Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Starman and the Three Little Witches

... otherwise known as "Starman watches the kids".... umm.... okay.

This will probably be the last video "demo" of World Two until at least the first area is ready to play -- that's right play -- as in the sense of it actually being a game with obstacles, puzzles, and creatures to overcome and objectives to meet. But, before all that, see the video below along with the numbered points that explain what is going on therein.




1) The "three little witches" (with red, blue and yellow dresses) demonstrate npc (non-player character/creature) movement control. The red little witch walks in a pre-defined circle. The blue little witch walks in a point-to-point pattern, in this instance a square. And the yellow little witch wanders a random path.

2) When the player runs into an interesting object (such as the save-point -- the thing with the spinning disks -- or a door/gateway or perhaps an npc to hold a conversation with) a "!?" bubble pops into view, informing the player that there is something to examine or take action about at that point.

3) Area transitions (with properly tracked last-location memory) through doors and gateways.

4) A simple jumping mechanic and simple jump/stomp game play.

5) An inter-area "warp" feature that allows the developer to quickly change areas to make development and debugging easier.

6) An intra-area "warp" feature to teleport to any area within the current map in order to make development easier in the sense that walking from place to place within a large area is no longer necessary.

7) Simple wall collision and avoidance.

8) An "overlord" game-tracking object that will help to maintain game state and progress both within a game and between games via game saves.

Of course, most of these demo points are still very rough , but with these pieces now in place, fine tuning, level building, and gameplay can be worked on with a greater degree of confidence and control.

Ahhhnward ;-)

Sunday, July 6, 2008

World Two Refactored

July 4th Weekend

I spent the main part of the weekend redesigning World Two into a more modular and fashionable form. My work has not been without frustration or progress. But from here forth, additional programming and modeling will be easier for both myself and those who come after me.

At this time, the great work of the game worlds has come to a bud, both glad and green, and all those of GWG should be notably happy thereby.

A video of the great Game States of World Two is being uploaded right now, but until that morsel of magnificence is available, please see a quick render of a recent model... with great thanks to my daughter for picking out the image for the rug! I think it looks great beyond belief!