It's the Keeper Keeper devlog!

I've been working on this game in my spare time over the last few weeks, so it's still missing a lot of basic stuff and this first post will mostly be an outline of my future plans for this game. I'm hoping to use the devlog as a way to process my thoughts on the development and direction of the game, and generally  use it as a public roadmap for my Keeper Keeper todo list. My goal is to keep this devlog updated every week, or at least every couple weeks if life gets busy or there's nothing much new to talk about.

First off, what is Keeper Keeper? Or really, what will Keeper Keeper be when it's finished?

Keeper Keeper is a sportsball game where you can mess around with the goals, or keeps. I have three main keep interactions (aside from scoring points, of course) that I'll be implementing in the game. Players will be able to push keeps along the walls, turn keeps on or off by opening and closing them, and claim or steal keeps from others. I've got some ideas for different abilities for players, like being able to sticky grab the ball or quickly shoot the ball. I'm pretty into the things players can do with keeps, and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun for players to have the opportunity to play defensively by playing offense against the other players' keeps. 

I'll probably create a few different arenas to explore the various keep options in, and keeps won't have all interactions available at all times. Keep features will vary by arena, and will be introduced over the course of a tournament style campaign (gosh, just now realizing I'll likely want to make an AI for a single player mode, too), or will be available to choose by the players in a more free for all setting.

When Keeper Keeper is complete, it'll support up to four players. Local multiplayer will definitely be there, and maybe someday I'll get network play going. There will be a version that lives in an arcade cabinet, and this has a due date of just June 20th, 2018 since it's going to be my submission for sparKCade, a local game jam I'm actually running for Flyover Indies. I've never built an arcade before, so I'm really looking forward to that aspect of this project. Someday I'd love to release on Nintendo Switch, that would be pretty cool!

Even though it's right at the beginning of development, here's what I've gotten done so far.

I'm making Keeper Keeper in Unity, which lets me develop pretty quickly. I'm using Unity's built in physics system, which has some quirks but I've worked with it plenty before, and it can easily handle a few things I just don't feel like calculating on my own. I'm still figuring out the "feel" of moving around, but it seems to be pretty close. Well, close enough that I'm not worried about it right now.

Two player controller support! I've tested with two PS4 controllers, and I assume it should work with other controllers but I don't have other controllers to test, yet. With the possibility of releasing on Switch and playing with JoyCons, I'm keeping the controls as simple as possible. Right now the only input is a single analog stick. 

Playing with keeps! You can push either player's keep along the wall, which is really fun but still needs a lot of work to get just right. For instance, if you push a keep just right it can pop off the wall and back again, and that's clearly no good. I haven't decided yet if keeps will be able to move around corners, or if I'll just do a round arena for a similar effect. 

Fresh art! I just settled on an art style I like for Keeper Keeper, and I've spent a fair bit of time this week updating sprites. They aren't all in the game yet, but working through what sprites I'll need when has been a good way to decide on interaction flow, especially in terms of the keeps.

There's an awful lot that I already know needs to happen next.

I've let my project folder get kinda disorganized. I've got a whole slew of scripts I tested and abandoned, and my art folder is a true mess. My very next action is to clean things up a bit. After that I want to get something that appears to be more like a game, right now Keeper Keeper honestly doesn't do much. For instance, the game does keep score, you just can't see it cause there's no UI.

Coming Soon:

1. Keep adding updated sprites.
2. Create UI art assets, then add the UI to the game to show score and a pause screen.
3. Ability to win and reset the game.
4. Bug fixes forever.

Coming Later:

1. Additional keep interactions (open/closed and claiming).
2. Player abilities (grab and shoot).
3. Complete animations for keeps, players, the ball, and UI.
4. Sound effects and music.
5. Additional arena designs.
6. Main menu, including settings and controls overview.
7. Game mode, player, and arena select.
8. Four player support.
9. Game cabinet!