Basic gameplay, collectibles and changes to hazards

I’ve continued further on with SlashR. Some small changes have been  made to hazards. Both the arrow trap and ”stone fall” now has a trigger box that triggers when the player enters it. The arrow trap will only start shooting in intervals if the player is within the trigger, the same thing applies to when the stones are released to fall.
Marcus has finished the graphics for the three hazards so I replaced my placeholder graphics and i think it looks awesome. All of the hazards fit in with the environment very good. That’s one of the reasons we chose to make them use triggers. They almost blend into the scene and the idea is for the player to be surprised when a trap triggers. Maybe he’s focused on getting to the next checkpoint fast or maybe he’s combat and wont notice them. The hazards are there to ”ruin” a key feature of the game which is flow in movement.
I also added some collectibles which I describe below.


To understand more about what I’m talking about I will explain the basics of gameplay
The level is played from left to right in a sidescrolling platformer style. While playing you have a timer that ticks down constantly. The timer is temporarily represented by a torch that is being extinguished slowly.
When the torch is extinguished or if the player dies he will start over at the last checkpoint. Checkpoints act as normal checkpoints but they also resets and stops the timer when standing near them, think of them like a big campfire where you can refill your torch. The player is forced to run fast between checkpoints so that the torch doesn’t get extinguished. Between the checkpoints there will be hazards, enemies, collectibles etc. At the end of a level the player will face enter a boss fight. ,during the fight the timer is no longer active.

SlashR_screenshot_hazards

  • The ”Arrow trap” is actually a projectile shooter, in this case it’s a ”Dart shooter”. We can use the same code with different graphics on the shooter and projectile to create variations in hazards. Maybe we could add a shooter that has poison arrows. I can easily change the shooters fire interval and damage.
  • Spikes is an instant death hazard, touch them and you restart from the last checkpoint.
  • ”Stone fall” is a temporary name until I can come up with a better one. It works by putting multiple stones of different sizes on a wall or ceiling and when it triggers they will all fall down and hurt the player.
  • ”Orb” also has a temporary name and placeholder graphics, it’s the collectibles and currency of the game. Each level will have a number of orbs in it and the game will count how many orbs you take each level for score and also how much you have in total. The total amount is what you use as currency between levels.
  • Ember also has placeholder graphics but I think the name will stay, it’s a collectible just like the orb but this one is not for currency. Ember is collected to increase the time you have between each checkpoint.

2 responses to “Basic gameplay, collectibles and changes to hazards

  • Georgios

    Hi there! I really like that you are blogging about a game you are making in your free time. I hope you haven’t given up yet though. One of the hardest things when making games is actually to finish one. It’s real easy to jump on a new project before the last one is even finished.

    Gilla

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