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== Log 012: Speedy Sands == Gameplay Video Gotta go fast. • What's that trail behind Boomer and the Ballums? Those are some very basic particle effects. Particle effects are visual effects handled by a particle system in the game that abstracts away a lot of drawing functions. They're very helpful for drawing trails and other such things: You can also notice particle effects when you shift and revert blocks. Other uses of particle effects include the enemies when they're defeated and the "you collected all the coins" effect. The code for this particular particle effect is as follows: code:• What exactly does the Speed Boost do? The Speed Boost heightens the limit on how fast the player can go in either direction. Boomer's movement is usually limited to two pixels a frame, but the Speed Boost bumps it up a notch. The camera has to go faster to compensate; so there's special code in the camera function that adds to the camera's speed if the player has the Speed Boost and is moving. You also bounce the maximum amount when you hit a Spring Block under the Speed Boost condition regardless of how high you drop from. • How does the lever work? The lever actually inherits a lot of its code from obj_switch, which is the box/button switch you've been seeing. All I did was remove the functionality for standing on top of it to activate it and replace it with a timed switch instead. The switch can also affix itself to walls, like how the obj_spike can rotate based on its placement, but that doesn't show up in this level.
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Jan 24, 2016 18:57
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Gamesfreak13563 posted:I've been hard at work on the game lately, as well as college and job searching, but I can share a tidbit with you right now. Here's a new level I've been working on. Tell me what you think! Ooh, looks pretty tricky. Is that like a mid-late gameish level?
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Jan 24, 2016 21:34
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Dr. Fetus posted:Ooh, looks pretty tricky. Is that like a mid-late gameish level? That's still a fairly early level. The game is not intended to last super long in terms of hours. After I introduce all the main block types (We still have to go over magnet, platform, rotate, and weight blocks), the levels after that will try to combine the blocks into fairly challenging puzzles. You'll notice that a lot of the puzzles I've had so far don't really combine the block properties too much just yet.
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Jan 25, 2016 01:00
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I don't know if it's just me, but the fact that the arrows on the speed blocks have a direction made me think at first that they only worked in that direction. I can't think of an intuitive symbol for speed that doesn't have a direction to it, though.
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Jan 25, 2016 09:18
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HMS Boromir posted:I don't know if it's just me, but the fact that the arrows on the speed blocks have a direction made me think at first that they only worked in that direction. I can't think of an intuitive symbol for speed that doesn't have a direction to it, though. It depends on how willing you are to do internal animations on the blocks. Moving lines of a high-contrast color would do pretty well, but then it kinda has the same directional problem. a sprinting boot
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Jan 25, 2016 09:29
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Would it be too difficult to just put bi-directional arrows on the blocks? Something like this?
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Jan 25, 2016 11:14
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I would suggest a fast forward symbol for a possible speed icon, but that also has the issue of pointing right.
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Jan 25, 2016 11:31
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What about 3 or 4 moving lines that move in both directions? Like: ---------> <--------- ---------> <---------
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Jan 25, 2016 13:02
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I think the first time you ever move left on one of those blocks you'll figure it out, and most of the levels seem to be 90% moving right anyways. Otherwise it's a large, easy to identify icon that's distinct from everything else, which is probably more important in the long run.
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Jan 25, 2016 16:43
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How about a quickly-rotating clock?
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Jan 25, 2016 18:01
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I'd have taken a page out of Sonic's book and gone with shoes with a windy swoosh beneath them, personally.
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Jan 25, 2016 18:09
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Geemer posted:What about 3 or 4 moving lines that move in both directions? I don't have the space in the resolution of the game to make multiple arrows and still have them look like arrows while also retaining the yellow color and outline.
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Jan 26, 2016 00:35
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Sorry, I was phoneposting. The arrow heads were more to indicate direction of the line. What I meant was just the lines moving left and right respectively. And also, not the full width of the block, but just long enough to be a line. But if animated blocks are not an option, maybe crib some arrows from Chemistry. Like this equilibrium arrow:  It saves a bit of space over the two full arrows suggested by Captain Bravo. Geemer fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Jan 26, 2016 |
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Jan 26, 2016 01:51
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I don't see that translating well to the size of block we've seen. The block as it is works fine.
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Jan 26, 2016 02:02
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Besides, couldn't you establish through the level design that the blocks are capable of working both ways?
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Jan 26, 2016 02:05
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Haha, I didn't expect that comment to spark this much discussion. I think Dr. Fetus is right, you could just have the game force you to use them to go left in a safe environment to show you that they work both ways, if you think it's a problem at all. I was just pointing it out because I know how useful it can be to get that sort of first impression thought from playtesters. (or in this case, uh, watchtesters?)
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Jan 26, 2016 10:07
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What about double up chevrons? That has plenty of room in the block and still indicates going faster without necessarily being directional. Aside from, well, up, I guess. E: Well, I guess yellow up chevrons look pretty military...
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Jan 26, 2016 18:10
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== Log 013: A Thorough Explanation of How Magnets Work == Gameplay Video Magnets! Attract or repel Boomer to avoid obstacles and other things. Use Tab to shift between the two modes on the fly. • How do they work? First, we check if the player is attached to Gum Blocks. If they are, the magnets do nothing. We run through each magnet block and see if it's close enough. (Ideally, we could refactor this so that we only run through the magnet blocks that are close enough to Boomer using a k-d tree, but that would take some implementation. Plus, premature optimization and all that jazz.) If it is, we calculate the strength in the x and y directions of the force away from the magnet or towards the magnet, based on whether or not it's repelling. The strength in the x direction is half that in the y direction because it tends to cause some problems of sucking the player in when standing still. I also add a bonus to the force in the y if the magnet is repelling and the player's vertical speed is high enough, so that when coming down hard on repel magnets they can still bounce you up in time to prevent contacting them. We add this velocity to the player's main velocity after we run through all the blocks, with a maximum speed of two in each direction. This can be increased by using the Super Magnets cheat. • So besides floating atop spikes? You can use them as impromptu Spring Blocks. Get really close to a magnet by attracting, then fly off at super fast speeds by changing it to a repel type. You can use them as impromptu Gum Blocks. Slowly slide up a wall with the repel magnets. You can also use them to augment jumps; the repel function is really helpful for that, especially when attached to Gum Blocks. Metal boxes, to be introduced in a later level, are also affected by magnet blocks, but to a stronger degree than Boomer is.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:27
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An in-development theme.
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Jan 27, 2016 19:52
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Gamesfreak13563 posted:An in-development theme. Not enough spikes everywhere. Being able to flip things around leads to some interesting level design possibilities. I'm curious to see what you end up doing with the idea.
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Jan 27, 2016 20:41
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Gamesfreak13563 posted:An in-development theme. Even more progress. I have my amazing artist to thank for these tiles: 
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Jan 29, 2016 06:20
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Gamesfreak13563 posted:Even more progress. I have my amazing artist to thank for these tiles: And on the sound side of things, for that theme: https://clyp.it/r1jheoqg
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Jan 30, 2016 04:15
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Gamesfreak13563 posted:And on the sound side of things, for that theme: And the finished product! https://clyp.it/i5pnro2a
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Jan 31, 2016 19:26
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I'm honestly not certain if I'm just bad at multitasking, or if you're expecting a little much from the player - having the movement keys and the mouse and the tab button is a little much to keep track of, and I keep on pushing the wrong button in the heat of the moment while playing. Even just switching from keyboard to mouse feels awkward.
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Jan 31, 2016 20:03
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Gamesfreak13563 posted:And the finished product!
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Feb 1, 2016 00:27
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Great Joe posted:This is not headphone-friendly. Try to compress the sound stage. I don't understand what this means, exactly. Do you mean the bass is too low? It sounds fine on both my good headphones and some cheap earbuds. Valgaav posted:I'm honestly not certain if I'm just bad at multitasking, or if you're expecting a little much from the player - having the movement keys and the mouse and the tab button is a little much to keep track of, and I keep on pushing the wrong button in the heat of the moment while playing. Even just switching from keyboard to mouse feels awkward. I'm not sure, but I tried to make the opening level easy for the player, specifically removing a lot of timing elements like enemies from it so that you can focus on getting the mechanic down. Gamesfreak13563 fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 00:58
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I don't know what it means either, but I can say I'm not a fan of that rapidly switching stereo channel business. At least not to this severity. E: Other than that, it's a pretty chill tune.
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Feb 1, 2016 01:01
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Geemer posted:I don't know what it means either, but I can say I'm not a fan of that rapidly switching stereo channel business. At least not to this severity. Where is it bothering you? This can be a super easy fix. I'm aware that my left ear is stronger than my right - that's why I ask for feedback on this stuff. E: Is this better? Gamesfreak13563 fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 01:06
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Yes, that is much better, thanks. It was basically those first ten or so seconds before the other instruments kicked in that bothered me.
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Feb 1, 2016 20:35
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Geemer posted:Yes, that is much better, thanks. It was basically those first ten or so seconds before the other instruments kicked in that bothered me. That's good. Things are coming along pretty nicely. I'm going to finish up the theme soon. Do you guys want me to stream game creation?
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Feb 4, 2016 06:39
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There's a new alpha on the website! It's got a couple new levels I haven't covered yet. Feel free to play through them! I'll be resuming updates shortly. Unfortunately still no luck on a publisher or any sort of coverage or anything like that...
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Feb 23, 2016 06:55
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It would appear the best way to get coverage is to rub shoulders at trade shows. If you can't afford to go, or if you have a day job that prevents you from attending... well, sorry mang 
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Feb 23, 2016 07:36
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The White Dragon posted:It would appear the best way to get coverage is to rub shoulders at trade shows. If you can't afford to go, or if you have a day job that prevents you from attending... well, sorry mang GDC is only 300 dollars for me, so I might be going to that.
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Mar 1, 2016 01:00
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Gamesfreak13563 posted:GDC is only 300 dollars for me, so I might be going to that. I imagine you've already spoken to people about it, but if you haven't, Tom Francis is literally the nicest man in the world and would probably be happy to answer your questions if you sent him an email or something.
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Mar 1, 2016 01:53
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Throwing out a new trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbWO_cp-l3I I cut this together a few hours ago, but it's still pretty preliminary.
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Mar 15, 2016 01:55
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Looks like a pretty good start, but man this trailer really highlights the need to do something about visualizing cursor location when it's not on an interactable location. e:I'm not trying to say that there's a trivial solution, just that it's a problem. The only things I've really thought of are trying to make a meta style cursor (maybe the semi transperant outline of a rotating cube, or maybe lines of a hypercube) or maybe having the cursor be user toggleable, whatever it ends up being. CrazySalamander fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Mar 15, 2016 |
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Mar 15, 2016 22:34
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| # ? May 6, 2024 13:19 |
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Is it cheating to post some Let's Plays that other people have started of the current preview? Rowdy Sandwich Easy Mode's /r/letsplay is an amazing tool for connecting with people, evidently. Networking is like, half of game development.
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Mar 26, 2016 04:23
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