Friday, January 11, 2013

Bowstring Snap

The other day I completed working animation of the bow.  It looked great, but when I was done, I realized something.  When I equiped the bow to my right hand, it was indeed the hand the bow was being held in, which means the player uses their left hand to fire arrows.  This is opposite of how a right handed person would use a bow.  So now I have to switch all the animations.  Not only that, I have to program the drawing of the bow so that the hand holding the bow is opposite of the hand the bow is actually equipped to!

Then there's the question of different arrow types.  The player would have to equip them to their off hand, which would act as the quiver, instead of equipping them to the player's back.  This would allow the player a wearable item on the back (Wings/Jetpack/Scuba Tank), but still be able to fire a bow.

I also have to figure out how the game behaves when you try to equip a two handed item to a hand when the other hand has an item in it (or both hands have items).  Do the two items return to the inventory, unless there is no room in the inventory?  Darn. I think I just answered my own question.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Sorry I haven't updated over break like I said I would, but between travelling, visiting family and friends, and just relaxing, I have been getting some DDP work done.  And I am quite happy with the progress.


My old list of things to do:
  • Title and Main Menu - Basic functionality almost complete
  • Player Actions (punching) - Complete
  • Player Actions (stabbing) - Complete
  • Player Actions (throwing) - Complete, but no object is thrown yet
  • Other players appearing on screen - Started. Finished Code Rewrite!
  • Inventory screen and handling - Complete
  • Additional Tiles and Textures - Few Complete
  • Autotiling Feature - Complete
  • Health, Magic, and Money - Complete
  • Health and Hotbar HUD Display - Complete
  • Wearable Items (No more nude player!) - On Hold
  • Pickup-able Money System, Moz - Complete
Okay, so some of those items are repeats from last time.  But look at all those completed items!  I also introduce the Moz, a small square currency.  They even have a magnetic-like reaction to nearby players!  They come in different colors, by value, and I find it fun already just to be able to pickup something other than the knife.

For now, I am holding off on wearable items, at least for the player's body, as the sleeves of shirts will have to match all of the arm animation.  So I need to make more arm animation, which means more hand items!

Some exciting things are in the works for the near future:
  • Thrown knives that are able to be picked up again.
  • Target's that can be broken. (Basic Enemy)
  • Bow and Arrows
  • Guns - Pistols, Shotguns, Rifles
  • Melee weapons with different arm animations
  • In-Game Menu Basic Functions
I think I'll try to figure out how to make an "In-Progress" page or side item or somewhere on the site wear you can check these items out, and future things that I am planning.

And as a holiday gift, a few screenshots.