Assignment 3 Development Progress
We got some good stuff to do for making our racing/platform running down game.
So during our development we have first decide to use google drive to put some resources on it, also we use Trello to manage the task that we need to do and have been done, at first we also decided to use Git to collaboratively work on the project together. But then after we try to sort of the working process on Git during a meet up section in the workshop, we find it very hard to work it on Git for GDevelop5 so instead we decided to just work on it one by one and upload the whole package to google drive, and write down what we have done and make changes on Trello and Discord. So this is our work ways.
Then we started working on it, for the other group members part they worked on basic UI, background, sound effect and also the level placement, design.
For my part so far, what I have did what created the Grim that hunt the player from top to bottom, at first I used a placeholder art of:
Tripling it as what I myself did in my racing game to the good width:
I designed the script to chase down the road in constant speed, and it would only start chasing the player after 2 platform, so that allow that player some time to run, giving the player enough tension but not instant death. Later we did changed on the art and behavior of the Grimm a bit.
Another thing then I added is the original portal part, but I just put it in a placeholder for and wrote the related script to it, then someone replace the art and made it all look good together.
The new portal part art or runes:
Then I worked on at least one item before the play-test start, I decided to add an item the would slow down the Grimm from chasing when touched, I decided to just put a cross for art first anyway, either as the art or just a placeholder is fine:
I at first set the script to have a pause time of 0.75 second, not sure if this would be a balanced value, this would need to be tested out in play-test.
Then later the art got changed to a clock:
The last thing that I added before play-test is at least one type of enemy, that was what we planned to have for the essential play-test, to keep it easy and for the respect, I just added the slime as the very basic type of enemy, with a very basic idling animation that wiggle up and down, and a 10 frame dead animation of which the slime melt:
I added a simple enemy interaction of killing the slime if the play land on it, and otherwise if they player touch it from sides, the player would get knocked back, although this might seems very insufficient, it is actually very deadly when the player is getting chased by the Grimm, the little bit of time could make the different, but how much of an effect it really have, or is it in a balanced or unbalanced way, this would all need to be tested during the play-test to get more feedback and worked again.
To be continued...
More to add on, during this development of the game, the things that I added and changed is mainly base on the playtest feedback, but still the playtest feedback only told me what to do, but HOW to do it is still a lot of things to learn from the book.
Frist one thing is that I finish added the other two item, the drill and the cross, the drill allow the player to go through platform, and the cross kill all enemy in a range.
I used a global variable to keep in store how many of each item the player have, and then I added a condition checking the item count, if there are item then the play can use it. Here are some related code:
I also make sure to update the displaced item count text that the play have on their screen after every time triggered.
Then I added a second enemy that have more hit point and float in the air following a path.
This ghost is a more budget one, it have less animation than the slime. Another thing I added is the some text description about the item when the player hover the mouse over it.
Of course, in order to buy item we also need a shop menu and a shop owner. These are some code:
this is pretty much my part of the development of the script, but I also adjusted the level a bit.
(level 2 and level 3 respectively)
When I was working on these part of the assignment 3, some very important parts from the book really reminds me and give me insight, such as chapter 3 page 82 of the book power-ups, page 88 boundary, and also chapter 4 page 97 challenges. The power-ups was a very important tools or mechanics that adds a lot of fun and playfulness to the game, it creates a lot of interaction between the whole environment, the interaction between enemy and items, item with another item, they are all very fun. The boundary keep the player inside the narrow down-way and there are a lot of challenge that give tension to the player, of course the most important challenge is the Grimm chasing the player. The Grimm makes all the other challenge a challenge, it make the enemy, the environment, the coin, and even the player itself become a challenge, the Grimm chasing the player create a timer pressure and so the player needs to get around the platform and enemy in a limited time, otherwise the enemy would just be a easy thing that the player can jump on and kill for free.
