DEV Community: Michael Primo

I did the JS13KGames jam: here is what I learned. 😉

Michael Primo — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 09:34:00 +0000

How it began

It was June. I needed a way to create projects and networking, and overcome certain fears I have. As a developer, I have many of them and one was creating a canvas and creating something with it.
Developing something with an HTML5 Canvas was always overwhelming for me. Too much possibilities, many differences between making a website and developing something for this little component.
I made games for my website in DOM and everytime people played that, they had problems. Sometimes were broken, sometimes are not playable because of older browsers, sometimes responsive and browser issues happens and I don't have access on all of them.
So, learning how to use Canvas was a way to make my games more professional and responsive.

But there is more! Why I decide to partecipate to the competition?

I like puzzles, using logic and computer science. Since I am more the "show, don't tell" guy and want to make a good portfolio with real proof of my experience, I decided to partecipate to the 2021 edition of JS13K, but... I knew anything about Canvas. How can I make a good game then?

I needed to level up somehow...and JS1024 was near!

And so I partecipated to JS1024, a jam which you had to make a project with 1024 bytes or Javascript. It was a good start for making something simple.
Then on the js13k slack channel I found out about the Lospec Jam and partecipated and there I found about LOWREZJAM and I started the JS13K competition three days after.

The making of Wonder Wanderer 3

I had one month, so the first plan was:

one week of planning and making the core;
one week for preparing the music;
one week for learning vectorial graphics;
the rest for finishing the game.

For three weeks, I had lots of problems. First of all, I had two ideas:

A Rhythm game where BPMs are important and you need to fight your way with an another enemy for every stage;
A managerial strategic game where you have your space and village and you need to expand while defending it.

The strategic game got unluckily scrapped because on paper seemed unfunny and I made the Rhythm game, but every version I made, it seemed off and I made like 10 versions of the game on this month.

At first I wanted a game about having a gun and pressing buttons for shooting music bullets, reloading, stopping enemy attacks and then incrementing the speed of the music, but the idea got scrapped because it was too complex, and so... I did a mix of everything in the final game.

The last days

I struggled making updates because I was continuing changing the game and I made random music (literally, the music is generated random...badly) and web monetization part the last minute when I made the art (first pixel art and then vectorial art with native functions on the Canvas) during the game.

And so...the game shipped, but...it was bad. What I learned about this?

If you have x time, try to make the game in at least half the time and use the rest for correcting bugs, issues, and problems you encountered and improve it;
If you can, prototype the game and see if the idea you had in mind was really good or not;
It's better making one good level than five bad ones;
Your game rarely gets finished. Again, better one good minute of playing than five bad ones;
Your game doesn't need to be complicated to be good;
Focus on all the things of the game and calculate accurately the time needed for everything.

JS13K: A journey through music? (Last 7 Days) 🎶

Michael Primo — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 21:59:03 +0000

I made several prototypes of the game and no one that worked properly on game design. I think to being closer to making the game, but it's sad anyway. In the meanwhile I am now able to make polygons with Canvas and make a responsive game even on mobile.

One of the layout I made. I like the idea of having four buttons, but it's confusing for the players.

JS13K: A journey through music (Day 17/18) 🎶

Michael Primo — Sat, 28 Aug 2021 22:16:55 +0000

I am making better notes and doing a general restyling. I think tomorrow to do a step forward for making a real good prototype of the game. Hope to show it to you! Also, 13 days left for finishing the game for JS13K :O

JS13K: A journey through music (Day 11/12/13/14) 😧

Michael Primo — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 21:28:21 +0000

Well.

On these days I didn't manage to do much honestly.

I lost faith on my idea and I manage to learn only a grasp about oscillators. I have to study vectorial art as well.

For that I have to hurry and make something right after I have the idea, but I think to create something more based on randomization since the 13 KB limit.

Have a good day! Hope to update you soon.

JS13K: A journey through music (Day 10 😊)

Michael Primo — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 21:59:43 +0000

Today I changed ways for proceeding the game.
I need to make music for it and looking for a solution for making soundtracks for a 13KB game (Is this possible? If yes, will that be good?), so I am reading a book about that.

This one.

I hope to learn how to process, play and visualize music throughly once of all this way :)

JS13K: My First Day (Day 8/9 😊)

Michael Primo — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 10:38:17 +0000

I am trying to make a rhythm game based on one line of notes. The music will be minimal since I have only 13 KB for doing the game, most of them will be autogenerated by the notes you will click. Now I'll learn more about Web Audio API and creating a music for testing the idea.

The game is improving!

JS13K: My First Day (Day 7 😊)

Michael Primo — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 21:43:40 +0000

The Rhythm Engine now works. It supports a chart and points given by the position of the note or taken if you don't press the button or pressed early. Tomorrow I'll try original mechanics for this game.

JS13K: My First Day (Day 6 😊)

Michael Primo — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 23:15:03 +0000

I am continuing the way of making a rhythm game. Want to make this a bit more different than normal because you can see one note at a time and you can click one of the four notes below for doing an action. You can lower the enemy's life, increasing more points, reload actions and charging an attack. We will see if that will be good on next days.

Rudimentary notes and enemy bar, but still notes and an enemy bar.

JS13K: My First Day (Day 5 😨)

Michael Primo — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:34:25 +0000

It's JS13KGames time, everybody!
Time to make a game about "SPACE" (Yes, that is the theme to follow for this month).
I'll try to make a professional game in one month, mainly for mobile with Desktop and Web Monetization support.
For now I have this GIF to show. It's not much, but I am trying to test a rhythm game if I can make it and if that will be good.
Until then, rest well, have a good day and I'll update you!

Rhythm Game first test!

Dev log for Wonder Wanderer 2: Final Days #LOWREZJAM 😁

Michael Primo — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 11:44:54 +0000

So, I finished the game.
I managed to do all the levels, small animation and all.
Unfortunately I removed parts of the game I wanted to add (like more levels) and I didn't manage to create any SFX or music.
I'll make a more detailed version on the next day along with Wonder Wanderer 1.
Thank you for everything!
https://itch.io/jam/lowrezjam-2021/rate/1159390

When you go darker, the game will be more harder...

Dev log for Wonder Wanderer 2: Day 11 #LOWREZJAM 😁

Michael Primo — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 23:05:59 +0000

What did I do today?

This is one of the days which I made nothing and everything at the same time. I prepared the sprite for the main character's animations, 10 main levels with two variants and...a playable level 1! I tried to do a palette swap, but tomorrow I'll remove it.

First level of the game with a different palette.

Dev log for Wonder Wanderer 2: Day 10 #LOWREZJAM 😁

Michael Primo — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 21:39:26 +0000

What did I do today?

I finished all the hazards, so the game can be tomorrow on alpha state. Here is some tests:

Little tests for jumping through the walls.

You can in the game move in two ways (top down and sidescrolling), avoid spikes and holes, wrap through the screen, switch layouts, hop down to platforms, going to other rooms with their gravity. Here is an example of the reverse gravity, but I made a normal one, lighter, heavy, zero and reverse.

Example for a gameplay with Reverse gravity.