It's been a full week since I started working on my first #1GAM entry of the year. So far things have gone quite well, although there's still a long way to go.
January's game is called "Mini Shinobi". It's a platform game with a mix of exploration, combat and puzzles.
So far the following features are working:
- Fully scrolling tilemap that follows the player
- Walking, running and jumping (with animation)
- Some basic collision detection
- Entity/component system
Probably the biggest feature is the entity system. There aren't many entities in the game at the moment, but it's possible to add more without recompiling anything which is a huge time saver. Expect there to be a few follow-up articles on how it works and why I built it.
Screenshots are more exciting than technical details though, so here's how things currently look:
One thing that has been a huge help is using art from OpenGameArt.org. I'm not much of an artist, so it's allowed me to spend time building the game rather than worrying over pixels.
There are more detailed notes and statistics on the Mini Shinobi hub page. It's updated regularly and is the best place to see how development is progressing. I'll probably end up writing about how that page is generated at some point too.