Getting Started on Operation S.C.A.R.E.

Welcome to the project journal for Operation S.C.A.R.E!

This is my first new game project in a decade. I won't retell the story of my absence here, but believe me when I say that I have missed this work more than you can imagine.

Operation S.C.A.R.E, in a nutshell, is intended to be a spooky, kid-friendly adventure of exploring a haunted house, dealing with greedy ghosts, and reclaiming the Halloween candy that the jealous ghosts stole from the neighborhood kids.  It contains the light survival-horror elements of limited resources, inventory management, and virtually invincible enemies inhabiting a creepy, atmospheric environment.

Last year (2024) saw the preproduction aspects come together, including the establishment of the concept, the creation of the game engine, several iterations of level design, acquiring candidate assets, and the ever-important game design document (GDD).

Now, at the end of January 2025, I find myself having made more progress in a month than I ever had before. The only game of mine that came together as quickly as this one has so far was CornShark, which went from concept to Alpha in just a few short months.  However, I was a student at the time and only working part-time at two jobs, so I had an unusual amount of time to dedicate to it.

My progress is about to slow, as the Spring 2025 semester is in full swing and a considerable workload is barreling toward me.  Therefore, it is extremely important that I remember my progress so that it can be resumed at the next opportunity.

Here is a quick list of what has been accomplished in January:

Accomplishments

Changes in the Engine

• Created, tested, and enhanced MHTileWorld class for coordinating elements of isometric tile worlds
• Map data file loader for tilemaps and actors
• Added overlays for floors and actors
• Added toggle for cell highlight in map views
• Added toggle for mouse pointer in MHScreen base class
• Enhanced MHTileMapActor for objects whose state as an obstacle is a toggle
• Created MHImage class to simplify image transformations
• Implemented messaging system -- tested with stairs and audio
• Implemented wall repulsion to improve navigation
• Collision map with real-time updates
• MHButton images
• Established asset pipeline for large isometric objects

Game Development Tasks

• Designed and implemented screen flow skeleton
• Game map loaded and displayed
• Game data model
• Character placeholders
• Whitebox level for main floor
• Whitebox level for upper floor
• Stairs
• Sneaking
• Started placeholder tile sets for all maps
• Implemented doors (incomplete at this point, but working)

Known Issues

• Messy class structures with poor cohesion, especially surrounding the game's input handling and the engine's tile map system components
• Potential (likely) performance issues in tile map actor collision checking

Next Steps

• Change actor factory to recognize and instantiate doors
• Implement dialogs and text areas
• Choose and create a game font for normal text
• Reconsider the game's runtime architecture

• Consolidate game's input functionality
• Decompose game screen code to MVC pattern
• Consider cohesion issues vs. class explosion risks
• Refactor engine's tile map system
• Create container objects
• Implement candy collection
• Experiment with better wall geometry
• Implement ghost controller