Adding a Bit of Life to the Game

It has been a little while since my last dev update. I had a slight health scare last Summer, and by the time I had recovered, I was back into the full swing of things at my day job. But luckily, I was able to join another Improve My Game Jam to help get be going again!

What Went Well

• I was able to refactor and implement a much better inventory system. There is not much difference that can be seen from the player’s point of view.
• The mushrooms in the game make use of this new Item code and this ties into the activation system and works with the current player HUD.
• I was finally able to get a few animals showing up into the game. This was one of the big requests previously to make it easier to see where to place traps in the game. Currently there is a rabbit and a fox that jankily wander around the level, unless you get too close and cause them to run away!

What Didn’t Go Well

• I was not able to implement the grid-based inventory that I had planned for the UI side of the new inventory system due to time constraints.
• I had a little bit of trouble sorting out the navigation mesh system in Godot 4, but I was finally able to get it working for the most part in this build.
• For some reason, the Mac version of the game is bugged and will not create a working build.

What I Can Do Better For Next Time

• Fix the Mac bug so that a new copy of the game can be built for Mac OSX.
• Make the game controls remappable, so the player can change the default key bindings.
• Still need to make a 3D beaver model as part of the next iteration/sprint cycle.
• I still need to rig and animate the 3D animal models so they look my life like while they move around the game world.
• Finally get around to making a game icon.

Grab a copy of the game and take a look!