Work in progress

Done
In progress
To do
Optional


10/12/2012
Camera setting
Camera's following the robot, side scrolling way.

Robot basic movement
"Robot" is moving at constant speed, constant direction, falling if no solid ground under him, etc. Still very sketchy, no animation.

Robot Turbo
On a right swip, the speed is increased. After a delay (linked to a variable), the speed come back to the initial one.
I may need to create a custom kismet node for the swip input, I can't influence benabled/triggerdelay/maxtriggercount through variable on the former event, which mean I can't avoid the player "spamming" the turbo.
Well, I may do it, but at the cost of too many boolean nodes to be really efficient, I'll have to check how to expose these variables as variable input.


19/12/2012
Camera setting
Still have to do the camera effect we were talking of in turbo mode.

Robot basic movement

Robot Turbo
I managed to locked the SwipInput during "Action phase", which mean the player can't spam anymore.
It was a lot easier than what I was thinking initially.. sometimes it's good to let some time pass to think about a problem.

Cool stuff!

so can you make his turbo speed faster than the scrolling speed on a right swipe? once you speed up, you have to left swipe to go back to normal?

if you can't prevent them from spamming turbo (right swipe), or brake (left swipe), then let them spam all they want! if they fall in a pit and die horribly, maybe they shouldn't be spamming turbo! lol or maybe they are some leet pro who can spam turbo through in record time!

same thing for spamming brake, if you spam brake then you wont have enough speed for the jumps. or what if the levels are timed and braking too much will lead to running out of time and dying a horrible death! or maybe we have a giant buzz saw behind him that is trying to catch up and if they brake to much the saw gets closer behind them. like it would be off camera but if they brake too much it comes on the screen and slowly catches up? maybe for a harder level? lol

but it will be cool if the levels were a series of turbos brakes jumps and kills

what they can upgrade is how fast your turbo goes, braking sooner (like studded or spiked treads) and getting a jet pack!

and i had an idea for the jet pack: if his jet pack has fuel, he could collect full in the level and the jet pack is activated in an on/off button, and the fuel is always draining unless you pick up more

sorry just brainstorming

Quote :

so can you make his turbo speed faster than the scrolling speed on a right swipe? once you speed up, you have to left swipe to go back to normal?

You mean having the robot more on the right side when on turbo mode? To be able to see "less" when you're in turbo mode? Well, I can edit the camera in order to do that effect yes. In order to make the move smooth it'll take a bit of work on the camera but I can do it yes.


I can't allow any spamming in the game because spamming mean very often "bugs". For example, most of the time, if I spam the turbo, it'll increase the speed again and again even if I've made some "firewalls" against that, and the robot start having an anormal behavior like teleportation, stuck in the ground, etc.
And I really want a very clean system.
For example for turbo, few variables:
-Turbo duration
-Turbo speed
-Turbo recovery time
And each variables can be edited through bonus during the game or by improvements in between two levels.
In order to have all these possibilities, I really have to make it perfectly clean, because if I don't, it'll be the hell full of bugs. ^^


As for the jetpack, I'm not sure right now about allowing it, because it create some technicals issues for not that much improvement on the gameplay.
I mean.. with only swipe as controls, the jetpack won't be really easy to play with, or accurate, and it's a pain in the ass to make it work correctly AND smoothly in the move.
I may prefer a remote control solution.
Ex: at the beginning of the level you know that your offensive skill for the level is a remote control.
You see some "bouncing area" incoming, you have to trigger it by swiping up, in order to make it active and jump when you'll be on it.
It's a lot easier to do technically, because jetpacks and controls are... annoying as hell.
And I know it quite well because I've globally done one for one of my ex students group.


By the way, it'll be a lot easier to do AND to be understood by players if the game follow a constant logic for everything.
I mean, if every actions follow the same rules, it's easy to get the knack of it.

Action
->Duration
->Intensity
->Recovery time

Same go for the traps, because I'll probably have to hardcode them if I don't want to have to do plenty copy/paste in kismet. Which mean I won't be able to code 40 types of traps.
Then can look different graphically, but they'll have to share some "classes".

Exemples:
Slowing trap: it can look like grease, roots, teapots or anything, if it share the exact same behavior it's not a problem
-> Duration
-> Intensity
-> Rythm: permanent, every 3 sec, etc
-> Can or cannot be canceled by a defensive/offensive skill

Paf-you're-dead: it can look like a massive hammer which kick you out of the map, a pink elephant or wathever you want.
-> Rythm
-> Can or cannot be canceled by a defensive/offensive skill

etc etc

As for the pickable and temporary bonus it won't be a problem to do I think, if everything else follow clean rules.

Cool!

OK so I get now more about his movement and what the player is going to do! Perfectly clean sounds good!

As with the turbo, yes that's what i mean. I think it could be good to have a slight penalty like not seeing as far ahead if you want to use turbo. Do you think that is too douchy? Cuz I also think it might make for a cool visual effect for it too.

Thats ok about the jet pack. They will have enough to do lol! But eventually, his turbo is going to have to have some seriously sweet jet flames coming out of it lol!

as far as animations, do you know anyone who can animate well? Because Wall-e was successful because they could still convey emotion. I think that our little robot should have some quirks that make the player fall in love with him. i picture him as a little adorable modest robot who is also super earnest, so he just tries so hard and his determination is what gets him out. What do you think? Also this helps so I can nail his concept art - i'm just throwing ideas out there for the sense of style.

So maybe some trap classes can be slow (of course), floor fall away, slick (uncontrolled speed up), freeze, anti gravity/magnet...

next time we can talk about all the ways he can die! hehe!

For the turbo I'm ok with the visual effect. It'll take a bit of work, but I may even check if I can manage a variable distance of the camera depending of the equipment.

Well for the robot don't forget that we're on an iPod screen, then we can't do any wall-e style, and we should aim a lot more on the "borderland's claptrap" style which is a lot easier to do both for modeling and animation.

The design has to leave some space to "improvements". Texture modifications are easier, but I may be able to add real elements on it, if it simple stuff, without animation on it.

Edit1
Update.
I've done the "locked controls" during action phase, spam is no longer possible.

Edit2
For the "brake" function, I'll do it differently because of the swipe input behavior.
To notice a "swip", the engine want the swip AND the release of the finger pressure. Which mean I can't do easily the "swip and keep your finger on", because he won't know that I'm swipping.
Kind of stupid, but it's how it works, and I won't mess with it because I've another solution.

I'll put an invisible active area in the extreme left of the screen. The player will have to press in that area and keep the pressure to keep the robot in braking mode.
A bit like a button in fact. Keep your finger on the button and the robot keep being slow.
Of course all of this will have a max duration, etc etc.