Leaderboards, Checkpoints, Angels and Future Plans

It's been another busy week working on what's quickly becoming my obsession - TurtleRun.

Another 30 hours logged for the week and the resulting update comes with a few cool new features and quality of life updates.

Let's start with some Overall Plans.

It became quickly apparent that I need to get some high-level goals for the project decided upon and written down, otherwise I could be here forever adding small features and increasing the scope without any real milestones in mind.

With that, I spent some time planning everything I still want/need to add to the game before eventually releasing it on Steam. I decided to focus on finalising all of the base functionality of the game before adding any more additional content. Things like Leaderboards (now available), Customisable Controls (coming soon), listing achievements, and other non-glamourous tasks that aren't really worth mentioning but are definitely required for the game to be in a release-worthy state.

More zones will be added, as well as art adjustments that I feel necessary. I've also started to think about how to market the game and after much consideration, have decided to try and step out of my comfort zone and make more of an effort to push YouTube content. I'm planning to make the channel videos more from the "studio" point of view rather than just TurtleRun devlogs. I think that will be more interesting and have a bigger benefit in the long run. You can catch me there at https://www.youtube.com/@imcappiche

My goal date for release on Steam is July 26th 2024, and I'll be doing everything in my power to make sure that's achievable. The whole process is completely new to me but my expectations are managed and I'm just looking forward to learning the process and having something "out there" that will exist forever. It's also definitely going to be my (not yet existent) children's first experience of gaming, which will be a huge moment!

Leaderboards

Something I've always thought was cool since my early days of gaming was competing for the highest score among my friend group. I decided that this is the kind of game that could definitely support such a feature and maybe encourage a bit of friendly competition among players.

I found this task surprisingly difficult to implement but after being stuck for a couple of days, I finally managed to integrate LootLocker (https://lootlocker.com) into my game. Their service seems really cool but is definitely lacking a bit of documentation and clarity when it comes to the Game Maker engine, but I got there in the end. Fancy joining me on the leaderboard? It's looking a bit one-sided at the moment:

It's a safe space around here, you don't have to pretend you don't love the turtle pun.

This also came with a nice opportunity to create an on-screen keyboard that can be typed into or have letters manually selected using a controller.

Checkpoints

One of the most common pieces of feedback I received was that getting to near the end of a level and getting one-tapped by a badger and sent back to the start was just not fun. I couldn't put this to the side any longer so after considering the pros and cons of various systems (lives, health, checkpoints), I decided that a checkpoint system would give the most fluid feel to the game.

This was one of the most fun tasks I've implemented in a while, and was a breath of fresh air after struggling with leaderboards at the start of the week. It also meant I got to take a break from the IDE and open up Aseprite and continue to work on my pixel art skills, which are still lacking but definitely improving and somehow I think add a certain charm to the game.

I have to say, I absolutely love the "angel turtle" sprite I created for flying back to the respawn point. Certainly beats a black-screen and starting the level again!

You'll have to play to find out who left all that mess on the checkpoint stump!

Summary

All in all it's been a super fun week as always in my new found venture of game development. It's great to feel the progress coming along and my skills improving and I can happily say that this is fulfilling the empty space I've been trying to fill for my whole adult life. It's a long journey ahead, but one I'm extremely excited about. Give the game a shot (much better to download than play in the browser, the file is safe, trust me!) and let me hear your feedback. Is there anything you'd like to see implemented or done differently? All opinions welcome. See below for full list of changes.

1.4.0-a Changelist

New Content

• Added a Controls screen to the menu
• Players can now enter a name at the start of the game to be added to the leaderboard upon completion
• Overhauled death system 
  
  • Introduced checkpoints that the player can activate by walking through
  • Upon death, the player is returned to the last spawn point
  • No black screen between lives to give a more fluent feel to the game

Changed Content

• Text felt a bit sluggish and frustrating to wait through, the full message can now be instantly displayed to allow skipping through
• Fonts felt a bit inconsistent, this has been updated to use the same font throughout the game

Many thanks,

-Cappiche