Bare Bones Development: Pivoted!

As you can see from the video I have done a major overhaul of the project and have also added a game time UI element as well as both a main menu and game over scene, which shows the total score of the level you just completed.

This project has gone through a major pivot and at this point is headed in the direction of a hack-n-slash/dungeon crawler. I think it fits better for what I envision for the final product and will fit nicely in that genre because of the elements I would like to add.

At this time the graphics are just a place-holder but have added a better sense of what the environment will look like.

The weapon render path, the weapon “blast” muzzle bug, has remained in the game but will be the focus of my next update along with adding melee weapons, since it will be hack and slash, or some sort of hybrid.

 

Bare Bones: Secondary Weapon

It has been a while since my last update but now it is time for me to unveil what I have been doing with my week of code cleanup and dismantling.

I was able to create a basic weapon inventory script that currently has two weapons in it and uses a boolean variable to tell the script when the player is holding either the handgun or the shotgun. Before posting this video I was working on implementing buttons on screen to deal with this effect but I decided to post what I had to show I did not abandon this project.

One thing that still concerns me is the fact that the line renderer I have attached to both weapons does not fire every time I click the mouse button down as it should. When you watch the video you can see that sometimes there are “blasts” from the muzzle of the weapon and sometimes there are not. For now, this is the furthest thing on my list to fix but it is something that I can’t ignore either.

 

Bare Bones: Weapon System Update Bug

Progression has been slow since I ran into a weapon system snag. When I tried to add new weapons such as a shotgun or knife I realized that my code was too sloppy. When I updated my code and added a new rate of fire ability, a bug occurred (though I think I know what it is.) I thought it was pretty humorous so I decided to make a video of it, a new video should be updated shortly with the system actually working.

 

Bare Bones: Random Loot Drops/Camera Update

I have made a lot of progress on the game so far. The first thing I did was add a script that follows the player and also opened up the area so there is space to walk. Next I added a new enemy type that gives more points when destroyed. After some thought I decided the next course I should take is ammo and health drops.

The random loot drop script works with two different “if” statements that first ask the question of if loot will drop (60% chance) and if it does will decide which piece of loot will drop between the ammo and the health. The health drop has a 40% chance of dropping and the ammo has a 60% chance.

Next up on my list to do will be a new weapon type and also ammo clips so that the player has to reload, thus adding more challenge to the game. From there I am setting my sights on a menu system.

Game Competition: Game Name Game

I entered a game competition known as Game Name Game. The point of the competition was to pick two words and create a concept of the game. I chose the words Laser and Cowboy, unfortunately I did not win. There were many very talented artists and designers that submitted fantastic concepts that were far above this concept which was done in a little under 3 hours. I may not have won but one of the judges gave me the “I Was Expecting A Firefly Clone” Award 🙂

laser-cowboy-cover ship shipyard street

 

Bare Bones – Ammo Pickup

Next on the list after giving myself an ammo limit was to create an ammo pickup so I could replenish what I used. I think it has come together quite nicely. Basically when the player steps into the pink ammo blob it will run a script that calculates how much ammo the player currently has and adds 30 to it. I think next on my list will be ammo drops from enemies or even starting to figure out the menu systems and a way to die and restart the game.

*Side Note* I got caught up in the moment and tried to get away from the bad guys in the video, it actually worked! After escaping I remembered I didn’t give myself a chance to get any more ammo so I just made myself get obliterated by the wall, I will avenge myself in the future.

 

Bare Bones – Ammo Remaining Text

Next up on my agenda was to come up with a way to limit the amount of ammo the player has and a visual way for the player to track how much they have remaining. I basically wrapped the “if” statement that instantiates the bullet with another “if” statement that checks to make sure the player doesn’t have 0 (zero) ammo and if they do then no bullets will ever be created because of the else clause. In the future I will add ammo drops and the ability to reload but for now I am good with the one amount of ammo.

Bare Bones: Top-down Survival Shooter – Visible Health

I quickly put together a visible health system so the player could see how much health they have remaining. It will definitely change throughout this build but I think hearts has that certain retro flare to them.

Bare Bones: Top-down Survival Shooter – Walls

After a few hours of research I found out how to implement pathfinding for the enemies. I added a wall to see if the enemies would go around it, the results were much better than I expected.

Bare Bones: Top-down Survival Shooter Entry #1

Work had began on a new project that is a top-down survival shooter. The project is in the bare bones framework stage but I thought uploading the progress of the game would be  good thing. Here is a short clip of The damage system being implemented and tinkered with.