The LowReZ Dead DevLog

Hey all!

So I came across the LowRezJam on Twitter and got excited - what an interesting challenge!! So I decided to give it a go! This is my second ever Jam, so let's see what happens :) I'll only have about an hour a day to work on it, so not sure how good it'll be, but hey, should be fun!

Will keep a short Dev-Diary here, but will also randomly post on Twitter @IndieDevBateman.

Day 1 : Decided to join the Jam! Drew my first ever pixel art... It's not good lol. But I'll work with it!  This is Jack - he's going to be the player character. The game is going to be called The LowRez Dead. You're going to have issues with zombies. Play mechanics to be determined... The important thing I think about a Jam is that you try new things. So I plan to try for the first time 1) Pixel Art and 2) Path-Finding AI.

Day 2: Built the camera system so that the view follows the player in 64x64. Detail is going to be mega tough at this resolution, so things are going to have to focus on a fun mechanic. I think it's going to be one large map that you have to get across without dying, with kind of a Cannon Fodder meets Hotline Miami meets Walking Dead meets rubbish Pixel Art theme! Main time today was spent making sure the player moves around without running into boundary issues! 

Day 3: So today I have spruced up my character sprite taking inspiration from others who are obviously far better at this pixel art than me! Jack is now looking a lot better and has some basic move animations. I have also reworked the camera system following a change to the control scheme. As I like to make games that are playable on PC and mobile, my controls are going to be mouse based only. I've therefore ditched keyboard movement and built in some basic pathfinding. Now the player is moved around by left mouse clicks. Right mouse clicks are going to be for shooting zombies! Here's Jack making his way around obstacles during testing. Next up is going to be shooting bullets and starting to build the environment! 

Day 4/5: Started making zombies and got the basic AI ones complete. Jack can shoot them - and be killed by them! Also created some keys and some locked gates to pass. My pixel art sucks massively, sorry about that ;) But I'm learning and having fun doing so!! Next up, some chasing zombies and buildings.

Day 6/7/8: OK, so big update. The game is going well! I now have zombies that will chase you if you get close, buildings, rival gangs of men who will shoot at you, a halfway boss character, a story, and the map almost complete! So basically lots of progress!  Just got to create a final boss and add music. Then it'll be play testing and tweaking time. 

Day 9/10/11: I have added the final boss and music. Just trying to test it now to make sure it runs OK. The biggest challenge I'm finding is in making the AI a reasonable difficulty.  I'm either getting my butt kicked or finding them too easy... I hopefully will find a good balance. Then if anyone actually plays the game I can tweak on feedback :)

Day?: I have no idea what day of this project I am on, I think 12, but maybe 11. I need to work that out next time I do a Dev Log!! Anyway, I've made the game available. I think it's bug free but it probably isn't. Hopefully people will play and feedback any issues! My main concern is the difficulty. I can't tell if it's a good level or not... Again, if you play please let me know and I will tweak it! Now to see how it does in the Jam!!