Hello, human beings!!! 

This is PlayerXT, developer of "Be Cube Colony Stars" (and some other projects I've been meaning to get back to.), and this is the introduction to my newest devlog! Where I will narrate my development process for the fourth demo of the game while talking about any random thing that comes to my mind (yeah, you better get used to this way of mine).

And... hmn...

(1 minute thinking about what to say next later...)

Sooo... I'm already warning you that I don't really know how this "devlog" thing works, and I didn't spend an hour researching "how to make devlogs on itch.io", and I honestly don't want to know about it, I want this to be something more "my" you know? So here there won't be any fancy words or complicated explanations, just me talking nonsense while I'm making a game with an extremely crazy premise, and... I hope you like it, because I'll definitely have a lot of fun watching this crazy stuff I wrote on the internet in the future.

So, that said... That's how I made demo 4... of be cube colony stars...

            ◇ The demo 4 production process ◇

Hello human beings! This is the one and only (trust me) Player Xt! And today is none other than...

◇ Day 1 of demo 4 production ◇

Okay, I've already turned on my beloved game maker studios 2 (who clearly doesn't hate me) and...

...

I don't know what to do... 

...

Hmn...

(An hour of pure procrastination later...)

Yeah! Before anything else, I'm going to analyze what the main idea or theme of this demo will be. In the previous version, demo 3, the main theme was the game's Hub world, an infinite space, full of floating lands, flying clocks and an atmosphere of mystery and nostalgia in every corner you were in, so the art, the marketing, everything was centered on this theme! So, I'm going to do the same with this demo, and I already have something in mind, but first I'll have to... go back in time...

(Half an hour later of pure nostalgia and frustration)

Ok... I... don't know how to start this...

First of all, it was supposed to be 1 hour later, but... I got stuck in a bug that prevented me from continuing the game...

(A round of applause for my past self...)

And second, going back to version 0.7 was a nostalgically frustrating, but extremely interesting, trip.

The game is full... FULL of bugs! I don't even know where to start, the controls are slow, the room transitions are confusing, and visually speaking, this is definitely not the cube, but... at the same time... it is...

That's the funny thing, as buggy as this version is, it has the DNA, the soul of the current Be Cube! The songs have the same style as the game, even though they're from the internet (of course, maybe I based them on them to compose the current ones), the level design, as limited as it is (both in terms of the character's movements and the creator's experience), still has the essence of the new versions, even if it doesn't pass in some aspects, it's as if the creativity and passion were all there, the only thing missing was the experience and depth!

And I'm getting lost in nostalgia... Enough of this messing around then! Because what I was really interested in, is this!

A stage that was not only lost in time, since it was discarded in future updates, but is also begging to reach its full potential! And that's exactly what I'm going to do, that's right, human beings, the next theme of demo 4 will be around this stage! Lava, fire, mechanisms, and everything else!

And now that I know the theme, let's just start!!!

Hmn... but where do I start...

(Another 2 hours later of pure procrastination...)

Oh... yeah... I was developing a game, right?

Now that I have the theme in mind, I can finally start producing the stage!

While the team's scriptwriter/me writes the story and tries to fit this area cohesively into the plot, and the team's musician/me writes background music that is catchy but doesn't blow your mind eardrums, I'm going to focus on building the level's environment, and for that, I'm going to need a little help from the team's graphic designer, who, you'll never guess who he is...

In the original level, the goal was to create a place that represented an industry, a place where lava was transformed into fuel (what's the logic behind that? I don't know, I'm not the scriptwriter), so... something similar to places where oil is extracted,!

"and how did I do back then?" you ask me, Well...

I aimed for an extraction center, and I got a level with black walls and a gray background, with the occasional iron-like structure behind... in short, a generic mess, but we'll solve that now, starting with the aesthetics of the level.

Since this will be a lava extraction area or something similar, some ideas are already clear:

▪︎ The central color will be red/orange and navy blue leaning towards gray, with red representing the dangers and blue representing the platforms and such.

▪︎ The background will have to give a sense of depth and distance, to indicate that the place is gigantic and full of machines everywhere.

▪︎ And, everything will be made of metal or a similar material, after all, it will be a place full of lava, everything around it has to be made to resist the lava.

▪︎ Decorations will consist of rotating gears, machines going up and down, anything that involves a repetitive movement.

Okay, with the ideas already organized, all that's left is to start... who am I kidding, of course I'm going to procrastinate after this...

(Another 3 hours of... whoever wrote this was too lazy to write the rest)

I'M BACK!!!!

Now let's get to work!

Mouse ready? Check! Active drawing program? Check! Relaxing 80-hour lo-fi playing in the background?

- Why Internet?! Why?!?!?!

So, as a substitute, I'm listening to an incredible playlist from the game Be Cube Colony Stars... you know... my game (this was definitely not an ad).

I'm finally ready to draw the scene, starting with the very basics, the ground where the player steps! Now leave me alone human beings! Because PlayerXT is going to do... art...

(30 minutes later)

So, remember when I said a few minutes ago that I was going to design the ground? So, by accident, I ended up creating a functional rotating platform that changes the character's animation by making him spin when he stands on it... yeah... my focus is on space today (no pun intended)...

But, at least I have a new mechanic...

That will come in handy...

At some point...

Hmn... wait a minute, what's this? The game is still open...

(1 day of procrastination later...)