Update 4 - 8 Hours In
Soldier interacting with Lantern
This is a small update due to the time constraints. The soldier now interacts with the Lantern light radius in a classic manner.
The Soldier and the Lantern
After some work, the soldier now recognizes when he is in range of the lantern. Right now, I've used an exclamation point to indicate whether he is in dim, bright, or no light. I first tried to set this up by having multiple collider objects on the lantern, but when I went to code the OnTriggerStay method used, I realized that I can't have two colliders on the same object that used different script methods. I then resolved to do this manually by keeping track of the distance from the lantern to the soldier (as a squared number, it's supposed to be faster) and then firing the event based on the light conditions. The interaction between the difference classes looks something like this diagram.
Open Problems
I see a couple of issues right now with the game. The controls still feel stiff, and I think I need to do some research about best practices for swiping/mouse combos. The second, and more pressing issue right now, is that the light doesn't give a good indication of where the boundaries are between the light levels. This info is critical for the player to make decisions and so it needs to be much easier for a player to understand.
A bigger issue in general, however, is that I have a distinct lack of time over the rest of the jam. I'm going to have to scope down and prioritize a finished game over a perfect game. So many projects die in perfection, and the goal of this jam was to finish a game. Some ideas to cut for scope:
- Sound Cues (This one will weaken it a bit)
- Any sound
- Cutscenes
- Animals and other neutral objects
- Snow Drifts
- Procedural Level
Next Steps - Title Card, Better Level Design
As my goal is a finished game, I will next work on a title card with placeholder UI. I also want to work some on the level design. I threw something together for testing, so iterating on that to get a more gamey feel would be good.
I also want to add some rudimentary sounds, but that may get tossed out of the back.