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Developers Diary
I received the game design document from Cian Doyle. I have overlooked this document and will be receiving sprites/assets at a later date.
I plan on meeting Cian to discuss the game before I begin coding.
After meeting Cian and discussing the layout of the menu's, coding for the project has begun. I found a very simple tutorial online demonstrating a baseline game menu. I have created the Main Menu of the game and have added colour and a background image. The menu contains a Story, Volume and Quit buttons which are all functioning.
I plan on continuing in making the various menus of the game.
From the tutorial, I have also created a Volume Options Menu where the user can adjust sound and volume settings. They have the options of scrolling for music adjustment, mute sounds or to go back. I have also began a wiki where my Developer Diary will be published.
This week I plan on finishing all menus and home splash-screens. I also plan on meeting with Cian to obtain assets/sprites for the game.
I added an in-game pause button which in-turn leads to an in-game pause menu. This menu is similar to the previous menu I created. It contains a Resume, Volume, Restart and Quit buttons.
- The Resume option allows the user to resume back to the same instance where the game was paused.
- The Volume option is exactly the same as the one presented on the home screen where the user can mute sound, change the music volume using a slider and go back to the pause menu.
- The Restart option resets the player to the beginning of the level.
- The Quit option navigates the user out of the game and back to the main menu screen.
I have also made the first attempt to the games home splash-screen where the user must 'press any key to begin' the game and enter the main menu.
I will be beginning the in-game functionalities such as creation of player, movement and in-game physics.
I created some in-game functionality such as player, environment, movement and physics. Here the player can move, jump and work his way through the level. However, this is only a prototype and the main design of the game has yet to be implemented.
I will be meeting Cian to discuss more of the game. I will be receiving the full character and in-game sprites too.
I have yet to add any further to my game. However, I have received my game sprites from Cian and have discussed more details about the game I was unsure about and was curious whether I could change. This included the following:
- Whether the game was one continuous level or a number off levels. We agreed on it becoming 4 long levels consisting of; Tutorial, Easy, Intermediate, Expert levels.
- Whether weapons were picked up or achieved. We agreed that they would change to suit the difficulty of the level.
- We also agreed that one of the sprites (The Bear) would become a boss in some of the levels.
Furthermore, I will begin implementing sprites into the game.
I have implemented the sprites Cian has provided, however, I may need to ask for more later on as I plan on making a few changes to the game. I have attempted the camera follow but it is not working as of yet. Started implementing the health bar for the player.
I plan on fixing the player camera to follow the player and trying to improve health bar.
The health bar now decreases when struck by an enemy object.
I plan on now adding an enemy AI so the enemy can track the player.
I fixed the camera following the player as it now follows the player in a smooth transition with help from this tutorial. I got more sprites off Cian to bring into my game and will meet with him at a later date to discuss more changes I may make.
Meet Cian to discuss more changes.
I spoke with Cian regarding the player death and we both agreed it would be adequate that the player can re-spawn when hit/die from traps to a checkpoint in the level as opposed to start the level again. This has now brought question to the health bar and whether to disregard it as a whole. This will be discussed further with Cian.
Implement enemy AI and fix problems with opening scene.
Fixed the opening Menu and now the user can press any key to start enter the main menu. the opening scene will run as soon as the application is run and it is the very first scene. Began implementing enemy AI but running into a few problems to be fixed.
Fix current problems with the enemy AI.
The enemy can now seek the player correctly with help of this tutorial. However, there are issues with the enemy gravity and how it gets stuck. Also an issue with the players health when he enters the space of the enemy where he seeks. The health drops as soon as the player enters the area without being struck. May have to change the health option as previously discussed with Cian. For my enemy AI i found it very convenient to use A* Pathfinder as it pre-loaded scripts that make AI in unity very easy.
Fix current problems with the enemy AI.
Tidied up the Menu's and discussed player death with Cian. We finalized the idea of player re-spawning as opposed to a health bar as there were too many issues regarding the fact.
I plan on adding sounds to both the Menu's and In-game.
I added click sounds to the Menu for when the user clicks each button they make relevant sounds.
I will be adding in-game sounds and updating the volume menu so the user can reduce the sound level and/or mute the sounds completely.
I have implemented many things since my last entry:
- Firstly, I have implemented more sounds to my game, including more in-game sounds to the player, player movements and actions and enemies. Link to how I did this here
- Secondly, I have finished the players shooting implementation. The player can now shoot and kill the enemy. I got help with this from this easy guide on shooting in unity.
- Finally, I have implemented a scoring system using coins. The player collects coins and a counter is seen at the top left of the screen. This had to be discussed with Cian as he did not initially present a scoring system in his doc.
I need to contact Cian for more sprites and fix a problem in the pause menu.
I received more sprites from Cian and have implemented them accordingly. I have attempted fading between scenes, however, there seems to be an error which I need to fix. I have redesigned the levels, including a tutorial level which gives the user a simple break-down on how to play the game.
Finish the levels, add the final boss and fix scene fading.
I have finished tweaking things in my game and have added the following:
- Added the final boss in the last level and fixed his AI.
- Fixed pause menu, the user can now mute sounds and quit game via pause menu. I found a quick guide on muting sounds here which I used.
- Commented my code and have added relevant references in code.
- Fixed fading between scenes so the user can guide though levels without problems.
Overall, the development of my game was to a great standard. It was structured very well and included all the vital components a side scrolling game should have. There was a few changes I made myself such as a scoring system and addition of checkpoints which I believed could help improve the game somewhat. A few issues I ran into when developing the game was carrying the scoring system between scenes (which I additionally implemented) and the implementation of other weapons such as an axe (which Cian asked for but later agreed on a change).
As for my designer, Cian, he was very helpful in every situation. He responded to any questions or changes almost immediately and was very open to listen to any changes I proposed in my game. His sprites he provided were of a very high standard and willingly provided more sprites for ideas I decided to implement later when I proposed them to him.
If I were to continue development of this games there would be many things I would add. Firstly, I would implement a touch option as this is restricted to a computer setting. I would also fix the scoring system and implement more enemies and weapons which can be cycled through.