I’ve made some pretty amazing progress this last week or so, though it’s not as visible as I’d like. I learned how to use particle effects in Torque, and added them to the using-health function. I threw in some burning houses and trees, and was briefly considering reworking the fire in the molotovs, and the psychic effects, but I feel like it’d be more efficient to wait until I get to the applicable levels.
I also discovered that the player’s ability to walk up a slope instead of fly up it like a superhero was completely due to accident. I’m still not entirely sure why that piece of code gave me the results I was looking for, because once I “fixed” it, it didn’t function at all, and I had to essentially redesign the player’s collision detection for the umpteenth time.
Also, I finished the save/checkpoint code, which also required a massive redesign. Instead of using the Torque engine as a level editor, I had to create functions that spawn objects, like health-drinks, enemies, and event-boxes. They each add the object to the level, and then a reference to the object to the applicable checkpoint list. When you load from a checkpoint, you delete everything from that checkpoint list, and then re-add the applicable objects. I ran into some weird issues where it wouldn’t delete some objects, and then I realized that in Torque, you can’t have two different classes of objects defined as custom classes. For example, if I make a class called “solid,” I can’t have both StaticSprites and AnimatedSprites of that class. It explained a lot of other issues I’ve been having, and after lots of renaming, I finally have everything working the way it’s supposed to.
So now, you can pick up Sake bottles by walking over them, and use them with ‘F’ to regain some health. The usual keys control movement (though I’ve added the spacebar as an alternative to ‘W’) and the mouse still aims and swivels the player. If you walk over one of the glowing Yggdrasil trees, it saves your checkpoint, and any time you die, it reloads you there. You can also cheat and use the ‘1’ or ‘2’ keys to load the first or second checkpoints, though I haven’t gotten around to the 3rd one yet. Soon, though.
I’m trying to decide on the ‘stun’ behavior for the pitchfork. The more I use it, the more I’m fine with it the way it is (though maybe dealing a little more damage). Also, I’ve noticed a little animation hiccup when the player jumps up onto something, like jumping up stairs. I can’t reproduce it with any regularity, so I can’t pinpoint what’s causing it. Also, occasionally, the samurai will walk backwards instead of hopping backwards away from the player. I have absolutely no idea why, but it looks intentional, and doesn’t affect gameplay at all.
Next up, I suppose, is to finish the third checkpoint, create the final boss’s actions, and then make the level design the way I want it to end up “for reals.” I also want to come up with an official name for the game- “Yggdrasil Dream” is just a working title, and it’s too hard to spell and pronounce to work as a good title. I’m thinking “The Morning After,” “Waking Dream,” “Hypnic Jerk,” or something like that. Any suggestions?
