Pointer Variations

Today i've made a couple of variations on the pointer system. In addition to the systems that i have made earlier I made a variation where the user can use the pointer to select an attack to execute.

So now I have 3 variations on the Pointer System:
(press to download)

1. Directional dragging and click timing for attacking
2. Movement hotspots and click timing for attacking
3. Directional dragging and attack selection

My own tests and tests with roommates suggest that the hotspots don't really work that well. However I'm awaiting results from disabled users to confirm this.

Between option 1 and 3 the difference is that option 1 keeps a better pace with the game. On the other end option 3 gives more control to the player wich also adds to the gameplay experience.

There is also the latest keyboard version for download here

Try it out and leave a comment!

Pointer System

I've created a new Pointer System that uses hot spots on the screen to control the character. There are 6 hotspots:

• two for walking left and right;
• three for jumping up, jumping left and jumping right;
• and one large one for blocking;

At first i made the hotspots move together with the main character but this made it almost impossible to use since you had to always move the mouse along with the character. So finally i made the hotspots static on the screen.

At first the system was still pretty tough to use for me compared to using keys because when using keys you're able to press multiple directions at once and therefore have a more precice control. But eventually i was able to control the character pretty well with these hotspots.

However there are some platforms in my testlevel that are very hard for me to reach with the Pointer System due to lack of precision control. So either i need to take the lack of precision into account when building my levels or I need to come up with a more precise variant of the system.

Anyone who wants to test the system please feel free to download my prototype and do so. Feedback is much appriciated.

Picture below: screenshot of my prototype using the Pointer System.

Neglected

I've been brutally neglecting this blog for almost a month now. The reason for this was that i've hit a wall with my code. Since my code was not very structured it had become almost impossible for me to either debug it or expand it without creating new bugs.

For this reason i've decided to start my prototype again from scratch. Since this had set me back more than a month i've been programming only and did not really feel in the mood to write on my weblog.

But now I'm actually happy that I did start over because i've learned a lot about programming and also i now have a more robust system without bugs:) that performs a lot better.

So i have finished the coregameplay of fighting and jumping for my game. But now i'm just trying to figure out some kind of goal that has to motivate the player to play the game.

Download the new core gameplay and play it download the latest version of the prototype here.

Cursor Control

Since there are people out there that have difficulties using a keyboard and instead use a trackball i've created a cursor controlled version of the prototype.

By Moving the cursor any direction away from the character you are able to control all the movement. Attacking is done by pressing the mouse(or trackball) button.

Download the cursor version here

Latest prototype build and style update

This week i've been working hard to get the complete core of my prototype to work. (which is not done quite yet) To prevent my brain from frying due to an overload of programming thoughts, i decided to also spend some time graphically designing my prototype. I'm pretty happy with the result of my new graphics. Abviously there's always room for improvement but i like the dirction the style is going.

Furthermore i've fixed a lot of bugs that have been constantly appearing quite magically:s And also i managed to improve performance quite a bit. The magic word of the day is: "cacheAsBitmap" :)

Check out the playable prototype here and don't forget to post me your comments about it:)

Here's some screenshots of the new style:

Features for blind users

I've come up with some accessibillity features that I will try to implement into my game later. These features are especially designed with blind users in mind.

First there are the "parrot hints". This feature will attach a radar system to the player avatar that will test if certain obstacles, platforms, treasures or enemies are at a certain distance from the player.

These distance units will be measured in steps. I will implement a stepsound into the game that plays every time the player avatar takes a step. players should easily be able to turn this off if they don't need it. This will enable blind users to imagine the distance of various game objects.

To make the feature part of the game experience I've decided to create a parrot that accompanies the player. This parrot will function as an audio interface for the radar output.

When annoyed with this system sighted players should be able to kill this parrot.

Another system is the "auto-aimed jump" this system makes sure that when a player jumps near a new playform or obstacle he will always land on the right spot. This will take away a difficult task from blind players while they retain the freedom to choose if they want to jump.

The system will work with an invisible area. If the player jumps while in the area the jump will always land in the same spot on top of the obstacle or platform or on the other side of a gap.

Prototype progress

In the last week i've had some problems with my prototype. Wednesday and Thursday I had actually desrtoyed more funtionallity than I had created. I guess I had reached my limit of non-stop coding. So after a good nights rest Friday morning I had actually restored my prototype and also did what I was trying to do in the 2 days before, within 5 minutes :). So I wasted 2 days for my project but actually learned a lot.


So I guess I now do have a playable game now. It doesn't have an ending or a storyline but there is actually gameplay. Controls are not yet really accessible for all and also the game variables are not yet really well tweaked to balance the game. But the most important thing that it does have is "fun". Already I must be carefull not to start playing too often and tweak to much of the game since there is still a lot of core coding to do.


so here is another screenshot for you which is hanging on my own desktop now:




















Download the new version of my prototype here
Make sure to leave your comments about the prototype