Woke up this morning and still had no idea what to do. I spent the time improving the original puzzle idea. Works not too bad but definitely has a few issues.

Picked a spatula of all things because something about it screamed I’m the tool you’re looking for but I don’t know why.

Spent some time learning about the built in particle system in Gamemaker Engine. It was enjoyable and frustrating. The manual is super helpful and not at the same time because it has all the answers but not every example you could possibly want. So I learned if you set delay to minimum 1 second, maximum 10 seconds, your particle system is damn slow to start!

Made one using the inbuilt options then swapped the visual particle for a Kenney Star asset which seemed to work well.

Definitely makes you think magical, important spatula. I realised a while ago that sometimes stereotypes are good. Why is red the universal colour we all use to say pay attention? Because we all have the inbuilt stereotype that red means danger, warning, important, stop, safety etc. That’s why traffic lights are always red for stop.

Shiny particles do the same thing. They catch your attention, they move, they pull you in and you associate magic with them.

Still got collision to do with the spatula and the player model needs work. I literally dumped a Kenney ball asset on a Kenney block asset and drew some splooges on them for eyes.

Quickly mocked up a nice context narrative system.

It’s 2:45pm here now. I’m about to stop for a few hours for church (4pm - 5:30pm). Am considering whether I eat pie from the fridge or buy takeaway for dinner after.

I’m not entirely sure if I’ll completely finish on time because I ended up dividing my time over the two concepts which is a very rookie mistake to make in a jam but I think I have enough to submit something, whether it qualifies as good or finished is entirely another factor.

I call this a win because I learned things I didn’t know about and made something I can show people.