Platfomer Tweaks and Collectables

I've been continuing my work on my platformer game. I'm using some basic Box2D physics and my player object, which was a rectangle shape, kept getting caught on some tiny edges where my floor pieces were connecting. They were at the same height so really there shouldn't have even been anything to get hung up on, but apparently its something that other people have been having trouble with as well. I fixed it by making my character object a hexagon instead, with a point at the bottom so that now instead of getting hung up on those little pieces, the angled surface at the bottom causes the player to just bump over it. So, that's fixed up pretty good now and the game is playing like I want it to.

I've also been adding in some coins type objects for the player to collect. They are actually like diamond/gem type things that are scattered about the sectors and some are worth more than others. The value of the gem is randomly assigned when they are spawned, with the odds of being a low value gem being much higher than the other ones.

I've also added in a threat in the way of a wave of lava that is "chasing" the player. I'm not sure if I'll stick with the lava thing (although it does tend to freak me out in video games) but right now it serves as a reason for the player to be quick about navigating the various rooms and collecting gems.

The gems are pretty easy to collect, but since there is the constant threat of a lava wall that will make grabbing them harder to deal with. There are 3 type of gems: Green, Blue, and Red, which are worth 1, 3, and 7 points respectively. So, maybe the red gem is worth going out of your way for as you leave the green ones behind.

Here is a screenshot with some crazy place holder graphics. The player sprite I'm using is the character from Androidan Summer Games, and all the platform/wall/floor types are different colors so I can tell which piece is which type of object. There is a repeating star background within the "tunnel" the player is running through, and I plan on making the blue background behind the tunnel some sort of scrolling background. The gems are actually pretty good for programmer art, but they don't stand out super well against my carnival colors backgrounds.

Platforming

I've been trying to think of things I want to add to the scrolling shooter, but with the addition of the story type slides to the beginning and end of the levels I think its almost finished up. So, in the last couple day I've started playing around with a new game concept. This time, I'm working on a platformer. I'm going for a dynamic/psuedo-random level design. To do this, I'm making different level sections, which I call "Sectors" that have the same entrance and exit space size. Then I can chain several sectors together to make levels that are different every time. The sectors will remain the same, and the player will see them multiple times, but with enough different sector types the levels should be unique every time. I need some sort of monster or enemy chasing the player through the level, but I'm not sure what to go with yet. Initially I was thinking something like lava flooding the level, and then I was thinking some sort of giant spider, but really I need to focus on some additional level things first. I only have 2 sectors that are being randomly placed right now but that seems to be working pretty well. It still needs a few tweaks but it's definitely good enough to show this game idea has potential.

Sounds and Stories

Haven't done much that is noteworthy lately, but I have been tinkering with some stuff. In my puzzle game, I've been adding sound effects and getting that all ready. I already has some in place for a while, but they weren't quite playing in the right places. Now I've gotten it all set up and working properly. I'm thinking this game is all set up correctly now. I just need some music assets and such to throw in and it should be already for release.

I've also been adding in some story elements (or preparations for them) to the scrolling shooter. When a new level is started, before the player sprite enters the screen, a dialog type window will pop up on the screen that will eventually show some sort of story graphics. The player clicks on it, it shows the next one, they click the second one and it goes away and the player sprite enters. When the player beats the boss, another box pops up with the same kind of deal only when its over the player sprite leaves the screen. Each level will have 2 intro "slides" and 2 outro slides. When strung together in the order of the levels, this will hopefully create some sort of cohesive overarching storyline. I only have a vague and general idea of the direction of this story, but I don't think it will be too hard to figure out. I don't plan on making it anything complicated with plot twists or anything. I just want it to be pretty straight forward and maybe have some dialog between the player character and the enemy characters. I'm pretty happy with how its looking.

Zeemote Shooter

I've all (I think) of the commenting done on the puzzle game and now I'm trying to get a hold of a friend to possibly do some sound effects for it. Other than that, I've been working on the scrolling shooter a little bit. Mostly minor tweaks not worth mentioning, but also one big addition: Zeemote Support. Several months ago I bought a Zeemote JS1 Controller for the express purpose of adding support for it in my scrolling shooter. I was working on so many more important gameplay issues that I never got around to it, but I recently remembered my initial plan and started looking into it. Thankfully, the Zeemote is actually really easy to get started integrating and it didn't take an crazy amount of time to get it going.

I've added an option on the settings page to enable support of Zeemote bluetooth controllers. It required a little bit of refactoring, but its all set up. You use the joystick to move obviously, and either of the 2 front buttons to shoot. You can hold down the fire button to have it shoot continuously like it does in the normal touch mode, or you can actually wait and time your shots. In that respect, the Zeemote actually gives you an advantage, but, for me at least, the joystick also makes it harder to dodge bullets, although it is quite fun. You can't rapidly tap the fire button to shoot faster than normal though. You'll still have the same "attack speed" as a player not using the Zeemote. This just gives you a lot more control over when the bullet actually fires. I think its a fair trade off. I'm really happy with how its working out and I think its a great option to have in the game.

Puzzle Game Commenting

All the functions of my puzzle game are pretty much done. Now I just want to get it all commented up, but that task is easier said than done. With the recent refactoring of the main game activity and the major overhaul of my story page, there is a lot of new code to document. It needs to be done though. Just good practice and really helpful in the future if I need to update anything. It's a bit daunting though.

Flamethrowers and Fireballs

Level 10. The final level in the scrolling shooter game. This level is all about fire shooting drones. The two classes of minions are just named after their weapon type: the Flamethrower and the Fireball. The Flamethrower class does what you would think and shoots a flamethrower bullet out in front of it. Unlike other minion types the "flame" moves with minion as it flies around the screen. After a couple seconds, the flame is then shot down the screen like a normal projectile. The second class is the Fireball minion. These guys shoot bullets in a fairly normal fashion, except their projectile is a ball shape instead of the thinner rectangular shape other bullets are. Additionally, the fireball grows as it moves down the screen so they are pretty hard to dodge when they get near the bottom.

Refactoring and Multiplayer Possibilities

Been working on my puzzle game lately. Changed up the story page a bit and it is working real well. I took out the previous/next buttons the player was supposed to use to navigate the map, and now your player sprite slides to the level you click on, following the path on the screen. It's working really well. I also did a major refactor on some of the main game activity to incorporate some swipe detection. There is some stuff where I had it set up to just rotate 90 degrees on every click, but I found that it wasn't super intuitive for players, so now if you swipe in a direction things will get rotated in that direction. I also left in the clicking to rotate it 90 degrees though so I personally don't have to relearn the controls. You have both options and the player can go with what they prefer.

I've also been reconsidering working on my zombie maze game. I had some issues with it before that made me put it on the back burner, but now I have a few more ideas of how to go about things. In addition, Google just recently came out with a real time multiplayer API where they do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. They do some quick matching and connection stuff and apparently you just have to format the info you are going to send. It occurs to me that the maze game would be a great candidate for having a 2 player cooperative mode. I might play around with some of the multiplayer stuff a little but I don't think I'll be focusing on it any time soon. I got this puzzle game nearing 100% completion and my scrolling shooter is almost finished too, so now is not the best time to be jumping on to a new big project, but the possibilities this multiplayer API presents are too good not to at least look into.