Friday, September 27, 2013

Minion Mixing and Results Popup

I haven't been working on too many projects recently, but I've made a couple improvements to some of my games. First off, in the scrolling shooter, I switched up some of the minion waves. Each level has two types of minions, and previously waves of minions would alternate between the first type and then the second type. Now, every once in a while there will be a wave that is a mix of the two minion types. Also, my cousin Mitch has been testing the shooter for me. I fixed one bug with the reset button he found and he's helping me get the difficulty of the levels more in line with what they should be sequentially. Here is a screenshot of the ghost level with both minion types in the same wave:

Additionally, I've been working on the platformer game and I've put in a results popup window when the level is over. It show how many points you got from collecting gems, how many you got from just surviving in the level, your total score, and what caused your death. It also shows how much distance you've traveled horizontally through the level. That doesn't really factor into your score but I'll probably use it for an achievement of some sort eventually. The popup box also has a "done" button that will close the window and set you up for the next game. Here are a couple screenshots of the results popups:

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Platformer Start Screen and Menu

I haven't added a whole lot to any of my projects recently, but just prior to leaving for the beach over Labor Day weekend, I managed to add some simple (but significant) additions to my platforming game.

First off, I added an actual start screen so you no longer just start running the second that you enter the game, but can now get a little set up and ready, then tap the screen to start running. It isn't anything major, but I think it has a large benefit on the game. Here is a screenshot of my little start screen text graphic:

Additionally, I added a pause menu so the player can now pause, resume, reset, and quit the game. Pausing, resuming, and quitting are basically all taken care of for you, but getting the reset to work actually took more time than I was expecting, mostly because I needed to do some garbage collection on my physics world objects and then set them up again. That is all figured out and working though, so it is quite nice to be able to play a new game without having to quit out first. Here is a screenshot of my super basic pause menu:

Readers of my last post might also notice a slight change to the thermometer gauge. I added a semi transparent background behind the meter to make it a little more visible. Near the top of the gauge there is an orange section of the background. This indicates the real "Danger Zone" because when the thermometer level gets to the orange part, it means that the lava wave chasing you is now on the screen and you are in trouble at this point. I like the way everything is going at this point, but I still want to add a few more UI things.

I would like to have a player report box pop up after the level over that shows how long you lasted on the level, how many gems you collected, and maybe a distance traveled type thing. If you got taken down by the lava wave it could indicate that or show a different icon if you fell in lava pit. Those are the only two things that can kill the player at the moment, but there is likely to be more hazards and traps in the future, so those could all be shown on a results popup.