Migiesmith

BSc (Hons) Games Development graduate from Edinburgh Napier University. This blog is used for stuff I am currently working.

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Cats can now have up to 4 (this number may change) accessories on them allowing players to freely customise their assortment cats. The customisation systems are really starting to fall into place :)

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Got the decoration system in, it just needs more decorations to bulk it out. Once there are more decorations, I can hook the shop and achievements up with the decoration system and they’ll start to feel more like they are part of the game.

Since my last post, the achievement system has been implemented a long with a few test achievements. Some interfaces have also been modified including adding confirmations before continuing with an action (the ad button was one of the main reasons I wanted this feature in).

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Decided to have a look back at how the exploration component of the game works. Previously it tried to add pads between the spawn bounds and the screen bounds. This worked but lead to two issues; excess pads were spawned where the player wasn’t wanting to go and there was no guarantee that the player could continue in a general direction because of the randomness of the spawning.

The new approach alleviates these issues to some extent by tracking the general direction the player is going and spawning pads in a cone around that area. This means that the player is more likely to be able to keep travelling in a direction if they so choose and less pads need to be spawned since the spawning is more focused.

Now to move onto the achievement and decoration systems :)

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Cats can be moved!

Cats are no longer frustratingly stuck in the room they are allocated in when acquired, they can now be freely moved from their info panel.

Yes, I did cheat in money and that weird face button is for the decoration manager that I’m working on.

Side note: not sure why my recording software always cuts of the right side of the screen..

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Got a functioning daily system in with objectives and rewards. Will need to balance the rewards with the difficulty of objectives but balancing won’t be done in the current state as a lot can change :)

The left image shows the available dailies. The centre and right image show two of those dailies being complete with a popup sliding onto the screen (not a gif so you’ll need to imagine them sliding). Returning to the dailies screen would display 3 greyed out completed dailies just like the 3rd entry in the left image.

The new white button above the cat’s name is the rename button (needs an icon still) a feature that was long put off for more interesting features.

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Another thing checked off that I’ve been meaning to do, the roulette wheel for the random reward part of the game. Still needs an icon for the exp portion but I’ll get round to that when I’m doing some more of the art.

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Made some more progress on the adoption system. Now it just needs the option to name the cats. Something I’ve been meaning to implement for a few other areas..

Side note, the new cactus cat pattern looks pretty good in purple.

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With the Let’s Create Game Jam submission out of the way, I can get back to my mobile game! Been working on the UI, fixing some bugs, reworking how some features were implemented, and starting on new features.

The collection system is now partially in the game, allow the player to keep track of what cat components they have collected and how many they have left to find. I want to update this so that the rarity of each component is indicated but for now I’ve just used the purple cat head icon that I use for the current cat info.

Lastly, the images that make up the cat gif (posted here) are now in the game! Depending on the happiness of the cat (indicated by their happiness bar), the effectiveness of their perks are altered.

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30s Quest Tile by migiesmith

Questing with a rush!

Just submitted by entry for the Let’s Create Game Jam 2017.

Windows / Mac / Linux / Web / Android

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Short clip of the lighting effect created for the Staff tile when it destroys other tiles.

Also made some improvements but they aren’t exactly visible. Made the Staff and Mega Bomb scripts more reliable, no longer running into issues with a large number of each on the board. Caching tile models to reduce board update time.

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Added two new mechanics since my last post:

Mega Bomb - Destroys each adjacent tile.

Staff - Spawns lighting that destroys any tile it hits.

If either of these new tiles hit another tile, the outcome is the same as if the player moved to that tile (eg gain a shield if a shield tile is destroyed). The only difference is that if a tile is destroyed that would use a bomb, no bomb is used. Destroyed tiles can progress quests which may lead to some balancing in the number requirement of the quests.

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Made some more progress on my game for the Let’s Create Jam. Made quite a few changes since my last post, starting to feel much for like a game now!

There is now a visual representation of players health and tiles are able to increase and decrease it. More tile types have been added as well as tiles designs (these are just aesthetics).

The theme of the jam, ‘30 Second Quest’, is now incorporated and gives the player the feeling that they have to rush. Obstacles were introduced which require bombs to be destroyed. These obstacles if ignored can cause the game to end by being unable to move.

Current Mechanics

Loot

Heart Tiles - heals the player’s hp bar.

Shield Tiles - heals the player’s shield bar.

Sword Tiles - can be used to attack an enemy without taking damage to either the player’s shield health or regular health.

Bomb Tiles - can be used to destroy obstacles that otherwise block the player’s movement.

Enemies

Spiders - deals direct damage to the player’s health if they do not have any swords. Each spider has a max health of one.

Demons - deals damage to the player’s health unless they have shields to damage or a sword to prevent damage. Each demon has a max health of two.

Obstacles

All obstacles function the same, they block the path of the player unless they have a bomb. The directions the player can move in are shown using the roads. This excludes paths that can be opened by using a bomb.

Quests

Currently there are two types of quests, those that task you with defeating X enemies and those that you must Y collect loot for.

Tools

Art - created using MagicaVoxel (https://voxel.codeplex.com/)

Audio - generated using bfxr (http://www.bfxr.net/)

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Taking part in the Let’sCreate Game Jam on itch.io (https://itch.io/jam/lets-create-game-jam-1). Started a little late and not in a group but liking how this is turning out so far.

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Not posted in a while because I’ve been busy finishing off my internship and going on my end of uni holidays. Just getting back into working on my cat game again.

Decided to work on the happiness of the cats, got some implementation in but wanted to give the indicators a go, pretty happy with how they came out :D

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Decided to give the UI a bit of an improvement,pretty happy with it now :D Also added a tip system to inform/remind players about features and functionality.

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Got round to adding in a sprite for the mice and I now feel ok showing them.For how simple their logic is, they cope surprisingly well with the environment.

Their logic boils down to keeping track of pads (the circles) within their circular trigger and adjusting their movement based on the distance from the pad. In addition to this, a random component is added so that they don’t just run in a straight line if there are no obstacles.The smaller, red, circle is for cat detection so that they can be eaten for experience.

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The final year project I completed with a small team is now available on itch.io. it is free to download and requires and HTC Vive to play. I think it looks pretty nice considering we got very little from our external artist (we had to make most of the models).