2017 and Onward

Wow, what a crazy year in so many different ways! As promised in my last Year in Review post, we have a lot more to talk about for 2017. So let’s start with…. drumroll

A Look Back: The Waking Cloak in 2017

One of the most encouraging things I’ve done is look back at where the game was at twelve months ago. I’d just transferred from GameMaker: Studio to GameMaker Studio 2 and was still getting basic stuff like movement and the camera working again! And now you can walk around in game, explore a village, talk to people, fight very basic enemies… it’s so exciting. :)

So here’s a list with some fancy gifs of the major things completed!

• Updated palette!

• Combat progressed over the year from a rather weak implementation to a system with weight and punch… it’s fun now:

• Added tall grass
• Mocked up an inventory screen and added a basic implementation to the game.

• (Also, this resulted in the best bug ever.)
• Mocked up some boss designs

• Added subpixel scaling for smoother movement (especially helps with camera smoothness)
• Started NPC reveals and commentaries
• Updated the camera to add lerping and to work well in multiple rooms of different sizes
• Added a state system
• Finally got a decent collision system working
• Launched a Patreon!
• Began working on SNES style music and created over 600 instruments. Some demos of those instruments!
• Added roll and roll attack

• Updated and focused the items
• Created pit hazard

• Worked on a title screen

• Wrote the second draft of The Waking Cloak’s story for NaNoWriMo
• Started dungeon design
• Fixed a ton of outstanding bugs
• Went from a few hundred followers to a few thousand over the course of the year!
• Launched a Facebook page
• Implemented basic Zelda-like enemy AI–gifs to come soon!

And now, 2018 is here!

So what’s up now? Well, I’m going to keep working on the game as usual. More and more foundational tasks are getting completed, and I expect as the year goes on, I’ll gradually transition to creating game content. I’ve got a task board over on Trello if you want to keep an eye on me! (I’ll keep it spoiler free)

Finally…

SOON AND VERY SOON we’re gonna have a Discord server up!! Keep an eye out for the launch announcement within the next few days!