Things have slowed down a fair amount since I got level 2 to a finished(probably) state. I sort of dragged my feet getting the melee AI up to speed with the ranged AI. Because the game was going to be "a simple 5 minute game with one enemy type" I didn't design the AI to be as scalable as I should have from the start. Things are in order now, without a full rewrite thankfully, but I was pretty sure I was going to have to. Hence the feet dragging.

I've also been a bit slower I think just from a bit of exhaustion. I set a new deadlift PR on thursday, 435 lbs at 170-173lbs bodyweight (2.5x my bodyweight), and then a fair amount of volume after that. Its not uncommon for me to struggle with game dev productivity for a few days after a really intense session like that. Especially deadlifts, as the CNS tax is heavier than any other exercise. So I should try not to beat myself up too much about it. 

I also dropped off a resume for a day job, and have an interview coming up on Monday, which, might not progress the game, but will keep me from being homeless in a few months, so arguably thats a huge long term productivity boost, even if it'll also sort of slow down development.

I updated the page graphics a fair amount as well. I don't know if I'll change this in the future, I don't really plan to right now, atleast not a ton. But for posterities sake if I do, here's the one I just made.

I also added a little perspective  grid background, not really planning to change that either, and its probably simple enough thats its not really worth uploading to this devlog for any hypothetical person that would be looking through these in the future.

I also made ladders today, so, thats neat, and you'll see them ingame I'm sure. At the moment they aren't any special state interraction or anything, I just keep them angled so you can hop up them. Seemed like a nice easy solution to show players a vertical path that feels like a weird place to put crates or something. 

I've been trying to create cool gameplay, with fairly realistic floorplans, but i kind of let go of that a bit towards the end of level 2, and sort of want to let go of it even more, to allow for some more interesting platforming stuff or something. But I dont know. 

Part of why I haven't been actually making the next level is just because I've been trying to figure out exactly what I want from it. Originally it was gonna just be a bit of the same kind of fighting normal enemies gameplay loop, but it was suggested that I should do mini-bosses before the final boss, and I was thinking of doing that. But I just really haven't been able to visualize a way to make an interesting mini-boss that doesn't compromise the core experience of choosing your own path and playstyle going through the game. And for such a short game, it feels clunky to the story and progression, and I don't think theres actually enough to play through currently for the players to get bored and feel like they need a boss fight to mix up gameplay rules a little bit.