JDog053 DevBlog

[Prime_8]

nice .  very cool

[fog]

I'm still liking the unusual purple TBH. 

While it looks a bit confusing trying to see what is wall and what is background in those screenies, I'm sure it looks ok in motion.  Does it really need parallax scrolling?

[JDog053]

I'm still liking the unusual purple TBH. 

While it looks a bit confusing trying to see what is wall and what is background in those screenies, I'm sure it looks ok in motion.  Does it really need parallax scrolling?

It doesn't need parallax, i'll make it toggle so you can decide during tests And yeah, I just need to make the rocky textures look a tad more unforgiving.

I've been fiddling with level creation at the moment, so fr there's 10 passable levels (all without enemies), I hope to do another 15 intime for the next tests whever that will be. You can now unlock levels upon completion, aswell as die after 3+ more contacts, collect health and score...

I'm going to add save data, keeping track of number of levels unlocked, and the high score for each of those levels.

[fog]

Cool.  Looking forward to another play.

Personally I wouldn't create too many levels before testing and tweaking.  I like to get the controls, movement etc. completely nailed down before designing too many levels because if you do tweak your handling or movement speed it could mean your already designed levels are no good and need redesigning.

[JDog053]

Cool.  Looking forward to another play.

Personally I wouldn't create too many levels before testing and tweaking.  I like to get the controls, movement etc. completely nailed down before designing too many levels because if you do tweak your handling or movement speed it could mean your already designed levels are no good and need redesigning.

True, I should just let you play the 15 i've cooked up (without enemies still, just the hazard of the cavern walls to worry about)

[fog]

Cool.  Looking forward to another play.

Personally I wouldn't create too many levels before testing and tweaking.  I like to get the controls, movement etc. completely nailed down before designing too many levels because if you do tweak your handling or movement speed it could mean your already designed levels are no good and need redesigning.

True, I should just let you play the 15 i've cooked up (without enemies still, just the hazard of the cavern walls to worry about)

Yeah, it's difficult to know how many enemies you need to put in until you know how difficult it is to manoeuvre. 

Are the enemies just of the must be avoided type, or is there some way to kill them?  Actually it might be cool if the different fruits game you temporary abilities.  Hmm.  Sorry, can't switch off the game designers thoughts 

[Prime_8]

that & direction you fly at em .. ie head on could let you get some ?

veru coolio dude

[JDog053]

Thanks folks! just doing some shader coursework at the moment, work will resume on bat game shortly Will try and get a screenie up at somepoint today!

[JDog053]

So all my Shaderzzzz coursework has been submitted I've now been set some AI and some multi-threaded/networked/2D physics coursework... but its the easter holidays now so I have some more time to sink into bat game.

The game has progressed code wise and art wise and i'll have to get some screenshots up at somepoint today. The game also has a name, undecided which of the two to use but its between;

Big Bat or
Fat Bat

I've decided to remove the second parallaxing layer for the time being as its more additional work and although it looked good, I couldn't accurately cull the transformed grid. Also, not every tile harms the player, the caves are more open and its more about flying through an engaging level.

[T_M_C]

Why not use Parallax stars instead.

Simple and easy to implement with not much performance overhead.

You could also add some random twinkly stars as i did in my shooter.

I also had a second parallax layer along with stars.

My grid layer was simply made up of horizontal and vertical lines which stretch across the whole screen making up a square grid.

And it's simply a case of moving each line and checking whether they go off screen or not.

Vertcal lines only need to scroll horizontally and horizontal lines need to scroll verticaly.

TMC

[fog]

Big Bat or
Fat Bat

Out of those two defo Fat Bat. 

Also, not every tile harms the player, the caves are more open and its more about flying through an engaging level.

That's certainly the way I would go and then introduce more harmful tiles in the later levels. 

[JDog053]

Big Bat or
Fat Bat

Out of those two defo Fat Bat. 

Also, not every tile harms the player, the caves are more open and its more about flying through an engaging level.

That's certainly the way I would go and then introduce more harmful tiles in the later levels. 

Aye thats the plan, though not with tiles so much as enemies.
I'm having safe and spiked tiles only as it makes the most sense.

and all enemies are in two patterns;

non-spiked (enemies you can kill by flying into them)
spiked (enemies that wound you when you fly into them)
and i'm still having falling stalactites as hazards aswell

Instead of flying to a fruit basket at the end i've not come up with anything to signify a logical ending, since now the bat just eats the fruit when it collects it. I've been toying with a perch of somekind...

And at the moment i'm not touching graphics, just using placeholders so I can focus on the graphics afterwards.

[TheKhakinator]

I would pay up to $2 for a mobile version of Fat Bat.

[JDog053]

I would pay up to $2 for a mobile version of Fat Bat.

Lol, well its going to be free whenever its done anyway

[fog]

I would pay up to $2 for a mobile version of Fat Bat.

lol.  It shows how things have changed when $2 is actually a reasonable amount of money for a mobile game.  

It's kinda crazy, but if it's working as a price model for games, and it certainly is for plenty of developers,  then I wonder whether other forms of media would benefit from a similar pricing model change?