Robert

The main concept and making a start

Hello! Welcome to the first DevLog for my upcoming game "Robert", which will be made for the GoedWare Game Jam. 

The themes for this jam are "Love, Death & Robots" and "The price of freedom". Having never seen the Netflix series entitled "Love, Death & Robots" (which I assume is the primary source of inspiration for this jam), I decided to take a more literal approach to the themes. My idea for this game jam is to make a 2D story-based puzzle platformer in Unreal Engine 4 following a sentient robot named Robert, who is trying to escape the confinement of the factory he was made in. Along the way, Robert must use different, movable objects (such as planks of wood and springs) to reach different platforms and progress towards the exit. This is especially important as Robert will not have legs- instead, he will have a singular wheel that he will use to move. This way, he must find alternative routes to ascend to higher platforms as he cannot jump. Moreover, Robert must collect hearts, which will in return enlarge his heart to make him more sentient and able to use different abilities/effects, which will help him escape.

So far, I have created Robert himself, the main cover image and some assets to be used in the game using the free software Piskel. As I am mainly a programmer and not much of an artist, I put A LOT of time into researching different images for inspiration and trying to add as much detail to the sprites/animations as possible! With every game jam, I try to further improve my pixel art skills and push myself to create something new and more detailed than the last!

For Robert, I initially decided to give him a wheel instead of legs as it was easier to animate, but I also realised it would be an opportunity to add different mechanics to further challenge the player and develop the storyline. At first, I thought of the character of Wall-E, mainly because he proves himself to be both sentient and capable of love, so I decided to loosely base Robert's personality on that of Wall-E.

Here are the environmental assets I have created so far:

Picture of asset	Where this asset will be used
	This flooring will be used towards the end of the game when Robert escapes the factory and makes it to the outside world. In the game, the factory will transition to the outside world gradually. This is why the flooring from the factory is seen with grass on top.
	This switch will be used to activate elevators or doors within the game, contributing to the puzzle aspect of the game.
	This sprite sheet consists of the elevator in separate parts (to allow the elevator floor to move separately) and the button (to allow the red part to be pushed down when stood on). The elevator will be used to ascend the level, and will once again be part of the puzzles. The buttons will be used in a similar way to the switch and will activate the elevators/doors.
	These lights will be placed around the game to provide light, as the start of the game especially will be very dark. This will also add to the eerie/dingy atmosphere of the factory.
	This heart can be picked up by Robert to increase his sentience.
	This plain version of the floor will be darkened in Unreal and enlarged t be used as the background for the factory.
	This will be the flooring for the factory.
	These railings will be placed in the foreground, in front of the flooring of the factory to add more detail.
	These smaller platforms will be floating and will provide more of a challenge for the player to access.
	This plank can be moved by the player and placed next to crates for Robert to climb up.
	These crates will be alternative flooring to add more details and mechanics to the game.

I have used post-process settings to further alter the look and feel of the game, such as adding the vignette and grain jitter effects, with the idea being that with more sentience and a bigger heart, the screen will clear and become brighter to Robert. This will be a small, yet effective mechanic which will further emphasise the "the power of freedom" theme of the jam.

My main plan for tomorrow is to draw out the potential puzzles to be included in the game and use this to lay out the game properly. From this, I will probably add more ideas for mechanics to make the puzzles more challenging and diverse from one another.

Thank you for reading and see you in the next development log!