by Annie | May 24, 2011 | Game Design
Bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs… Our final project is due at the end of this week, which means it’s time for debugging. Looking back through old scripts I wrote in March and April reaffirms how much I’ve learned in the past several weeks. Not only do I have a much better command of C# syntax, but my logic has improved noticeably, meaning I can manage multiple functions and instances simultaneously without too much of a headache. Less guessing, more purposeful planning. As of today, we have 22 bugs on our bug list, 13 of which are ranked high priority. And that’s not including all the ones we haven’t yet found. So here’s to the last few late nights of crunching and debugging. May they go as smoothly and be as pain-free as...
by Annie | May 18, 2011 | Game Design
There are less than 10 days left until our final game is due, which means it’s time for all the little details. With our mechanics and main gameplay elements ready to go, it’s now time to add little flourishes that will make our game experience all that much better and more fun. Here are some of the things on my to-do list for the next week and a half: – implement particle effects (explosions, movement trails, player notifications, etc.) – polish animations – create a new set of background pieces – script some movement for midground pieces (airplanes, clouds, etc.) – ensure that the scoring system works properly for successive plays – debug character movement, environmental assets, and front end menus It’s hard to believe that the deadline is so close. Time to kick things into high...
by Annie | May 11, 2011 | Game Design
Remember these logic puzzles? You’re given a brief story and a few seemingly unhelpful hints (e.g., Wanda’s partner doesn’t like roses), and then you have to proceed through the hints, crossing off the non-solutions until you arrive at the solution. Lately, I feel like I’ve been working through a logic puzzle, only in script. At first, implementing Chip’s animations seemed easy. We only had five animations: walk, jump, throw a ball, hang by his chin, and die. Sounds easy enough, right? That’s what I thought too. Very quickly, I realized that these animations weren’t mutually exclusive. Chip might jump and throw at the same time, making for a very twitchy looking Chip. Back at the animation boards, we knew we had to separate out Chip’s body parts in order to run simultaneous animations. But which body parts? And from which animations? Here comes the logic puzzle. Regardless of what Chip’s doing (walking, jumping, etc.), if he throws a ball, the throw animation should play. So first and foremost, his arm needed to be a separate piece. Next came the more nitty gritty. When Chip is jumping, even though he’s also moving forward, he’s no longer walking. Similarly, when chin hanging, even with forward inputs, Chip should not be walking. And above all, if Chip is dying, he shouldn’t be doing anything else. After a few days piecing it all together, Chip has come alive and is now quite...
