Week 3 – level transition and the Old Merchant’s GUI

Delver » Devlog

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Latest game features:

Level one has been completed with all platforms and enemies implemented. Some changes to the level may be made at a later date but as of now the player can defeat all enemies and reach all sections of the map.

The latest game feature implemented the custom-made material from last week. Now all interactable objects are highlighted when the mouse hovers over them. This is done by changing the material of the gameobject to the custom material and reverting to default when the mouse moves away again.

When the object is clicked on by the mouse, the intended action by the object is activated, which was surprising to find that most interactions between the player and the object were to enter a new scene. This coincidence was logical once apparent and resulted in a really simple method of implementing object actions since it could be applied to multiple objects.

The Old Merchant can also now be interacted with and when clicked on, the player is led to an upgrades menu where they can upgrade their stats using the gold they had collected in the dungeon.

Completed level 1 map

Difficulties:

One challenge this week was improving the enemy movement. After further game testing, it became very apparent that the enemies slowing down before collision with the player was an irritating feature and needed to be resolved. Both force and velocity vectors were experimented with until it was discovered that a force vector provided the best enemy control. Time delays and target offsets were also then experimented and now the rhino beetle enemy targets slightly past the player to guarantee a smooth collision.

It was also found that some enemies would exit their areas in pursuit of the player, resulting in them falling off cliffs or getting stuck elsewhere in the level. A special node was created as a solution to this problem. The special node would cancel the enemy’s pursuing mode when the enemy collides with it but then reactivates the pursuing mode when the enemy is no longer colliding with the node. This results in the enemy walking back and forth at the edge of the border without getting stuck or falling off the cliff and the enemy can later continue patrolling its designated area once the player leaves sight, as per normal.

Feedback:

The major feedback given through peer review, was the enemy movement and this was resolved as said above. I collaborated with some friends when editing level 1 to better resolve the feedback given last week regarding the level design. Through this collaboration, I listened to other people’s experiences with platforming layouts and how they would create a level. Their feedback pointed out selected areas of the map, ways to better improve the area and the reasoning behind the changes. I found this collaboration very helpful when improving level 1.

After the constant nagging thought regarding the gold coins being useless and unable to be collected, I finally addressed the elephant in the room and implemented a script that allows the player to collect the gold coins (destroys the coins and increases the score).

Features soon to be introduced: