The Scrapper Dev Log, Part 1: Plan

Written By Colby Harrison

Back in January 2023, I participated in the Boss Rush Game Jam. I created and (almost) finished my first game solo. As promised, I would write a Dev Log about the process. Here’s that Dev Log! I’ll mostly talk about the process, but at the end I’m going to go into a bit why this game meant more to me.

I joined the Boss Rush Game Jam for three reasons. First, I wanted hands-on game making experience. Despite being in the industry for 3+ years, I have rarely spent time in an engine. I want to be a game producer, so this felt like a logical first step. Second, I wanted to exercise my production skills by myself. By myself was important for my first step. I wanted to fail in my own time and at my own pace. [come back to this] This is, admittedly, counterintuitive to what true production work is. I plan to produce with people in the future. And third, I did it as a confidence boost. I got rejected from a job I really wanted at the end of 2022. It sucked realizing I wasn’t at the skill level yet. But I took the interview feedback and used it as fuel for making this game. I know I am capable of being a good game dev. I know I am capable of being a good producer. I just have to show it in my own way.

I’ll be breaking this into 4 phases of this project: Plan, Design, Execute, and Ship. First up is the Plan phase. 

PLAN

So, the Scrapper. I only had 4 weeks to not only make this game but teach myself a whole new engine (Gamemaker Studio 2). So, realistically, I could only make 1 minor difference to the game loop. I decided to combine attacking the boss with upgrading, by allowing the player to “makeshift” parts off the boss into their own weapon. It would allow me to write the code for the player and, for the most part, copy and paste it to the boss. I also wanted to add randomization to the “makeshift” upgrade mechanic. Every playthrough, each boss chooses 3 random abilities from a pool. These 3 abilities would be the selection the player can choose from when they “makeshift”. This would repeat for 3 core bosses [edit] and end at one final boss, who took 3 characteristics you did not choose along the player’s journey. It made the game a roguelike. I thought this was entirely doable in 4 weeks. My scope ended as such:

Player

  • 3 core abilities to choose before the first boss

  • 3 possible ability slots after getting a boss to half HP, with a total of 9 possible abilities

Boss

  • 3 Core Bosses

    • Each boss has 2 phases

      • Phase 1: Pre-Makeshift

      • Phase 2: Post-Makeshift

    • Each boss has 3 abilities

  • 1 Final Boss

    • Has 3 abilities that were not chosen by the player

Now that the scope had been planned, I moved to scheduling. Given the game jam was 4 weeks, it was logical to separate the work into 4 week long sprints. The sprints were planned as such:

Week 1 - Design the game, grey box the game, learn to code the needed core features (e.g. move, jump, shoot)

Week 2 - Implement the player abilities

Week 3 - Copy and paste the player abilities to the core bosses with some minor edits. Implement the “Makeshift” mechanic. Start making the final boss.

Week 4 - Finish the final boss. Implement art, sound, UI, and credits. Ship the game.


Next blog post will be the Design phase!

Colby Harrison