Dolan's Cadillac

Devlog

• Technical write-up
  December 05, 2023 by postgoodism

  1

  #pico8, #programming

  The game is done, and we’re very pleased with its reception. Before I return to the real life I’ve been neglecting for the month of November, I wanted to post a quick summary of the less-straightf... Continue reading

  
• Dolan's Cadillac 1.0 is released!
  November 30, 2023 by postgoodism

  2

  #release

  I kinda fell off the devlog train for the last week; too busy spending the proverbial 90% of the time on the last 10% of the game. We’ve got music (four tracks), lots of new sound effects, lots of b... Continue reading

  
• Gluing everything together
  November 24, 2023 by postgoodism

  The game is now both winnable (and losable) without cheating, though the cheats remain active for now to help with debugging specific game states. If you lose, you’re routed to a boring (but service... Continue reading

  
• Burying Dolan
  November 21, 2023 by postgoodism

  The last section of the game, in which the player is dodging gunfire while burying Dolan’s car and covering over the pit with fresh pavement, is now mostly playable. After days of not really being s... Continue reading

  
• The final stage taking shape
  November 18, 2023 by postgoodism

  1

  So far the player has dug a hole under the road in the desert, and Dolan has driven right into it. For the final stage of the game, the player will need to refill the hole while Dolan leans out the wi... Continue reading

  
• Retroactive devlog posts
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  It’d be fun to have a record of the game’s development at the end of the jam (along with an actual game, if all goes well), so I’ve retroactively adapted the progress reports and screenshots I... Continue reading
• Connecting match-3 and car-trapping
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  The big problem with the car-trapping mode that’s appeared over the last few days is that there’s no way to reach it. The match-3 mode has no victory condition. As a stopgap I let the player insta... Continue reading

  
• The trap is sprung!
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  Time to move on to the next phase of the game! When the player has had a chance to dig their hole, Dolan’s Caddy eventually arrives and falls in. I had originally hoped to implement some sort of Jel... Continue reading

  
• Hooking title screens up to the main game is less fun
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  You know what’s super easy? Having your “press O to start” title-screen prompt immediately switch to your in-game mode when the button is pressed. Maybe with a fade-to-black-and-back in the midd... Continue reading

  
• Title screens are fun
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  With match-3 mostly feature-complete, I decided to reward myself and go make a title screen. I love making titles and main menus in fantasy consoles; there’s no other systems running, and as long as... Continue reading

  
• Boulders!
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  I got it into my head that that match-3 gameplay wasn’t challenging enough, and that we should add indestructible rocks to the game board. These rocks can’t be matched or cleared, but they can be... Continue reading

  
• Fancier digging, gratuitous gore
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  I iterated on the match-3 gameplay a bit, fixing a match-detection bug and having cleared blocks fly up and off the screen instead of just vanishing instantly. I also replaced the three sprites used t... Continue reading

  
• Match-3 gameplay
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  With my development PC running again, it was time to figure out how the game would actually work. Peter made a suggestion early on that digging the whole could be implemented as a match-3 game, and th... Continue reading

  
• Initial background art
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  My PC died its final death a few days ago. While I wait for replacement parts, Donald mocked up the a background for the digging gameplay... Continue reading

  
• Initial game concept
  November 14, 2023 by postgoodism

  In preparation for the PiCoSteveMo jam, I was tossing around some hastily-scribbled concept art for a game based on King’s 1985 novella Dolan’s Cadillac . In the story, a woman is murdered by a cr... Continue reading