* Added a Password system in case i never get a proper Save/Load system (Pay attention to the pop ups when you get to the green door).

* Resized some props though for some reason i had some trouble with the green metal fence.

* Added “prefabs”, which applies to certain objects that are like a middle ground between “prop” and “level object”.

* Prefab: A food van that the Player can open and “drive” where the vehicle just moves really fast (This might be something used once and not a common level feature).

* New: Floor switch scene that requires the vase to be on top of and the barrier that opens up if said switch is pressed.

* New: Rotating water wheel with wooden platforms attached.

* New: “Peeking” platform that shows up at times, requiring you to time jumps.

* New: Green walls that show up/disappear depending on which green switches are activated. Even had to make sure the characters don’t get stuck if the walls spawn on their location.

* New: Bell that acts as a stomping hazard (And the first time i implement an instakill “DeathHitbox” scene).

* New: Fish enemy that moves up/down and shoots projectiles (Unlike the Gecko, the damage comes from the projectiles and not the fish itself which you can also kill).

* Rearranged NPC organization in case i add more characters and add some interactions.

* Main characters can be NPC’s when not playable.

* Fixed an issue where if the Player kills an enemy too soon while on the pain animation, the game could crash (Something to do with the Area2D enter signal and the source of the interaction disappearing too soon).

As for things in the game files but not used in current levels:

* Prefabs: A giant straw split into 3 parts where if any character gets in, the sprites change to reveal its inside.

* Prefab: A large piano key with a customizable pitch scale, so you can have characters walk on it and play some music.

* Added new props, each representing a different world from that of Nortubel. If you recall the “world title animation” scene with stylized fonts for each world, you may get the idea of what worlds i want to include.

On the next update, i (HOPEFULLY) should focus on actual visual stuff such as:

* Character sprites

* Backgrounds

* Tiles

* Actual use of some props

* The first cutscene

* Maybe the gecko too

* And i guess some HUD icons for keys and the ball

* Added a “Please read” button and text with info related to this game’s problems.

* Added a template for an art gallery but nothing works because there’s no art (And it might be better to make this unlockable and make sure the art is good).

* Every level now uses the same “level template” script (At some point i deleted the “main level script” but because that was an AutoLoad i brought it back just in case).

* Takes 10 coins for a new life.

* I can now add level props, even if i wish the behind-the-scenes system was a bit better (And they're only used in the first level and some could look better since this is an early version of the method).

* Tried adding actual art to the first cutscene (It looks bad, i should try to redo it and use actual construction/gesture art methods).

* Player/Companion collisions don’t change anymore during swim states. This means i need to redo sprites because the visuals are misleading but at least level design can be more flexible and weird collision issues are gone.

I think the Save/Load stuff could be done much later, since i even turned off the buttons.

If anyone has any interest on how to fix the Save/Load issue, pay attention to how the game is structured (Since i obviously put it on Github) because certain threads and screenshots might be outdated.

Let me say: Being my first game, i like to think that Nortubel still has chances to be better and that my next game could consider certain things like image resolution and Save/Load options as first priorities.

Like if my journey as a game dev leads me to make more games and they end up better, Nortubel could be seen as a “rough start” that was still worth it.

I sometimes wonder if i could allow a remake (That would still have the original as a playable project just to not be entirely forgotten/replaced) just to be better presented.

I still have some ideas on how the game's story goes could.

The presentation should be better since i could use actual moving sprites, like the illusion of a camera moving to show a landscape or even effects like moving vehicles or something.

At best, the current art could be seen as “programmer art”.

Worst case scenario, i might need friends of mine to help me fix the art.

Another reason why this update took a bit longer is because i’ve been busy with other stuff like Doom mapping.

Felt like making a map like this using:

• OTEX textures.
• MetaDoom.
• And some fire traps in Realm667.

I did some Doom mapping in the Boom format and there's a lot about UDMF i probably should know.

So i should do some research and get helpful tips from the right people.

I don't think it'll be as good as that map by DrPySpy but i hope it's still good enough.

https://imgur.com/a/b6AY31B

One thing i should figure out is making it a PK3 and so if people play it, the only additional thing they need is MetaDoom just so the textures and the fire traps are part of the map itself.

I tried following a video by DevWorm called "The MOST Simple Way to SAVE DATA in Godot" but with some alterations to suit my case.

One thing i currently want to be saveable/loadable data is the current level.

One reason why this is a big deal is because i have an AutoLoad scene called "scene manager" which is responsible for any scene change and partially due to an animation that occurs before and after a scene is changed.

But right now, it doesn't seem to work.

These are the relevant scripts in the situation:

https://github.com/EyeBallTank/PROJECT-NORTUBEL-main-ish/blob/main/src/behind_the_scenes/scene_manager.gd The "scene manager" script.

The "scene manager" scene also has an animation called "level_transition_effect" that makes use of the "_new_scene" function.

https://github.com/EyeBallTank/PROJECT-NORTUBEL-main-ish/blob/main/save_file.gd The recently created "save_file" AutoLoad script.

https://github.com/EyeBallTank/PROJECT-NORTUBEL-main-ish/blob/main/screens/PauseMenu.gd The Pause Menu scene's script, which has Load and Save buttons.

I even tried to create a new function for "scene manager" that was similar to _change_scene but based on loading a saved scene.

And before i forget:

* Godot version is 3.5.1

* PauseMenu (Which has the Load/Save buttons i want to use) is its own scene but also exists as a child node to a scene called "CurrentUI" which can exist as a child scene under levels.

* Levels are their own scenes with scenes like Player, TileMap, CurrentUI etc as child nodes.

* Levels also have scripts and their scripts extend to a script called "main_level_script" which has nothing so far.

There's probably some things i'm overlooking and doing wrong.

Any help is appreciated.

Had some things keeping me busy like other projects and even annoying IRL stuff, but i updated my game:

https://eyeballtank.itch.io/project-nortubel/devlog/537163/27may2023

• Made the yellow book scene more flexible to create various books with different info.
• Added 3 “tutorial” levels before the preexisting 6 levels, where mechanics/concepts are introduced at a better pace and included respective hint books.

The part above is so people get better ideas of the mechanics.

• Made a first attempt at a cutscene: This is very special because there’s a lot of potential even if the writing, art, timing etc could’ve been better.
• Added a “studio presents” animation before the main menu.

This means if my art and other skills improve, i can give my game a stylish presentation and do a lot with my characters and their settings.

• When entering certain worlds, a stylized name of said world will pop up in the screen (If you look into the Github repo, you can spoil yourself with the other worlds’ names but their actual contexts needs work… unless you find some long thing i wrote that isn’t really kept that secretly).

Getting too ambitious but let's just say the different worlds will give a sort of "crossover" feeling if i end up implementing them right.

What else:

• I might do the Save/Load system later even though all i want to keep in mind is the current level that a save happens and maybe the life count (Something i already had issues with in the past).

And maybe something to do with unlocking features like being able to use a gallery of art or visiting previous levels.

• The “intro” cutscene before the first level also needs actual images, so maybe an update can be focused on new art.

First let me post the update’s notes.

• Added an oxygen system where both characters have a visible bar that decreases the longer they are on water and resets if they leave water; They die instantly if the oxygen reaches 0 (This feature right now is lazily implemented because i just added “oxygen -= 1” in the code without using a Timer node or even a Yield statement so i should improve this some day).
• Life system: Both characters share a life and if one dies, the life goes down.
• Picking up coins adds a new life (Actual number of coins needed and max lives might change).
• Fixed an issue where the game crashes if the Companion touches the Lifeguard floater.
• The Companion can use the floater too and when it’s picked up, both characters are affected (There may be some weird bugs because i tried to fix an issue where if the floater is picked while the Player is getting hurt, their hurtbox would still receive damage).
• Fixed volume sliders being at 0 but not silencing the sounds: Now they’re at 50% which also affects the sounds (Meaning you can see it to 100 just to see how loud it can get); These sliders are still a bit buggy but maybe next time.
• Changed how things disappear (Keys, doors etc) to avoid yield related statements in code.

Now, about the “slideshow” cutscenes

Think of how older games in general had passing images and text boxes that changed, sometimes over time or others with a press of a button.

This part interests me because these story segments will always be different in each “instance”, not just the images or text but specially the number of images/texts used and even how long a certain image/frame/slide etc stays (Because there will always be more text than images and some images are meant to stay for a few extra “frames” while the next changes).

Another part is the actual controls like moving forward/backward as if the Player was flipping a book or the ability to outright skip a cutscene.

Because a lot of YT tutorials will be more about cutscenes using animated characters and i’m not sure if copying GDQuest’s Godot Slides projects is a good model to follow.

Random example but look at Faselei https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-9rELc2eHo&t=62s and just the basic idea of images changing but not as much as the characters’ texts.

Obviously i’ll also need good art for this but a good enough template is a start.

What else:

I hope the next update is about level design revision because of how mechanics are introduced.

I might try to “increase” the levels by splitting parts and seperating them with new areas, so the Player is introduced to mechanics in a better way.

This also means redoing the yellow books by creating more of them with dedicated messages about said mechanics instead of the 3 books i got right now.

With how levels change, i may try some new features like “moving vertical walls/doors” affected by green switches for some gimmicky area or some new type of platforms like disappearing/appearing ones or something that spins.

I also thought of a projectile enemy for the sake of it but a more interesting idea is an enemy that targets the Companion,

Also still haven’t done a save/load system but again: Worried if there’s specific differences between exe and HTML versions to consider.

* Fixed an issue where the Player could automatically jump if leaving the ladder and fall to a close enough floor (Something to do with jump buffering). 

* When the Companion is off-screen, a pointer shows up indicating their direction (It’s a bit awkward but i tried my best).

* Fixed some parts in level 1 so the portals are less accessible.

* Health bars now stay in a stable part of the “UI” even if they’re still nodes under their characters (Used CanvasLayer ones).

* Fixed subtle rotated angles of some levels.

* Added new sounds (Player/Comp landing on floor, pushable, water splash, teleportal effect).

* Finally added localization settings in the menu, so you can switch between English and Portuguese.

* “What’s with the extra button?” i just added a thing for the future: Not just because of code and structure, but also art as things to later worry about.

Off-screen marker/pointer

This is a feature i think would make sense in my game: If the Companion is off-screen, something shows up to point at their direction and if they’re on-screen, said pointer disappears.

Obviously, the problem may rely on the design i choose for the object (An Astrolabe with the base and arrow being seperate sprites) but i just want the Astrolabe to be close enough to the borders of the camera instead of being cropped.

A potential solution (That i don’t know exactly how, since i copied code from a video by GameEndeavor) is to figure out in the code how to calculate some distance from the screen’s margins (Because another problem i want to avoid is if the Astrolabe is only close enough to the left/bottom margins but still passes the right/top margins).

I even tried messing with pivot points of the sprites and using an invisible secret sprite as a father node of the main sprites but this trickery didn’t work either.

Because i reached a point of guessing stuff that i still don’t know how to implement, like using an invisible ColorRect and using it instead of the screen’s margins but i don’t even know if that ColorRect should be AutoLoad or a child node of the Companion.

Here’s the code of the Astrolobe https://github.com/EyeBallTank/PROJECT-NORTUBEL-main-ish/blob/main/src/menusandui/CompPointer.gd and a video and image of it even if Imgur will be useless in the future https://imgur.com/a/Ga2BWRU

Localization

Options between setting the game in English or Portuguese should’ve been considered and i used a video by FinePointCGI on how to do it.

The bad news is that Godot can’t detect the CSV file i’m setting unless it’s UTF 8.

And this is bad news because UTF 8 does not have certain characters used in Portuguese, so the ideal mode should be UTF 16 which somehow Godot is not accepting (Even though it does in the video i used as reference).

EDIT:

Turns out i just had to fix the mixing characters in the UTF 8 version, so now i got localization working.

EDIT 2:

The pointer is now within the camera's boarders (Most of the time) even if it looks off but i tried,

Here's how far i got with Nortubel:

• Fixed Player climbing issue where you suddenly had automatic diagonal movement at times.
• "Tried" making the art less worse but it was mostly removing white backgrounds.
• Added some animations to objects and items.
• Sounds are a thing too.
• Level design changes related to the new camera zoom, preventing some softblocks, some behind-the-scenes collision stuff and the green doors.
• Green doors now need both characters to finish a level (If level 6 is harder, just get the Companion to follow you to the water area).
• Controls are simpler so you press down to do the ball attack (and up to cancel it) and commanding the kids is now with Q + left/right/down instead of S/F/R.
• You even get a speech balloon related to the new command system for the sake of visual feedback.
• The pushable vase can kill the one enemy if it falls on them.

Right now, i'm thinking of another tiny update just to add some reference to the characters' names.

Other than that, i rushed out an update because i'm thinking my PC will force Windows 11 on me.

Anyway, hope more people try my game and hear about it, even if nobody is obligated to spread news (But it'd be very nice).

Also, felt like updating the OC post just in case too lol https://eyeballtank.tumblr.com/post/715159249299406848

It’s like something that should have been considered before.

It’s like a mix of different things at once.

https://i.imgur.com/1Ud2zSw.mp4

One problem might be related to the camera’s zoom because of how it tries to render pixels (As if they keep appearing and disappearing) but they barely change and it’s also because of the art itself (My tilemap is at 64 pixels units and the window size is 1024 x 600).

Least i could try is add thicker lines to some art (Or not thin lines) and try to rearrange art.

I also changed some settings to make this effect less noticeable (But there’s still some weird pixel alignment going on).

On Reddit, someone did offer a lot of suggestions on how to make the art better.

At the very least, this is tied to camera movement so if i were to add “slideshow/comic” type of cutscenes or an art gallery with art (If the art is better this time), maybe this issue isn’t that noticeable.

I also got some gameplay related feedback, so there’s things that maybe i can fix.