Devlog 1: Getting started with core systems!

How does one sprint? How does one work in an organized manner? Some people just know, while others have to learn 🤗.

Sprint goal

This sprint, we focused on implementing the core managers, along with the dreaded documentation 😵. We expected some hiccups along the way since everyone is getting used to a more structured workflow, but we believe it’s important to do things right from the start, it’ll save us all time in the long run!

Progress summary

We managed to get most of the core systems working! Here's what we've achieved so far:

• A modular and easy-to-use event system
• The beginnings of the game and player manager
• Basic UI elements
• A reload animation around the crosshair
• Enemy systems! Tim has been working hard on 2D enemy navigation and has made some really cool progress.

Besides this, we've also started documenting our systems (some more than others, cough), and we've created diagrams to explain how things work, check out the pictures below!

Things are moving slower than in a chaotic game jam, but this time, we’re aiming for something maintainable and somewhat good practice! (Or at least, good enough that future us won’t hate past us.)

Showcase

Here’s a sneak peek at our very early enemy movement system! Right now:

• The enemy patrols between set points.
• If the player enters the enemy’s field of view, it starts chasing them.
• If the player escapes, the enemy searches the area for a while before returning to patrol mode.

Very neat! (And slightly terrifying for the player, but that’s the goal, right?)

Other than this everyone has made good steady progress in core elements of our game!

Challenges

The biggest challenge this sprint hasn’t been the code itself, but rather the organization around it. We’re all great at getting things done quickly, but it’s been harder to consistently follow good coding practices and standards.

The actual coding hasn’t been too tricky yet, since we’re just laying the foundation. We’ve been good at defining system requirements beforehand, so the implementation has been pretty straightforward.

By doing pull requests (PRs) before committing, we make sure to catch standardization errors before they cause headaches. And of course, we gently yell at each other when someone forgets something. 🤗

Big change 2D vs 3D

At the end of the sprint, we had a major discussion: should we stick with 2D or switch to 3D?

The team felt that we could better express ourselves and create a more immersive experience if we moved to a 2.5D/3D style. After some back and forth, we agreed to make the switch!

This change will require adjusting a lot of code, but since we’re doing it early, it’s much better to do now than later.

With 3D, we hope to create cooler effects and make our game stand out more. For prototyping, we’ll be using a Synth prototype bundle to get started.

Next Sprint Goals

We’re excited to share more as we move into more interesting aspects of development. These first few sprints might seem like the “boring” part of game development, but getting them right now will save us from drowning in spaghetti code later.

Big tasks for next sprint:

• The conversion to 3D—luckily, we’re doing this early, but it’ll still take time to adjust everything.
• Continuing work on core systems, mainly the game and enemy mechanics.
• Funding! Two of us will be spending a lot of time trying to secure funding so we can hire talented artists to make our game look amazing.

Of course, with funding comes a ton of paperwork... Budgeting, timelines, product descriptions, CVs, company documents... Please keep us in your next prayer. 🙏

Thanks for reading!

If you think we’re missing something in these devlogs, let us know, and we’ll do our best to include it next time!

make sure to follow our progress on[Itch],[YouTube] and/or[Bluesky]!

Have a great day! 🚀