PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:
Hello, I'm SmellyFrog, a hobbyist game developer from Taiwan!
I've been making games as a hobby since elementary school and It was always a dream of mine to create and publish a commercial game of my own. I was luckily able to pull it off during my first semester of university.
I used to primarily make games using Scratch 2.0 and Stencyl until I learned Python during high school and started using Pygame to develope games.
TELL US ABOUT FROGGO'S ADVENTURE.
Froggo's Adventure: Verdant Venture is a bite-sized 2D platformer strongly inspired by classic games like Super Mario World and Kirby's Adventure.
Verdant Venture follows a traditional level by level formula. You run through the levels as Froggo, who can grab enemies and objects with his tongue and even use them as a projectile against other enemies!
While Froggo's main abilities were inspired by Kirby, the enemies and level mechanics were largely inspired by SMW. I've always enjoyed how the koopas in SMW interact with its shell and how the shells interact with the world. This is why in Verdant Venture you can see bugs rolling on acorns or even using them as projectiles against you!
Although I've introduced a lot of enemies and level mechanics, I'm quite far from fully utilizing them, which is what I want to achieve in future entries of Froggo's Adventure!
HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN
The development for Verdant Venture started right before the release of Froggo Swing 'n Grapple. (My first Steam game) Since Froggo Swing 'n Grapple was my first big Pygame project, a lot of the code for it were not so well-written and the system is what I can described as barely held together by duct tapes. This was due to me not being that experienced with Pygame at the time and the fact that Swing 'n Grapple's main mechanic was a little too complex to be written from scratch. (for a newbie like me)
This made me want to create a new game with a more simple gameplay and a better established system that can be more easily built-upon, which leads to the creation of Froggo+, and it acted as a boilerplate for Verdant Venture.
I plan to use Froggo+ for more 2D game in the future, that includes future Froggo's Adventure games, so Verdant Venture can be seen as a vertical slice.
WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
Froggo's Adventure: Verdant Venture was written in Python while using Pygame-ce as the framework. The reason why I use Pygame is because I'm most familiar with Python and it's more than enough for a simple 2D platformer. I also get an excuse to make my own level editor. >:]
WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?
Of all things that went into making a game, Music definitely is one of the things I struggle the most with. Some tracks were easier to compose than the others, some had me stare at my music tracker for an entire afternoon without any progress. I guess this is normal for someone who had absolutely zero musical background. I've only started composing music since Froggo Swing 'n Grapple, though I've definitely gotten better since then.
Another big hurdle is trying optimize my Python code to have it run at a reasonable speed. Sometimes the optimization made to the game is a hurdle in itself, making some features harder to program.
And also, slope collision. (lol)
ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?
If you ever feel stuck and not sure what to do next to make progress, I recommend drawing a road map to help you breakdown the problem. This can be applied to long term goals like finishing a certain big feature or even short term goals like fixing a small bug in the game.
For solo-devs like me who struggle to finish something, I also recommend making something small, but compact, like Verdant Venture.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
- Thanks for reading! Believe in the process and don't forget to take breaks!
If you like my stuff, please follow me on twitter!
https://twitter.com/daSmellyfrog
- SmellyFrog
If you like Froggo's Adventure, you can get it here for just a dollar!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2854780/Froggos_Adventure_Verdant_Venture/
❤️
