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

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 ^^

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 🙈