LOG 202412210018 #log

jump mode: a pickle-powered adventure gone wrong (in a good way) 🥒

remember how i mentioned type mode was the original plan? well, jump mode was definitely not. this chaotic addition started with "hey, what if rahn could jump?" and spiraled into a whole pickle-collecting platformer that has now sent me down a platformer rabbit hole.. but i'm getting ahead of myself again, back to the pickles.

jump mode (click jump in the dog menu cause we don't have routes 'round here)

the accidental feature

what started as a simple "let's add jumping" experiment turned into this whole thing where rahn bounces around collecting pickles while avoiding sleeping kittens and empty pickle barrels. it's simple, unoptimized, and honestly kind of a beautiful mess - but sometimes that's just how features are born.

the technical mess

let me tell you about optimization problems! turns out, when you retrofit a typing game into a platformer without any planning, things get... interesting. random obstacle spawning? creates lag. collision detection? gave me grey hairs. those fancy animations i tried adding? had to strip most of them out just to keep things running.

the whole thing required basically rebuilding the game engine i'd cobbled together for type mode. rahn now just does this simple float-and-rotate jump animation because anything fancier had unpredictable results. turns out, reusing assets from a typing game for a platformer leads to some "creative" solutions.

what survived

despite the technical chaos, the core gameplay still kinda worked out:
- press space to make rahn jump
- collect those sweet, sweet pickles
- dodge sleeping kittens (because waking them would be rude)
- avoid empty pickle barrels (they're empty, so what's the point?)
- bonk into anything and rahn just gives up and takes a nap

lessons learned

if i were to rebuild this (which, let's be honest, i probably should), i'd definitely plan for modularity from the start. but hey, sometimes the best features come from just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks - even if it sticks a bit... sideways.

what's next

there's definitely room for improvement - better performance, smoother animations, maybe even proper physics (gasp!). but for now, it's this wonderfully janky addition to rahn's world that reminds me sometimes the best features are the ones you didn't plan for.

p.s. to the performance gods: i am so, so sorry. super rahn pickles is already running at smooth 120 fps and coming soon to a log near you 😅✌️