WhileIterating's game – Devlog

A daily devlog documenting my journey building a turn-based RPG, with many other elements mixed in for fun, in Godot

Project maintained by Brhando Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

WhileIterating RPG Devlog

Day 1: Environment Setup and Basic Design – 18 May, 2025

Installed Godot 4.4.1 Mono
Set up .NET 8 SDK
Verified C# script runs inside Godot
Configured Git, added .gitignore, made first commit
Created base folders: /Scenes, /Scripts, /Assets, /UI
Finalized core loop, races, classes, stat system, and world design
Gained deeper understanding of Godot scenes, physics process, and script structure
Ready to start player movement and time system tomorrow

Day 2: Character Movement, Starting Area, and Early Dialogue – May 19, 2025

Progress Made

Designed the starting area of the game, including terrain layout, environment objects, and player spawn placement.
Added assets (sprites, terrain, etc.) to assets folder.
Successfully implemented a fully controllable player character, complete with 4-directional movement and animation using AnimatedSprite2D.
Set up the Camera2D to follow the player.
Built the foundation of the class selection system using interactable items (e.g., a Short Sword).
Implemented a CanvasLayer-based dialogue UI system using a Panel and Label.
Wrote a reusable DialogUI.cs script to handle timed messages via ShowMessage().
Confirmed all internal values (text, visibility, position) were updating as expected.

Challenges

Despite correct setup, the dialogue UI wouldn’t render in-game.
Troubleshot potential issues with:
- Layout anchors and positioning
- Text visibility and color overrides
- Missing font assignments
- Z-layering and rendering order
- Viewport scaling/stretch modes
After extensive debugging, decided to scrap and rebuild the dialogue UI from scratch to ensure clean behavior.

Next Steps

Rebuild the dialogue UI from a clean scene using minimal structure.
Confirm the panel anchors properly to the top of the screen and stays fixed regardless of camera movement.
Add polish: fade-in/out, typewriter animation, or branching text.
Fully connect item pickup (sword/tome) to class assignment logic.

Reflection

Even though the dialogue box didn’t work out today, I made solid foundational progress: the player moves, the world is built, and the systems are coming together. Sometimes starting over is faster than untangling a UI issue—and now I know exactly how to rebuild it cleaner. Tomorrow’s gonna be a win.

🗡️ Day 3: Combat System, Scene Structure, and Sprite Animation – May 20, 2025

Progress Made

Built and tested a fully functional turn-based combat system, including turn manager, player/enemy actions, win/loss conditions, and UI flow.
Refactored the DungeonUI structure to avoid unnecessary scripting by handling logic directly in the BattleScene script via GetNode().
Finalized clean and modular PlayerEntity.cs and EnemyEntity.cs scripts with health systems, damage functions, and animation triggers.
Gained a much clearer understanding of how to use GetNode<T>() to connect scripts with scene elements.
Improved code organization by adopting consistent C# naming conventions: _camelCase for private fields and PascalCase for public ones.
Integrated player and enemy animations using AnimatedSprite2D, including basic attack and hurt states.
Pushed the full project update (excluding devlog) to Git for version tracking and backup.

Challenges

Initially over-engineered the UI logic by trying to write a script for DungeonUI before realizing the logic belonged in BattleScene.
Required a mindset shift to better understand scene composition vs. scripting—not every node needs behavior.
Setting up animations was time-consuming due to sprite alignment and frame management, even with premade assets.
Manually managing sprite sheets and ensuring proper playback for layered visuals (main + secondary animations) was more tedious than expected.

Next Steps

Add polish to combat animations and transitions (e.g., fade effects, idle resets, or sound FX).
Revisit and implement deferred code improvements (e.g., clamped health values, constants for damage, ResetToIdle(), etc.).
Begin building the Home Base scene as part of the vertical slice, including player spawn, basic environment, and placeholder interactions.
Lay groundwork for future expansion to Resource Area, Overworld Map, and Day/Night system after core polish.

Reflection

Today everything started clicking. I finally understood how to wire up scenes using GetNode(), and my confidence with Godot and C# has skyrocketed. I learned not to overthink structure—sometimes simplicity is best. Also: animation is no joke. I’m grateful I bought a sprite pack, because aligning frames by hand is already a lot. Designing my own will be a mountain later, but that’s a future win. For now, I’m proud of what I’ve built. It works—and that feels awesome.