I haven't posted here in a while and I've felt a bit bad lately for not really posting here as much as I like. I used to post here every Friday (give or take a day or two) when this game was just starting and it's slowed down a bit, but that's mainly because quite frankly... I haven't had too many interesting things to say!
Progress has been great on the game, but I didn't figure blog after blog about bug fixes would be all that interesting to read to be honest, I know I wouldn't want to read that kinda crap.
However, now that I've been sitting on some progress for the better part of a month or more, I have some awesome things to share!
More and more item mechanics are getting added to the game, I showed some in an earlier video that I added to the Kickstarter and things like that, but more are getting added!
Sidd's animations are going great! They've been quite challenging and time consuming to be honest, but they're looking a million times better than the old design/place holder animations that were in the game before. I think I mentioned that his range is getting greatly increased, which is also awesome! I think I spent 7 hours at one point animating JUST his back pack... yeah... just a back pack. But all in all, I really like how they're looking and I think the game will look so much better because of it.
New control inputs have been added, to make navigating the menus and things like that much easier. Not only that, the game now has controller support! While everyone can still go about mapping their controllers using 3rd party applications like Motionjoy and things like that, the game will work with a wired Xbox 360 controller right away!
Controller support is something a lot of people have been asking about and is something that the game was going to need for the Wii U version anyway, so I knew that it was something that I was going to have to do. There was just no way around it, but honestly... it intimidated me!
Button presses are one thing to program, but having to worry about varying degrees on the X and Y axis on a joystick? Oh boy...
After a little but of a struggle with it, I was able to get it to a point where it felt REALLY good. One the animations are finished in the game, and Sidd's range is increased because of it, I think it's going to feel a million times better than it did in the old Alpha version that was on the Kickstarter page. Honestly, that version wasn't to a point that I really wanted to show it to people yet, but I did it out of necessity.
And, the biggest issue I had for the game is just about fixed, Enemy AI!
Previously, Enemy AI was really crude and just kind of thrown in there so you had something to interact with to be honest. They wandered, sure; but would sometimes bump into things they shouldn't be bumping into, or would aimlessly walk into walls... and continue to walk into walls and things like that, that just really looked bad and didn't feel good. It was something that bothered me for a very long time, and something I worked on, on multiple occasions (and failed at, on multiple occasions) because it just never worked the way I wanted, or it just wasn't good enough.
Today, I finally was able to program it how I had wanted it from the beginning, and I couldn't be happier! While I still have a few tweaks here and there, it's great to finally see the game for the most part in a finished state in terms of the functionality for everything needed to make the game run properly, and all while running at 50+ frames per second which is great! Not only do they wander randomly, and avoid obstacles that I tell them to, but they no longer run themselves into a corner and things like that. Overall it feels a lot better gameplay wise. Not only that, but they will chase you if you get too close, so be prepared!
To finally conquer both the controls and enemy AI milestones for the game feels absolutely amazing, as these are two very important things that can either make or break a game at times.
And with this, we're even closer to getting the game done!
Progress has been great on the game, but I didn't figure blog after blog about bug fixes would be all that interesting to read to be honest, I know I wouldn't want to read that kinda crap.
However, now that I've been sitting on some progress for the better part of a month or more, I have some awesome things to share!
More and more item mechanics are getting added to the game, I showed some in an earlier video that I added to the Kickstarter and things like that, but more are getting added!
Sidd's animations are going great! They've been quite challenging and time consuming to be honest, but they're looking a million times better than the old design/place holder animations that were in the game before. I think I mentioned that his range is getting greatly increased, which is also awesome! I think I spent 7 hours at one point animating JUST his back pack... yeah... just a back pack. But all in all, I really like how they're looking and I think the game will look so much better because of it.
New control inputs have been added, to make navigating the menus and things like that much easier. Not only that, the game now has controller support! While everyone can still go about mapping their controllers using 3rd party applications like Motionjoy and things like that, the game will work with a wired Xbox 360 controller right away!
Controller support is something a lot of people have been asking about and is something that the game was going to need for the Wii U version anyway, so I knew that it was something that I was going to have to do. There was just no way around it, but honestly... it intimidated me!
Button presses are one thing to program, but having to worry about varying degrees on the X and Y axis on a joystick? Oh boy...
After a little but of a struggle with it, I was able to get it to a point where it felt REALLY good. One the animations are finished in the game, and Sidd's range is increased because of it, I think it's going to feel a million times better than it did in the old Alpha version that was on the Kickstarter page. Honestly, that version wasn't to a point that I really wanted to show it to people yet, but I did it out of necessity.
And, the biggest issue I had for the game is just about fixed, Enemy AI!
Previously, Enemy AI was really crude and just kind of thrown in there so you had something to interact with to be honest. They wandered, sure; but would sometimes bump into things they shouldn't be bumping into, or would aimlessly walk into walls... and continue to walk into walls and things like that, that just really looked bad and didn't feel good. It was something that bothered me for a very long time, and something I worked on, on multiple occasions (and failed at, on multiple occasions) because it just never worked the way I wanted, or it just wasn't good enough.
Today, I finally was able to program it how I had wanted it from the beginning, and I couldn't be happier! While I still have a few tweaks here and there, it's great to finally see the game for the most part in a finished state in terms of the functionality for everything needed to make the game run properly, and all while running at 50+ frames per second which is great! Not only do they wander randomly, and avoid obstacles that I tell them to, but they no longer run themselves into a corner and things like that. Overall it feels a lot better gameplay wise. Not only that, but they will chase you if you get too close, so be prepared!
To finally conquer both the controls and enemy AI milestones for the game feels absolutely amazing, as these are two very important things that can either make or break a game at times.
And with this, we're even closer to getting the game done!
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