#1 for Creativity!

First of all, thank you to everyone. The rankings came in for the Godot 2 MB or Less Jam, and this one is:

• #1 for Creativity
• #4 for Programming
• #6 Overall
• #6 for Aesthetics
• #7 for Controls

My Creativity ranking is a great honor to me. The programming was honestly a bit rushed and in my own humble opinion, inadequately commented; but #4 for twelve entries isn't bad either. My Overall and Aesthetics rankings are also a great honor to me, as the whole idea in this was to keep it as slim as possible and I didn't spend a lot of time sprucing it up.

All things considered, this is a project which I will be continuing to add features to. Additionally, since the jam is no longer in effect, I may also be adding some more detailed textures and sounds. One judge/reviewer described the game as being "like a shadow theater, but in color", which is a nice effect. Most of my animations, as you can see in the available (and effectively frozen) source file, are based on sinusoidals and controlled noise.

The procedural sound generator could easily be spruced up a bit, but I like the feel it gives the game. The game could definitely use some music, and I am sitting in a small sound studio right now, so that's happening. I'm also anticipating taking the 8-bit sound and expanding it to 16-bit, partially to improve quality and partially as a learning exercise with Godot. Whether I end up going with straight MIDI through the procedural sound generator, or just using an OGG file, remains to be determined. (There's just too much noise in my life right now to make a decision on it.) I'm aiming for a Mario/Zelda/Bomberman/Metroid kind of feel for it. It got us through the 80s, it should still work pretty well today.

Where graphics go, I do kind of like how small I kept things. I want to continue with that. Expansion is inevitable, but as we go above 2 MB I expect there to be roughly twenty times the amount of content in the game. New animals, better guidance to the wildlife, new materials, liquids, you name it. Additionally, I think we're in need of a better UI, like something to let you know which tool you're using without having to deploy it first. (Time constraints had me skipping it for now.) Lastly, shaders aren't a bad idea here, as they accomplish a lot in a short amount of source code.

Finally, I'm looking for feedback on controls. They're clearly going to be a long-term effort to improve. Any feedback I get on why they're an issue to people is valuable to me, and will be considered—just drop it in the comments. It's a recipe for disaster to insist on always being the champion; but that says nothing of wanting to produce a clean and working product. That's just customary. I know that animal guidance can be improved, they're currently pretty afraid of the sky, a little less afraid of the bottom of the map, and bloody terrified of RC cars with sticks of dynamite on them. I have an exponential function for their choice of direction which depends on a configurable exponent, which I call the paranoia parameter. Some of their guidance is based on the same kind of Collective Intelligence algorithms that Amazon and Pandora use, just with consumers replaced by tiles. I could probably buff that a little too; but I'm not really sure how yet.

As some of you know, this is part of a maybe six-game-long sequence I do called the "Stand Up Series". This is the first time it's been this public, but it's kind of how I play test different ideas in front of the public, and determine which ones to pursue. I've got maybe three more before I start expanding on the best ones. Those projects are going to take priority before I come back to this one, as I've been cleverly using jams to time myself. The next one is, hopefully, a relatively-short Metroidvania. (No spoilers on what it's called or about, sorry.) I actually have a lengthy task list of game ideas that came to me at points throughout the day, which this was pulled from. I order it by how cool the idea sounds with time, if I like it more then it gains rank, and if something just doesn't keep up I usually drop it. Expect more goofiness on the horizon!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who stops by to play this and everyone who voted for it. Follow me to keep up with new projects, and if you're feeling supportive, don't forget to stop by my Patreon. Everybody have a great week!