Maps, maps, and more maps. And more coding too.
THIS PAST WEEK
Regular maps were much easier to draw, or rather, I have much more experience drawing those. Thanks to that I finished three new maps for the prologue/demo. They're all forest paths leading from the starting cliffside to the camp you see in the first map. That said, I'm trying to make them look a bit different so that it's not all the same aesthetically. To do that, I'm trying to add a variety of plants/grass/dirt, something to indicate you're moving to a different part of the forest. You can see the transition in the picture below.
Since maps are progressing nicely, I decided to take some time to work on coding for a crucial part of the game that I've admittedly been putting off due to its complexity: cutscenes. Static cutscenes where characters are standing still and just talking to each other are relatively easy, but having them move around turns out to be quite tricky. Maybe I'm making things too hard for myself by trying to make an "universal" code for all cutscenes, something that I can use for all cutscenes just by changing up variables, but if I can get this right things will be much, much, easier when the time comes to make the rest of the game. I'll keep trying a bit longer, but if I can't I may resort to making separate events for each individual cutscene.
That's about it. My sprite artist has started work on the main character's sprite, and right now we're hashing out the design. I should have something to show you guys next week, so stay tuned!
THE NEXT WEEK
The main thing I'll be working on is the cutscene code. My goal next week will be to finish the opening cutscene that leads to gameplay so I can have that ready for next Saturday's #ScreenshotSaturday. Hopefully by then the sprite for the main character's walking cycle will be ready for me to add in. I was also thinking about something like a popup tutorial thing that'll show up for the first few maps telling you the controls. In my mind that doesn't seem too hard, so I'll work on that once the cutscene code is finished. Any extra time will be dedicated to making more maps.
SUMMARY/TL;DR
Completed This Week:
- Made three new maps
- Wrote code for cutscenes
- Discussed sprite design with sprite artist (in progress)
To Do Next Week:
- Complete cutscene code
- Write opening cutscene
- Program/add popup tutorials
- Make more maps
Things are coming together. There are still a few more hurdles that I can foresee in the immediate future, but I think I can handle it. Thanks for reading!