Tag: Level Loader

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🧠 DevLog #6 – Menus, Maps, and Mayhem

Hey everyone, welcome back.

This week was a bit of a whirlwind — one of those classic indie dev stretches where you get a lot done, just not always in the order you expected. Or planned. Or even fully remember.

But somehow, it’s all moving forward.

🧪 What’s New This Week

🧭 Main Menu + Level Selection

You can now navigate between levels from a central menu — a small win that feels huge. It’s basic, functional, and perfect for testing. One click, boom, you’re loading into the next puzzle.

🧱 Room Switching + Scene Loading

Actual level switching is working! I can hop between puzzles mid-session without the whole thing falling apart — which means I can finally build, test, and tweak without relaunching the game every time.

🎨 Visual Experiments (AKA “Oh Shiny!” Moments)

I played around with new room tile graphics and some early tests for switch and gate visuals. No permanent changes yet — just seeing what sticks, what pops, and what feels right.

🧾 Business Side Adventures

Also: I spent too much time doing business-y things. Paperwork, planning, and prep work to get the studio side of this dream off the ground. It’s not glamorous, but it’s real — and it’s happening.

🚀 What’s Next

  • Continue refining the level loading system
  • Finalize core visual style for gates, switches, and floors
  • Start rebuilding levels using the new loader + menu flow
  • Keep pushing forward on the company side so I can do this full-time

🙃 Final Thought

Some weeks are about building. Others are about unblocking the stuff that lets you build better. This week was a little of both — a few solid wins, a lot of little tests, and just enough chaos to keep things interesting.

Onward.

– Chris

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🧠 DevLog #5 – Scaling Back to Move Forward

Hey folks, and welcome back!

This past week was all about the level loader — again. At one point, it was working. Then it was really working. Then, as I kept expanding it to handle more edge cases, things started to feel… bloated.

Turns out, the more magic I tried to cram into the loader, the more fragile and complicated it became.

🔧 Simplifying the Monster

The original goal was to have one system that:

  • Built rooms from text
  • Placed switches and gates
  • Rotated gates correctly
  • Linked switches to gates
  • Delivered pizza
    (okay maybe not that last one, but still)

It was ambitious — and to be honest, kind of fun while it lasted.

But as the complexity grew, so did the mess. I realized I was spending more time debugging edge cases than actually building puzzles. That’s when I made the call: scale it back.

🧩 What the Loader Does Now

The loader is now focused on what it does best: tile placement.

  • It builds the room shape from a text-based layout
  • It places walls, floor tiles, obstacles, and decorations
  • It sets the stage for the rest of the logic to happen manually (for now)

The rest — things like linking switches to gates or rotating them properly — will be handled by hand in the Unity editor for now.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a cleaner, more stable foundation. And honestly, it’s still saving me tons of time.

🚀 What’s Next

  • Rebuilding my test levels with the new streamlined loader
  • Reintroducing gates, switches, and goals one piece at a time
  • Planning phase two of the loader once the basics are rock solid
  • Trying to resist the urge to “just add one more feature” again

🙃 Final Thought

Sometimes, progress means pulling back instead of pushing forward. The dream is still a full-featured level loading system — and I’ll get there. But for now, I’m happy having a tool that helps me build faster without breaking everything else in the process.

One tile at a time.

– Chris

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