COMBAT and HEALTH | Hekla the Witch dev log

Introduction

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another dev log for Hekla the Witch, a game I'm creating with my 5-year-old daughter. By the end of last week, we wanted to start working on the first enemy for the game. As the major Zelda fan that I am, I initially wanted it to be a cute little slime, but alas, my 5-year-old lead designer had other plans.

Apparently, witches like slimes and keep them as pets, harvesting slime drops for potions or something. So, no killing slimes for now. But what dangerous creatures could Hekla then be facing on her adventures? Well, according to my daughter, witches are evil and battle things that are good. This wasn't what I had planned; I wanted a Link-like hero battling slimes. However, Hekla isn’t world-dominance evil but rather misunderstood and different. After some discussion, we understood that witches might like things like slimes, slugs, and dark colors, but Hekla can still be cute and nice in her own way.

No slimes, but what could our first enemy be then? My daughter's long list included dogs more than once. I kept explaining that drawing a dog isn't in my skill set yet, so she agreed to save that idea for later. One of her other suggestions was strawberries, and that's what we settled on. And while I'm not saying I'm secretly pretending they're red slimes with green hats, my 5-year-old's idea is growing on me.

On Tuesday, my lead designer went to the zoo, giving me some time to work on the game. My main task for the week is to get Hekla's first weapon working so she can combat those vile strawberries. After that, we'll add a health system so the strawberries can hurt Hekla as well. Before diving into this, I decided to add a camera to the game. My idea is for the camera to move only when the player moves outside the screen, fitting better with the game's puzzle and exploration elements.

I spent over an hour getting the camera to work, eventually copying code from an old tutorial. But now, with the camera functional, I moved on to the attacking mechanics. I created a new scene for Hekla's powder weapon, adjusting animations and sync issues. Then, I built a hitbox class and an H-box class to handle interactions, eventually adding health and death animations for our enemy strawberries.

On Wednesday, I focused on adding health to Hekla and making the strawberries damage her upon contact. Debugging collision shapes took some effort, but everything worked smoothly once I connected the right signals. I added a little knockback effect and a UI to display the player's health, thanks to previous tutorials.

Thursday afternoon was spent creating a death animation (or "pass out" animation, since I'm too attached to Hekla to see her "die"). I'm trying not to get sucked into perfecting the art just yet, focusing more on the functionality for now. Later, we might revisit the art style, especially if my 5-year-old decides we need more colors.

I wrapped up the week with the intent to add a continue screen but acknowledged needing some rest. The new school year is looming, so dev logs might come less frequently, but I'll continue enjoying this project. Please like, subscribe, and leave a comment if you want to see more!

Keywords

• Game development
• Hekla the Witch
• Pixel art
• Combat mechanics
• Player health
• Enemy AI
• Parent-child collaboration

FAQs

1. What is the main premise of Hekla the Witch?

   • Hekla the Witch battles misunderstood creatures like strawberries, avoiding typical enemies like slimes which are kept as pets.

2. Why is the game’s first enemy a strawberry?

   • The choice of a strawberry enemy came from the imagination of the lead designer, my 5-year-old daughter.

3. How does the camera system work in Hekla the Witch?

   • The camera only moves when the player moves outside the screen, fitting better with the puzzle and exploration elements of the game.

4. What challenges were faced in implementing combat mechanics?

   • Synchronizing animations from different scenes, debugging collision shapes, and creating reusable hitbox and H-box classes were some of the challenges.

5. How is player health managed in the game?

   • A UI displays the player's health, and Hekla takes damage from enemy contact with an added knockback effect.

6. Why did you rename the death animation to pass out?

   • I became too attached to Hekla to see her "die," so the animation was renamed to “pass out” to make it less distressing.

7. Will the art style change in the future?

   • The current pixel art style is experimental and functional for now, but it may be revisited based on feedback and the vision of the lead designer.