UI/UX game Postmortem

What went right

Getting the overall inventory system working with a click and drag control was an overall success. The tutorial showed a somewhat outdated code and chat gpt was able to give me an up to date code and get the inventory system working as intended. While not ultimately included in the game due to unsuccessful attempts on my end, I did learn how to create resources specifically for a crafting mechanic in godot. I originally had a resource script for an exclusive item and I was able to create the prerequisite recipes to craft the exclusive item, with a 2 item crafting recipe.

What went wrong

I originally intended to add a crafting mechanic to this game. The purpose was to create an item that can only be seen when two items are dragged together. Even after watching a number of tutorials, I got to the point where while I managed to get the resource done correctly, I could not get the icons properly shown on the ui, I did try getting chat gpt to fix the code for me, it fixed any errors but the icons still did not show through the ui.

After the crafting system attempt was scrapped, I tried looking for tutorials to include stats for the items. The tutorials of those videos were a lot longer and more difficult than I anticipated so I scrapped the idea as the due date closes in.

After both the crafting mechanic and player stats were unsuccessful for me, my last resort was to add another grid to act as a treasure chest where the player can click and drag items from the chest to their inventory. This did not work since what I did was copy pasting a grid node with the working code but in the new pasted grid, items were not able to be clicked and dragged to that new grid, as it acted as a still png

What i learned

While the crafting system and item stats were both scrapped since I could not get either feature to work for me, I did learn how to create a working inventory system. I learned how to use nodes I have not used before in godot, such as the grid nodes, icons, and creating the slot for each grid and how to space them apart no matter the size of the grid. I learned how to code a click and drag icon in godot that can only be placed in grid slots.

I learned how to use the resource script in godot to implement a crafting recipe.

I learned that I need better time management, and to add a win condition and objective to my games. I originally thought that a simple inventory system was enough, but learned that it needed to be something more, something that challenges the player. 

I learned that for game development, it is very youtube tutorial watching heavy and I should not leave this assignment it parts and tell my future self will complete the rest of the project, next time, I will do my best to complete a lot more in sessions and watch the series of tutorials in a much longer sitting rather than hoping I will complete and get it weeks after.