Moving Platforms (for real this time!)

Ok, so last time I posted about moving platforms, I thought I was done. Apparently I was not. :)

Although I did have them working, they apparently had an issue when the player was hanging off the edge of one and then collided with the floor. You would naturally think that as you hang off the edge of the platform and collide with a floor, it would push you or something along those lines. But you can not make assumptions when coding!

So yeah, as you can see... that's no good. I had a lot of issues I had to sort out there because of the moving platform being a child of the floor object and other coding blah blah blah stuff. At one point, I though I had it solved... but I was wrong and lost a few hairs on my head because of it. ;)

I watched a million videos and I visited many forum and reddit posts trying to find help. Although I did get suggestions from many nice people, I never got exactly the help I needed. There were a few times I wanted to just give up and throw the whole project away... all over some moving platforms. I even thought of just removing them from the game and pretending they were never a thing! But they are a thing and I didn't want to give up... so I kept at it... kept looking for a solution... and I finally freaking found one! Or better yet, I should say, I solved my own problem!

Look at those beautiful moving platforms! Look at how smoothly they move the player! How they gently push the player out of the way. It almost brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? No? It doesn't? It's just me? Oh well... I'm proud of them nonetheless! And since you stayed around to read my nonsense, I'll reward you with a nifty look at the new trick I taught my lasers! (At least I think I haven't shared this yet... if I have... just pretend I didn't and enjoy them anyway because they're neat!

Moving Platforms!

So it's been quite a while since my last update. I assure you, I've been working hard on the game in my absence. :)

I got stuck for quite a while on implementing moving platforms! My goodness those things were not as easy as I was thinking they would be. I mean, maybe they'd be easier if my code were completely different, but as it stands now... geeze they were a pain!

But I think I've finally gotten them to a point where they work the way I think they should work! One of the main issues I was having was what to do when they "crushed" the player. There was so many checks that I had to account for that made it very difficult to figure out. Or, at least that's what I thought. In the end, the solution actually was easier to implement than I thought.

(I know, I just said it was a pain then turned right around and said it was easy. What can I say, I'm a complicated person!)

But anyway, now that I have moving platforms sorted out, I can finally begin working on something else! So here it is, the gif of moving platforms that you've been waiting to see! (I sometimes like to pretend that someone is actually reading these blog posts!)

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to have another update soon! :)

Lasers!

So it's been a little while since I've made an update, but rest assured, I'm still working on my fun little game here!

So before I get to the main event named in the title of this post, I'll share a new goodie I've added... Launchers! The basic idea of it is that you can choose to use it by pressing up while standing on one. Watch the bar fill up and the, whoosh! Up in the air you go!

Now for the reason that we're all here... Lasers!!! Pew pew lasers!

I'm actually really proud of these deadly little suckers! This 1 .gif above showcases a lot of the different functionality that I have built in to them. They can be stationary, moving, moving with a delay between movements, and they can ride up a down on walls! I guess, if you're a sissy and can't handle a little heat, you can even turn them off as seen below!

Although in the example above, you see them all turn off together, I can make choose which lasers are affected by the switch. And just because I can't resist... see below for what happens if you're careless and happen to run into one of my little friends...

Well, there we go... Pew pew lasers for all your Pew pew laser needs! I really did have a lot of fun making these little guys. I built a lot of functionality into them and I'm quite proud of them! I feel like I'm actually learning!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Level Selection ++

So it's been a little while since my last update and wanted to share some new things that I have going on right now. It's funny, I've watch so many tutorials and developer vlogs from so many talented people... I know that they would've finished my game in like 2 weeks, meanwhile I'm struggling to keep the player from walking through walls! It frustrating not knowing what I'm doing, but also fun and rewarding when I figure out such a simple thing. Anyway, on to the reason I'm here... to post new goodies!

I've been trying to think of a way to make the "Scores" screen more interesting. At the same time, I found a better way to code my level selection room that made it easier for me to add more levels with less work. Then I had an idea to combine the two things together, level selection and the score for that level shown all at once! Yeah, I know this is not a new concept, but I was proud of myself for incorporating the two as I did. So here it is, the new score and level selection screen! (Oh, and please forgive my bad placeholder art!)

Next thing to share is..... DEATH! Muahaha! Ok, sorry for being lame... But yes, I've added death to the game. Along with death, I added a fun little screen shake to make things look a little more... alive? Which is ironic since were talking about player death? Anyway... here's death!

So? what do you think? Neat huh? I have two more tricks up my sleeve before I get to bed tonight. This one I like to call, checkpoints! So I figured that at some point, I'm going to design some complicated levels and a checkpoint system wouldn't be a bad idea to have. But there's a catch... if you use one, you get a penalty to your timer! So do you utilize the checkpoint, or skip it for a faster time?

I'm not done with the checkpoints just yet. I want to add an indicator that lets the player know that time has been added to the timer. But trust me, just getting it to work right was a challenge for my tiny little mind!

Last but not least was something I added just tonight. It was only added because I found a different way to do my collision code thanks to a tutorial by Zack Bell. If it wasn't for his code, I'd still be struggling trying to figure out sub-pixel collisions, let alone this new goodie.... Slopes! Now my little rectangle can actually move up and down a slope without being confounded by the complexity that is... slopes!

So there's my current updates and progress for now. Maybe one day someone will look back at this and see how I went from knowing absolutely nothing about coding and game design, to maybe one day having a semi-successful game that sells like... 10 copies! That would be awesome! Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you in the next update!

New Level Selection Room!

So I'm pretty excited about this one.

I was struggling to think of a way to make a level selection room. I know it should be a pretty simple and easy thing to do. You make a room with some pretty pictures for people to click on, then load up that level for people to play! Easy right?

Well I apparently had a hard time coming up with both what it should look like as well as how to make it function. I'm seriously jealous when I see people sit down and just write code out like they can see the Matrix! Unfortunately, I can't see the code... I have to type things out a thousand times until they do something remotely close to doing what I think they should be doing!

Anyway, as I was describing what my level selection room should be doing, it hit me.... why not just make it work like a level in the game?!? You can walk, jump, and wall slide through the room and pick your level. So that's what I did!

Here's another gif showing the verticality of the room...

So there we have it... a functioning and "fun" level selection room! Thanks for stopping by! I'm hoping to start to add some obstacles to the game now. Something to add some danger into the mix! Take care!

Main menu

So today I'm going to try and work on making some sort of level selection screen.  As it stands right now, when you start the game it just defaulty loads the first level and you play from there.

I have an idea of how I may implement level selection, but we'll have to see if it works the way I imagine it to. ;)

In the mean time, here's a short gif showcasing the main menu as it stands right now. (spoiler alert: it's super basic!)

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Hello world!

Hello everyone!

I'm starting this blog to share the progress on the indie game project that I'm currently working on called 17.

In this blog I'll be posting updates to the development of my game and share screenshots and insights and all the wonderful things that go along with being a first-time indie game developer.

As this is my first game and I'm pretty much learning and doing everything for the first time, I predict that this is going to be a slow going process. So if you decide to come along with me, please be patient with me and my complete newbness at this!

So welcome to my project and I'm looking forward to sharing more about my game in the future!

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned!