Update 1

Last week, a few of my classmates gave me critiques for my game!

I’ve been following a tutorial online for how to create a 2D platformer, so I have to take a few creative liberties since the virutal pet isn’t necessarily supposed to go on a quest to defeat a monster. Aside from generally continuing to figure out the mechanics, my classmates suggested I make the pet’s flipbook animation slower. That way, the pet won’t look as hopped up on caffeine and adrenaline and more relaxed and generally just happy to be there. For the time being, I am using the same sprite at what was on the tutorial, but I do plan on drawing my own character, time allowing. 

Another critique I received was to add dialogue or to start thinking about dialogue because it’ll help guide what I should do for the game as a whole. A suggestion one student gave was to make it beg for its life if it hasn’t been fed, and while it wasn’t really helpful on the surface, it did give me a starting block on how it can communicate that it needs food, at least while it’s nonverbal. 

I’ve been focusing on the environment, camera and character, so the game isn’t particularly “fun” just yet, and you can’t interact with the character just yet. Working on the mechanics would definitely help make the game more fun and generally better, though.