Movement Platformer (Work in Progress)

The aim for this project is to put out a full game that I can complete relatively quickly, this means no super technically challenging elements, as I would usually be inclined to include.

I'm going for 2D movement based platformer game, something similar to Super Meat Boy. From a code point of view I don't see any overly challenging areas, apart from maybe the movement mechanics – I'm thinking of going for a lil creature that has the ability to use his stretchy arms to swing around, it would act similar to how grappling hooks work in other games.

With wanting to keep things relatively simple, and doable quickly, and not wanting to retract from the core gameplay, I think it makes sense that any complexity I add should vibe with the core movement mechanics. I might add creatures / objects you have to avoid, these might be static or moving. I might add moving object to aid in the swinging, in a slingshot kind of way. I might add other movement aids, such as bouncy platforms or fans which boost the player in a certain direction. I feel these are all nice elements to add, that wouldn't require the player to use more than the standard movement controls. This should keep the game easy enough to get the hang of, but offers opportunities to easily scale the difficulty as the player becomes more competent as they progress through the game.

Progress so far

• Implementation of swinging mechanics, still a few little things to fix, but I'm mostly happy with it.
• Character model and animation, still very early progress. Wanted to get just something in so I could get a feel for it.
• Implementation of camera controller. Mostly completed, just need to adjust how it deals with camera movement at the boundaries of the level.
• Implementation of a drone, not yet 100% sure it will be a drone specifically. Serves as a slingshot aid, for the character to perform large swings that wouldn't otherwise be possible.
• Implementation of 'slime', basically just kills the player on contact, also cant be swung from. Can be used to add more difficulty to certain areas.
• Prototyped development of environment visuals (fog, rain, slime, buildings). These will likely change massively, but it's nice to get an early sense of what it might end up like.

To 27/09/23

• Further developed the building visuals, including shader that identifies the brightest parts of the texture (the little windows) and adds emission to these. The emission feeds into the bloom post processing nicely, enables me to get rid of the volumetric lights which were flickering violently due their small range relative to the size of the volumetric fog 'slices'. May at some point add some noise to the emission so it feels a bit more dynamic.
• Added rocket engine VFX that is placeable on the bottom of the buildings so they can 'float' without needing supporting structures. Still a few elements to add and change to this, but it's okay for now.
• Added bobbit worm lookin' guys that try to chomp the player character. Blender modelling/UV/topology/rigging skills are slowly getting better. Animation code is IK fed physics, with motion fed back from physical body into the IK to keep it nice and organic looking, amongst a few other bits.
• Added a lil flying dude, acts as a distraction for the worms at set intervals. Animation is IK, where the head joint moves along a spline. Speed and wing flap speed vary depending on the situation to make it a bit more organic.
• Added a cloud shader. When you move to higher parts of the scene, it becomes quite obvious it's on a 2d plane. Will probably need to move it up / put it at an angle, or maybe try and implement volumetric clouds.
• Binned the deadly slime visuals for now as I'm not 100% sold on it. Might go for 'spicy' moss/grass or something instead.

To 08.10.23

• Made more building textures. Will need to make these conform to the same visual style at some point, ensuring they also fit in with the aesthetic of the level.
• Added billowing smoke to the rocket engine using Unity VFX graph and a shader. Have now made this element kill the player on impact, will use this to block certain paths off from the player.
• Added a distortion effect around the smaller buildings to indicate they are being held up by some kind of anti-grav/magnetic force.
• Added a shader and placement/customisation tool for the 'spicy grass' to replace the slime I had initially made. The tool enables the user to place a spline in the world, edit the spline as they see fit, and then generate grass along this spline at the click of a button.
• Added volumetric clouds. Mostly happy with how they look, though, will inevitably tweak them.
• Fixed an issue with the swinging mechanics where the swinging arm didn't accurately detect collisions on more complex geometry. Pretty much came up with a new solution, which seems to work flawlessly.
• Fixed another swinging issue where the arm looked as if it was getting stuck as it would retract. Coded an additional check that calculates the closest distance to the bend from one frame to the next, which alleviated the issue completely.

I have (with the help of AI image creation) managed to create a small collection of building assets that fit the aesthetic. Still a few tweaks to be made but it's feeling a lot more like the buildings are part of the world, rather than being slapped on top as was the case previously. I think the next step is to populate the background so it feels less empty.