Squirrel Eat Squirrel Eat Squirrel

DSMC (Spring 2025) » Devlog
17 days ago by Paul
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Rewriting this devlog a bit from memory, as I lost a previous version.

I started with a simple gamemode layout *starting screen *gameplay *recap/gameover screen

I knew that making the game interesting was going to be difficult, I played a very primitive version I made and brainstormed a few options for more interesting gameplay: *horde mechanic (hard to make work with given HP system) *dynamic spawnrates depending on player size/time past in game *speed scaling with size, larger enemies/player moves slower

As I worked on the game, I decided that more spawning over time, as well as enemy size scaling roughly around the player’s size made it more interesting. If I ever revisit this project, I will consider camera movement/larger map than just the screen size as well as things like powerups that would make it play more like a bullethell.

It took me a while to decide on squirrel art, I ended up drawing a squirrel in my paint program from p4va and using Dithermark to create variants, I did the same process for the grass designs.

Current version of the game can be played here, though I do want to go back and fix the balancing a bit more.

DSMC (Spring 2025)

Add Class To Collection
StatusIn development
CategoryOther
AuthorPaul

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notapipe14 days ago

Hey, excellent visuals and ‘polish’ to the gameloop with start and endscreens as well. As you mentioned, you would benefit here from balancing the challenge. It’s too easy! :p Some sound would be fun too. I love your use of dithermark to create variants.

One simple thing would be to add an attribute like flipped to each squirrel. If moving left then flipped should be true and you display the sprite facing to the left. Otherwise, display right-facing sprite.

You could load two versions of the image. Some game engines have a way to flip sprites. I don’t think p5 does natively but one option:

 if (facingLeft){
//need to add push and pop if woven into a larger program since scale will affect other draw functions afterwards
      scale(-1, 1)
      image(img,-width/2,height/2);
  } else {
     image(img,width/2,height/2);
  }
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