UPDATE 3: The Trough
My god, this week’s tasks were hard. They almost, ALMOST broke me. It was probably unwise to increase the workload’s amount and difficulty so steeply this week. I drew the animations/designs of the monsters, as well as coding their AI behavior. The process was full of errors, frustration, and sweat. However; I must say it was by far the most rewarding week. The game is starting to be “playable”.
To avoid spoiler, I will only show the behavior and design of two monsters.
The first is the cupid:
The cupid:
- Registers the location of the player
- Tries to get to an optimal range to fire arrows.
- Depending on its health, will either stay at its current position, retreat, or teleport behind the player.
- Its arrows can be destroyed if the player melees them if timed perfectly.
The second is the marionette:
- If it hits the player with its projectiles, the player will be slowed down.
- If the player is slowed and out of range, the marionette will keep teleporting towards it.
- Once in range, the marionette will melee the player.
- Also, has different strategies depending on its health.
I must say I am pretty proud of the designs/animations of all monsters. For someone who literally knew nothing about pixel art or game design the last month, I think they are pretty good. The numbers, like damage and health, need to be juggled a bit. But this will be done in the level design stage.
If I could give myself, or anyone, advice on working on a game or any project in general, it would be: plan the overall picture, iterate on the details until satisfied, and JUST START.
If, and when, you find yourself in the trough of your excitement curve, just try to push through. Don’t force yourself by overworking rather force yourself to do something tiny. Anything. Any forward progress. One line of code, one tiny change. Just keep your momentum.
Now, this time’s tasks. The inventory/phone mechanic. This is going to be a very big part of the game. As you explore the levels and look for clues for puzzles, you will gather needed items to progress forward. Be it keys or something similar. That’s the first use. The other, more important, use of the phone is for story reasons. The player will get messages from the girl he is looking for (and maybe other characters as well). Those messages might be helpful and other times will be harmful.
Think about this, if a very strong theme in the game is the character’s over dependence on his lover, then how can we elicit the same feeling for the player? In other words, how can we make the player be overly attached to the sound of a message from the girl, like how the character is?
The intuitive answer would be making the messages affect the gameplay somehow. When a person, who is in love, hears a notification from his phone their heart immediately skips, some part of them will be hoping that the message is from the person they love and their breath will be held until they check their phone. It’s human nature. It’s the most relatable feeling in the world.
So, in the game, it would make perfect sense to decrease the oxygen bar of the player. This way we show that negative effects this relationship has on the character AND we make the player sympathize because they, as well, are affected.
Just like the character’s heart will skip a beat when hearing the sound of phone, the player as well will hope it’s a message from the girl to avoid losing some of their oxygen bar. So, fitting!
So, here is what I need to do:
- Inventory system that keeps track of the items/clues.
- The phone’s message app.
- A notes section for clues.
- The UI for both of course.
All must be finished on 3/8. A little over a week. I really do need a break. After all, I am human. I think.