Trash Idol: Time for a little research

Before I get into today's gamedev progress, I just released a poll on youtube about how I'll be running my channel/game development projects.

Starting in June, I'll be making games based on what my patreon and ko-fi supporters suggest! I'm trying to figure out a way to involve the people who are keeping the lights on, but I want to do it in the way YOU would find the most fun. So please head over and vote, or let me know in the comments what you think!

Anyway, onto the good stuff. It's so fun to be able to get back fully into game development!

So, what's interesting about this project is the coding involved is pretty minimal. What is going to take the most time and effort will be the visuals of the game. The trash idol simulation is supposed to show off each idol facing off in like a pop-star battle.  All the code does behind the scenes is a quick calculation (determine which team collected the most trash per person), and then play a series of cutscenes until the winner is revealed. So at the start of today I drew out about 25 quick cutscene thumbnails in order to plan out what I'd like the game to look like (seen above!) I will at some point have to illustrate and animate the girls doing all these actions!!

I also spent a lot of time today getting to know GameMaker's sequence interface. I have never used it before, but it was pretty much built to make game cutscenes, so I know it will be the best way to accomplish what I need. Here's one of the videos I watched, from the legendary Sara Spalding!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO6gzhrx5b8

Thanks to my background in video editing, the interface isn't totally alien to me. The trick is figuring out how to play out a series of cutscenes using code. (I want the game host to press a button to trigger the next cutscene)

My plan for tomorrow is to start building the opening interface (below) so that I can input numbers and start testing the cutscene features.

That's all for today! I'm hoping to get as much done as possible before May, because then I'll be working on the Mermaid game!!! Anyway, here's today's sign-off joke:

Q: They say dinosaurs are the ancestors of chickens. If you could travel back in time to see them, what would you bring?

A: A BIIIIIIIIIG deep fryer!