Problem Machine

[Release] The Octopus in My Mind

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Jam version complete! https://problemmachine.itch.io/the-octopus-in-my-mind

 

                                                    

 

Due to unexpected distractions of everyone involved, I've set aside my first project for the jam, albeit with hopes of either helping it scrape past the finish line or shuttering it and reviving it for WJ5. In the meanwhile, I have a whole new project coming together, and I think for once I may have managed to actually pick a reasonable scope for a solo project.

 

In The Octopus In My Mind, you play as the titular octopus, tasked with swimming around inside the brain of a normal everyday man and blocking out extraneous thoughts with clouds of ink. Most of these thoughts are just distracting, but angry thoughts will knock you around, sad thoughts will slow you down, and HAPPY thoughts are to be preserved. Try to do it as quickly and cleanly as possible so that you don't shit up your brain! And also maybe leaderboards or something depending on how much time I have.

 

Task List

Code:

Basic movement (100%)

Character rendering (60%)

Special Character effects (squishy octopus) (20%)

Arm rendering (IK Code) (90%)

Level and collision code (100%)

Level Editor (100%)

Thoughts and Memories (90%)

Dialogue Screens (cut scenes) (0%)

Ending Screen (if different) (0%)

(Optional) Special gfx (0%)

(Optional) Layered Music(0%)

(Optional) Sound effects sync to music (0%)

(Optional) Leaderboard(0%)

 

Design:

Level 1 (100%)

Level 2 (0%)

Level 3 (0%)

Level 4 (0%)

Level 5 (0%)

Cutscene Dialogue(0%)

Ending(0%)

 

Art:

Tileset (100%)

Splash Screens (0%)

 

Audio:

Main Music (60%)

Ending Music (0%)

SFX (0%)

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Early work went very quickly, but I've bogged down a bit now in getting the level editor working. Main issue is making sure tiles get lined up with the cursor properly, which is harder than it sounds since the camera's moving around and the level is growing and shrinking to accommodate new tiles. Wanted it to have all the basic code in place today, but I'm feeling burnt out on coding so that will probably have to wait for tomorrow.

WJ4-001.jpg

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I really like how you planned out the work, kinda makes me excited all on its own.

The premise sounds cool, looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

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Finally got the dang level editor working, put in a bit of time on the music. Dunno how done this will be by the deadline but can at least get one level in and working for sure.

WJ4-002.jpg

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aaaaaagh. The game's been basically done for 2 hours and the last two hours have been spent trying to get a goddamn working build out of Flashdevelop. My brain is starting to completely turn to mush, so figuring this out will have to wait on tomorrow.

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Very cool idea and a fun control scheme that takes a little while to master but then is very satisfying as you coax your squid around the level. Nice choice of thought memes too! It would be nice to get some more feedback when you block a thought (perhaps a random audio clip of one of the Thumbs losing, giving up on or solidifying a train of thought? Must be hundreds!) and to play with the thought-types feature you originally mentioned.

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Yeah I'm hearing consistent feedback that it's a bit ambiguous whether a thought is getting blocked or not, so I'll have to try to figure that out. I'm probably going to make an extended non-thumbs version alongside the thumbs version, so I probably don't want to tie the sound design to thumbs memes, and also don't particularly feel like trolling episodes for audio clips, so I'm going to have to figure out how to make it more obvious. Actually, this ties into the thought-type feature, which is already like 60% implemented -- the main aesthetic difference between thought types I want is a glow around the edges, so maybe just having that glow wink out will be enough to provide adequate feedback.

 

The thought-type feature is another reason I want to get away from thumb memes for the extended version btw. It's hard to really categorize those as angry/sad/happy thoughts in a meaningful way.

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