TIMELINE

day 1

0200: theme announced. came up with a few ideas
0300: slept on it

1200: started work!

1200-1420: initial design notes (initial design.txt) and art mockup (hive.xcf/hive.png)
1420-1530: tasklist (production plan) - figuring out the workload
1530-1800: basic tilemap, character controls and collision code. I have a white box running around with jump, melee, walljump
1800-2020: worked on animations! Character has idle, run, jump, melee, wallslide, and a few transitions
2020-2110: added support for shooting the GUN. makes bullets! they look v bad with no effects

- break -

2230-0030: added lots of particle effects. starting to feel good!

End of day 1. I'm feeling good about the game's immediate response to inputs: controls, character and camera. I'm proud of the effects and character animation. It seems like I spent a lot of day 1 on polish, but honestly this character animation stuff is what I'm interested in doing for this jam. If I have to make the game world smaller tomorrow to finish on time, that's OK.

- sleep -

day 2

1130-1230: design plans for today! (day 2 design.txt). tweaked movement physics
1230-1300: watching speedruns of classic action platformers! yep yep it's time to research level design (day 2 design.txt - RESEARCH)

- break -

1330-1400: level/enemy design. what do i want? (day 2 design.txt - ELEMENTS TO USE)
1400-1430: added support to load map from a graphic. wrote test map to try jump distances/heights

- break -

1530-1600: laying out first draft world with 2 crystal chambers
1600-1630: new "screen region" camera code that snaps across area boundaries
1630-1700: continuing world layout...
1700-1730: adding entity spawning tech and collectable CRYSTALS
1730-1900: adding first enemy type - CRAWLER - capable of killing player/causing trouble
1900-1930: adding second enemy type - BAT
1930-2000: adding enemy spawners to world
2000-2030: Testing platforming under pressure. Where should spawners be? Fixing camera & controls

Getting close to the end now. 5:30 left. What still needs to be done?
- decorate with different tile types
- high-difficulty enemies
- track the crystal count and change spawns/aggression
- better camera transition at region edges

2030-2050: trying new camera transitions between regions. they suck. removing
2050-2100: changing gun to fire in three-round bursts, to support boss fights
2100-2115: playtesting
2115-2150: adding the "crystals = danger" mechanic. yeah! I'm finally working on the theme!
2150-2210: adding map screen
2210-2220: made crystal case impassible until you break it, reduced health from 4 to 3
2220-2300: tweaking world map, getting it ready to place all 5 crystals
2300-0020: sound effects on most things. particles
0020-0050: added second crystal path.
0050-0100: final design pass. what's left? (day 2 design.txt)
0100-0115: add instructions
0115-0200: last crystal paths (west) and hack in an ending
