This is a new project I have just started and do not have a project page for yet. I wanted to share some of my experiences and decisions going into this. Grab a snack if you wish to read because it is going to be a long one.
TBBD Demo Disc is a planned prelude to my to be renamed game series. It will also serve as a playable prototype for some of my upcoming projects and people will be able to mess with it and also discover many hidden secrets. As this is just a prototype it should not take too long to make. I have a release goal but I am going to keep that to myself.
The first thing I want to address is that my games are receiving some art style changes. I decided to go for a more playful and colorful art style because I like that idea. First off all this means characters will be made of simple "parts" and I will still do some work in blender but I will keep it fairly to a minimum. The second thing to address is that I originally said I was going to do hand painted textures. This no longer fits the art style and would have probably looked ugly anyway so I decided to change this to more traditional colorful textures.
Secondly my original idea for enemies in the game was to defeat them by jumping on them. This is very similar to a plumber however so I decided to take some time to try to think of a more original and interesting idea. What I came up with was a stomp attack that only works if you are falling. This is similar but slightly more unique, engaging, and probably will be easier to code.
Third, I have decided for a while to use mouse controls for at least some of the games. The idea is in games like platformers that need more fluid movement it will probably be easier to control with a mouse than a keyboard. Basically, you just click on the screen and your character will turn faster depending on how far to the side you mouse is and will move forward or backwards faster or slower depending on how high your mouse is on the screen. I am VERY happy with how this turned out because not only is it really fun but my dad who does not do too well with games said he can easily get used to the controls.
Last, to address the elephant in the room when looking at the screenshot. I have decided at-least for now to not implement the traditional "Shadow under objects" in platformers. I may change my mind when I make the actual game but there is 3 reasons why I decided against it for the demo disc.
1. All the methods of doing that seem complicated, computationally intensive, or just not convincing.
2. I have not found depth perception to be an issue in the current prototypes I have made.
3. I think it almost makes more sense to have players get used to "natural" light instead of using "fake" light just to give them an advantage.
Anyways thanks for reading. If dev continues to go smooth enough I should have the page ready by thanksgiving. Have a good day.
edit: just had a compromise idea for the last point. What if I project something onto the floor, it just would not be a shadow? Maybe for the demo disc it could be a disc.