Jam Log No.4

KNOW THY LIMIT

Welp. The things I know I cannot yet do has grown, and I have learned. 

Here is the most updated version, the array and weapon switch system was not working, try as I may I couldn't follow all of the tutorial and my computer couldn't let me access the download the source material so I couldn't even compare the code side by side to see where I went wrong. I also now have a bias against learning code from programmers. Nothing against programmers, but the curse of knowledge I've found in devs whose education/focus was in code, rather then art or design, was stronger. Of course I'm basing this off a very small sample size of tutorial videos I've seen on youtube, I know programmers whose education is in code that could probably teach me just fine, I'm just saying of the educational tutorials I've seen on youtube, coding taught from those who started elsewhere has been easier for me to learn from.

So.. again, I've cut back and improved a little on what I know works, I've lost a few days to work but I'm not too far behind. I'm going to stop trying to add in things until I get this working like a game rather then a mechanic test. Then I'll see what I can do.

The player can now explode and the pieces come to rest, now the difficult part. 

I've worked it into the code that the player simply changes to one of the pieces thrown, to avoiding having to label and follow each individual piece thrown from the character, the character is changed into one of these pieces separate from their specific generation. The tricky part is coding it so that, first; you are thrown from the site of contact as if you are suddenly controlling one of the smaller pieces of gore, second the players control of the piece is removed during flight, third any possible extra contact with the enemy will not trigger another explosion, and forth once landed the player bit will regain control to the player and be able to be destroyed again, where the second contact with the monster (after this explosion) will result in game end.... an awesome stretch goal would be that the explosion damages and knock-backs any enemies within a radius as well. 

ALRIGHT!

I got a good part of the tricky stuff that I was struggling with fixed, reason I was having such a hard time is because I had my variables set in the wrong place so they were constantly resetting instead of having them in coded where they'd remain static. Basic mistake, but satisfying pay out. So, what we have now is a person that shoots, can blow up, regain his pieces, and become whole again. While exploding there is a grace period where the player is invincible after that if hit before regaining their parts the player explodes and game over. For anyone confused how this ties in with the game premise as specified in an earlier post, don't be alarmed, that makes two of us. I thought of something cool I wanted to code, and ended up being able to code it, I'll be damned if I don't run with it. Probably somewhere in the same universe this game is the story about a newly formed zombie, fighting of those who accidentally resurrected him, the alien invaders. He's a gun toting mostly blooded patriot of his planet and he didn't much like his evening being disturbed. I'm going to do minimum colors with minimum style, because time constraints and animations are hard. I have placeholders for most of what I'll need but I'm going to bare bones it until I have the enemy A.I. up to speed and something like a level laid out and coded. Basics being, idle, shoot, run.. maybe a flashing idle for damage idk. I still have to make up this alternate enemy and then try my hand at this mini-boss idea. From what I have with the player code it shouldn't be that far a stretch. What concerns me is the specific instances.. The player, dependent on health, has different abilities. Some are so easy as changing the speed of movement or specific passageways being accessible, and that might be enough. But it'd be nice if each instance felt different to play, without one feeling better or worse then the other. What I might end up doing is simplifying the instances again, streamline the design. I was figuring a verbal count would have been nice instead of a number hanging in the top screen, but really... for what I have ammo is irrelevant. It's not about saving bullets, it's about getting to the end of the map in one piece... that is one whole piece.. all together. The hard part is going to be designing and coding each of those so they can stand up in play independently, and of course fixing some animation in time for that. I'll have an updated video later this week. Night fokes.