecture and such so far, not on level design), and keep in mind this is really just an early preview, lots of work still.

But if you want to give the concept a try, now you can! Please be gentle 😅

#FediJam

Cloud Shepherd by Gina Häußge

A cozy puzzle game where you herd the clouds to make it rain

itch.io

Most of the day once more spent on working on the #Fedijam project, I just uploaded the latest build of Cloud Shepherd to https://foosel.itch.io/cloud-shepherd

There are now 15 levels (that still need some balancing, especially 10 and 15 make myself go 🤔 now 😅), the dialog thingy now reacts to the mouse button as well and also visualizes more that it's waiting for you, the levels now get randomized decoration so things always look a tad different, and some results of bug hunting are in there too ^^

Cloud Shepherd by Gina Häußge

A cozy puzzle game where you herd the clouds to make it rain

itch.io

I’ve finally managed to figure out how to get multi touch recognized, and so rotation of the clouds is now also possible with a simple two finger tap. Which means this game can now be played on mobile, and I apologize in advance for the effect this might have on people’s productivity 😅

In other news, I think I finally fixed the bug where rotating a cloud above another one would under certain circumstances rotate both.

#FediJam

And I used the chance yesterday night to record my own rain sample, so all sound effects are now by your’s truly! 😊

Btw… you might want to try petting the dog or the sheep 😉

The latest update is live at https://foosel.itch.io/cloud-shepherd

And now I really need to switch to work, this "one hour to figure out touch input" escalated a bit 🙈

Cloud Shepherd by Gina Häußge

A cozy puzzle game where you herd the clouds to make it rain

itch.io

Nimbus finally has a proper portrait 😉

In other news, apparently the multitouch gesture for rotating (two finger touch) doesn't seem to be working under iOS Safari... or at least it doesn't on my partner's iPhone. And neither on a buddy's iPad. HMPF. Will need to find a solution for that.

Everything works just fine on my Android mobile devices 🤷

#FediJam

I might at least have a solution after implementing my own input mapping...

Short single tap to rotate, longer (above 200ms) held tap/click to drag. Seems to work well, might require some more visualization though (no mini clouds on rotate maybe, only on drag)

I will probably only enable that input mode for ios devices though, or make it a flag in the settings (with auto detection), because I don't like it as much as the other input scheme tbh.

The latest build build of Cloud Shepherd is up & it comes with a whole bunch of fixes, including a different touch control mode when iOS is detected which can also be switched on in the settings - short tap to rotate, long press to enable dragging.

The proper version of Nimbus is now also in there 😊 + a ton of fixes and improvements and polish.

So many evenings spent on this game already, but I really want to do my best here 😬

As always, you can play it here: https://foosel.itch.io/cloud-shepherd

#FediJam

Cloud Shepherd by Gina Häußge

A cozy puzzle game where you herd the clouds to make it rain

itch.io
Btw, there were also two other variants of Nimbus that I created as a joke with a buddy while working on the final version of our friendly neighbourhood cloud ^^

Only some (not yet pushed) progress today, created some visuals about how the control works for the settings, to hopefully also make it clear how the two touch control options are different.

Apart from that it's a couch evening.. The weather today is really headache heavy.

#FediJam

@foosel Do you have an image that could be used as the desktop icon?
@foosel I love the sounds effects when rotating clouds!
@foosel thanks! Great fun, even if my eyes aren’t quite up to playing on my phone screen!

@foosel Would this work on a #Prusa #MK3S, or would some degree of modification be required to get the accelerometer data?

I'm in a holding pattern if I should get a new printer, continue to use OctoPrint, and or upgrade my mk3s.

I love octoprint and would love to use it on my next printer too.

@foosel I love Nimbus! :D Looks very friendly!
@blinry I'm surprising myself with my newly discovered pixel skills XD
@foosel Does‘t work on iOS 17.6.1
Which is sad because it looks like fun.
@nblr I'll look into a solution. Annoying though. It works fine even in Firefox on Android (which is surprisingly picky with this stuff), but Safari of course needs to be different once more.
@foosel Rotating just the last piece touched when clicking on the rotate arrow might be a useful solution. Rotating all pieces didn’t help me much.

@nblr that's not the rotate arrow, that's the "reset the clouds to outside the field and start again" button 😅

But maybe it *should* be the rotate arrow instead...

@foosel Being able to pet the dog is a 10/10 feature all games should have.

@foosel

Booo, all my plans for work went out of the window, and I'm *still* stuck on levels 10 and 15! 😩

But seriously, love the game, and all the little touches like petting the dog and sheep are simply 👩‍🍳👌

@foosel apologies accepted ;-)
Great game, and thanks for sharing!
@foosel
Was ist das für ein tablet?
Und Entschuldigung ist angekommen... Ich habe gerade gelben Zettel und hänge hart in den Seilen - daher danke ❤️

@blackcoffeerider Ein 5 Jahre altes Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. Tut noch gut, und ist Wacom kompatibel ^^

Und gute Besserung!

@foosel
Danke - ich bin aber gerade echt nicht in der Lage die gekachtelten Level hin zu kriegen... Hab meine S. O. angefixt und sie sagt "gut gemacht! Insbesondere die Schafe und der Hund sind super cute! Frag Sie (Dich) bitte ob sie dann das nächste Spiel nur mit denen machen kann?" 😅
Bei dem nächsten game hätte ich gerne ein making off insbesondere bei der sound Produktion 🥰
@foosel
Aber du hast es nicht als APK sondern im Browser am laufen oder?
Ich glaube ich denke gerade generell zu kompliziert...

@blackcoffeerider Ja, im Browser! Das da war sogar noch n lokaler Test (gegen meinen Laptopdirekt), aber was auch itch.io ist sollte genauso gut funktionieren.

Nur auf iPad und Co gibt's leider noch Probleme, aber ich sollte heute gegen Abend auch dafür eine Lösung haben hoffe ich. Muss noch neue Settings bauen dafür.

Und danke für das Lob, ich werde mal gucken, was sich mit Hund&Schafen noch anstellen lässt in Zukunft ^^

Grobes Making-Of hattest du ja schon gefunden: https://chaos.social/@foosel/113194272808811841

Gina Häußge (@[email protected])

@C3Casi The music is the only thing I can't take credit for here :D You should have seen me in front of my mic... *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop*.... *woosh* *woooosh* *woosh* .... *BAAAAAAAH* ... *WOOF WOOF*

chaos.social

@foosel 9 also gave me a lot of trouble.

I skipped 10 for now and 11 starts by telling me "phew, well done!"

@foosel this is extremely cozy and if there were more levels after 15 I'd to be playing for several hours

@emily The code is there to support way more levels, it just boils down to placing level definitions in a directory. For the jam I might leave it at those 15 though and rather spend the time I have left on bug fixing and some more game juice (e.g. a better end then just "no more next button")

Glad you like it :)

@foosel Awesome achievement! I really like the whole idea, and how you did it. Just tried playing on mobile Safari, and it basically works - I just don’t have right mouse button to rotate the clouds. Would you consider rotating on single tap / click?

@agoeb Something like this is on the list of things to look into, but I also still need to take care of some bugs and such and only have this week left before the jam ends 😅

I'll see what I can do though!

@agoeb This is now working, with a two finger tap though :) Update is live.

@foosel Quite fun!

Small issue: sometimes the tutorial banner at the bottom hides fields or clouds.

@foosel Thanks for sharing It's cute and working my laptop touch screen.

@foosel

Oh wow, that is already so much fun to play, and looks and sounds great (I was wondering if those sound effects were you, and am pleased to find out they are).

My only minor suggestion is: could the tutorial banner progress/close on mouse click as well (rather than just space bar)?

Other than that, absolutely brilliant stuff! 🐑

@foosel
Had a look on my phone, I think if you enable rotation on a double tap on a smatphone it should work. And having it on a touch screen is fun!

Also no way to move the text foward, perhaps by tapping on the text window.

@guysoft @foosel
👆This.
Plus: I like the idea very much. Looking forward for the result.

@Flow_Grisu @guysoft Text forwarding already works by tapping space, but yes, that's not documented yet 😅 The plan was to still add a jumping arrow or something that can also be clicked, and also reacting to the mouse button there, but we had a BBQ appointment today so I didn't get around to that yet 😬

I'm also still hoping I'll be able to add controller support, but first I have to take care of some bugs and level design, plus the above of course.

@foosel You might want to add a (slight) random pitch shift to the text sound, so it sounds less like a machine gun going wild, hehe.

Shaping up nicely, by the way. Looking forward to playing it! :)

@foosel Love the art style, Gina!
@foosel are you going to record the sound for that as well? Seems you got the script already layed out for the sheep and the dog 🤣🤣😀
@DJGummikuh Nah, I'll try to find/create some better assets XD Maybe...
@foosel oh wow, these are adorable!