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The last couple of bitsy games I’ve made have focused more on the design and aesthetics of the game rather than the functionality and gameplay.

That was mostly due to the types of games/stories I had opted to tell; this time I had an idea that was more limited in scope but involved different mechanics.

Given the theme of ‘supermarket’ I instantly had the idea of running around a supermarket in a post-apocalyptic zombie situation, as I’m sure we all would.

Side note: you can play the game direct in your browser right here: https://alansuspect.itch.io/supply-run

In my original idea I thought about the supplies randomly appearing each time the game was played, but it’s either not possible in bitsy, or far beyond my abilities. I might come back to this idea in the future, maybe even on another platform.

So for this I just created several different ‘supplies’ (in the game dev these are listed variously as ‘fruit’, ‘veg’, ‘chips’, etc but not listed in the game itself), and placed them randomly around.

Due to the design of the shelves in the supermarket I had to make the tiles that the supplies sit on non-wall tiles so the character can pick them up (which also throws out the random supply placement idea).

One thing I knew I could do in bitsy was display random text each time an action happens. So each time the character walks into a zombie the sounds the zombie makes a different. After the random action I then added a quick palette-switch-and-back to a reverse palette, to give that injured red flash.

Lastly, I wanted to add some kind of message at the end rather than just have the game end. It’s fairly easy to add a variable to the text so the next step was to count each time a supply is collected and each time a zombie attacks.

Once the counting variable is ready I add it to the text message at the end. Easy!

Still, it’s not super exciting. I then decided to try out the if/then/else to display a message based on the results.

I tried writing out the logic but it doesn’t look right. Basically it checks if Attacks = 0 first, and if so then if all supplies were collected you get the congrats message. If no attacks but not all supplies were collected you get a different message. Lastly (and I was running out of time) if Attacks >= 1 you get the ‘bit’ message, bad luck!

And I think that’s about it. I enjoyed playing with bitsy’s mechanics more this time – for a simple game maker it actually allows for a lot of experimentation. Give it a go yourself!

Well I did it, I’ve officially had an active blog for a year now.

I think it’s the longest I’ve ever kept a blog going – and at 14 posts I’m not exactly winning any records – but sticking to things isn’t my forté so I’m pretty chuffed with myself.

Looking back, I’ve enjoyed playing with Eleventy (more to come on that in future posts); discovering itch.io and all the amazing games on there; and also finding bitsy and making several fun games.

So here’s to the next year, and seeing what else I can add to this site.

I started using Obsidian a few months ago, after first moving to Quillpad from Google Notes when I decided to de-Google. It is a pretty powerful editor and note taker but I hadn’t really looked into what it could do until I saw a post on Mastodon about using it to edit posts in Eleventy. Neat!

This is basically a test post to see if I can use Obsidian as a CMS. Let’s see if it works.

Update: it works!

I have had this idea for a computer game for a while now, it’s not completely fleshed out but I have a rough storyline down and a few ideas for puzzles.

What I can’t decide on is how to implement it. Issues of time aside, I’m also not a skilled game developer so an easy learning curve would be preferable.

I like doing pixel art so that would be a nice path to go down, but I probably shouldn’t commit to doing too much of it as I’ll end up giving up before I get anywhere.

My first thought is a point-and-click adventure game like LucasArts used to make. When I was a kid I played with GRAC on the Amiga and I can see similar programs exist now, such as Escoria and Popochiu add-ons to Godot.

I even got sidetracked looking at Godot add-ons and found Cogito. For a brief moment considered a first person puzzler, but have no idea about 3D graphics.

Going to the far end on the other side I thought about doing an interactive fiction piece, where the story and puzzles would be a lot easier to implement and I could incorporate some static pixel art along the way.

Lastly I’ve been trying out some games on the iPad which are kind of a mix of interactive fiction and point and click, in fact they call themselves point and click games but I consider them more first person point and click, for clarity.

I even found an add-on for Godot called EgoVenture which does this kind of thing. It would mean I can do static graphics (without all the pesky animating characters walking stuff) and keep things as simple or complex as I like. On top of that, I could implement some cool puzzles.

Oh, and a bonus mention to GBStudio which looks awesome, but not sure it would suit my game style. Maybe for another project.

Lots of coulds in there! How do other people figure out how to plan a project like this? Do you do a script/plan layout or just get started and figure it out as you go?

I just read this post by @mxbck@front-end.social.

This is an older one but there are a lot of posts like this popping up and it’s exactly how I feel about the internet now.

What worries me with saying

Maybe we need some of that early internet vibe back and be ok with smaller, closer communities.
is how long will it be until people don’t remember the early internet?

I’ve been building for the web for 25 years (and that’s not even the early early days), but a lot of people only know social media like Twitter and Facebook. Do people still tinker?

I used to mess with my brother’s Amiga 500, then it became mine and I messed with the settings, found weird programs I had no idea what they did, made crappy pixel art in Deluxe Paint, played Monkey Island and even had a crack at making my own point-and-click games with GRAC.

Do people still do this? I dunno. You can’t tinker with Tiktok, or an iPad. Everything is designed for users to use.

Anyway, I don’t know where I’m going with this so I’ll wrap it up. Still, when will people forget the old internet? I hope they don’t, I hope it sticks around and massive social media platforms disappear.

Something happened today.

I actually picked up a guitar and made up some new music. It wasn’t much, just a few riffs but it’s been so long. I’m just constantly working and don’t put time aside for my activities.

And it was on bass. I bought a Fender p-bass a long, long time ago and hardly ever play it. I’m a guitarist by trade but it always seemed like a neat thing to have, especially if I want to record anything.

I also recorded it on my phone as I will very likely forget it, which is pretty cool. I remember when I was young I had a MiniDisc recorder to record demo tracks, and later audio software like Cubase. I used Cubase to record Suspect Package’s first (and only) album.

But it was nice to just feel free to play something today. Maybe I’ll keep doing it. I should keep doing it.