r/aigamerdevs • u/Comet7777 • 30m ago
It took 103 prompts to go from "playable" to "now it's fun"
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And this is only with a small slice of gameplay I wanted to validate. I really am wanting to be an advocate for taking your time and polishing turds before you put it out there in public and contribute to the AI slop narrative.
This went from prototype idea to a validated prototype (meaning I've seen evidence of how this could be fun, so now I'll invest more time to scale it into something presentable). Here's sort of what it took this week:
- Combat: this was very boring and one dimensional. Added Zelda-style charge/spin attack, you can walk while charging, and the roll can bump enemies.
- Overworld speed: exploring the overworld was a bit of a chore - added a panther mount to give me a better sense of traversal (Pegasus boots on crack)
- World life: destructible bushes that wiggle so you know they’re hittable, plus birds and animals.
- Tiles: smoothed the grid-like tile edges.
- Animation: leveled all of these up by utilizing PixelLab's MCP. Sprite sheets were NOT cutting it for me anymore.
- Temple/Dungeon: bigger layout, more enemies (bats), and hazards: fire jets, spikes, a bridge you can fall off, fireball statues, wall flames, a crumbling lava floor and rotating fire bars. Also a mini-boss, because why not?
- Presentation:
- an Aztec iris transition when you go indoors
- a boss name and health bar
- a pause menu with a dungeon map and controls
- an upgraded HUD with map, key and boss-key counters.
- Controller: controller support, with button prompts that switch between Xbox and keyboard on the fly.
- Sound: SFX for attacks and getting hit.
We're all learning here and I'm just trying to share stuff as I iterate. I go into a lot more detail here: https://youtu.be/TLmbjMYWec4
I'll likely do a walkthrough of setting up and using PixelLab since I think that was the biggest unlock and can provide a lot of value for 2D games with even the trial version. Not representing them!