Weekly post number 4, a full month of updates so far! The development of the project has been going great and there are so many new and fun updates to talk about this week! You can download a copy of the project from this week’s development v0.0.29 for windows. Lots of things to talk about for this week, so let’s hop right in.
Change List
Here is the list of changes added to the project since last week:
- v0.0.24 Updating jittery movement on oddly-shaped, spinning floors.
- v0.0.25 Updated configuration for the Big Fans and Hex-A-Gone game modes.
- v0.0.26 Improved default mouse sensitivity.
- v0.0.27 Updated multiplayer library in project.
- v0.0.28 Fixed player movement on curved fans (for real this time).
- v0.0.29 Two additions for this update:
- Added ability for character to be knocked rag-doll.
- Added a new map: Wipeout.
Feature Highlight - Wipeout
The feature highlight this week is the new level: Wipeout. This ties in with a new key feature that was added with this most-recent version as well: rag-doll animations! This level is inspired from Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout’s Jump Club round. The map mainly consists of a central disk that has a hole cut out of the center and two arms that spin around. The two arms are spread out so that one is at the level of the player and the other one is above the player’s head. Players will have to expertly jump through the level to stop the arms from flinging them off the edge of the map.
In order to have this work, I needed to make a big change to the game: knocking the player prone. I say prone but it really is just allowing the character player to move as a dynamic object. This means that whenever the player hits something on the map, they turn into a rag-doll and start rolling around the map.
In the case of this level, whenever the arms hit the player, the player will turn into a dynamic object and start rolling around the map. Above, you can see a picture of a player diving over the bottom bar and being hit, causing them to fall down onto the ground. This feature makes the game look much more dynamic and has the potential to add quite a few new levels of challenge to the map.
Post Progress - Hex-A-Gons are the Best-A-Gons
Last week I promised to make an update about the hexagons. I have a small update. Above is the current progress picture of creating new hexagon grid maps. The github project with the code is found here: https://github.com/nicholas-maltbie/TileMaps. I will be updating it to include a lot more features for tile maps of any type and all sorts of fun path finding and interesting tricks. This might be used in new game modes that use hexagon or grid maps as part of the terrain. It might take me a few weeks, but I’ll do my best to keep adding features and eventually build to releasing a Unity package with the recolor shader.
Future Plans
Crossed quite a few things off the list of things to do. These are a few of the times items we’ve achieved since last week:
- Improvement to character controller
- Knocking the character prone/rag-doll
- New maps!
Not sure which tasks will be prioritized right away, but these are the current plans for the game:
- End a round once all players have finished (instead of waiting for timer to end)
- Improving models and textures, polishing existing maps
- Score screen to show player scores at the end of round
- Improvement to character controller
- Slippery ground to slide across
- Diving forward after jumping
- Bouncy surfaces and objects to jump off
- Rag-doll animation for player when they are prone
- Always more debugging…
- More game sound effects and music
Can’t wait to get started on those next features.
Have a great week
- Nick Maltbie