Game Design/HNC/HND

This week I handed in my project, recorded myself playing all three of the levels and wrote a report about how I made the game, how it is different from my original planned game and what went wrong while I was making the game.

This week I decided to make it so that once the bullet hits the enemy they will be instantly deleted. Because of this, I have decided to make there be more enemies in each stage rather than there being fewer enemies in each stage. While I was working on my project today the game stopped working and wouldn't play. It was because every prefab that was assigned to an object was removed such as the enemies targeting the player and the camera following the player so I fixed that and the game started working again. Another issue that I had was that for some reason my player would lose the ability to shoot. I quickly found out that it was because my firepoint had gravity set to it so it fell through the map. I fixed it by setting the gravity scale to 0. Another issue with my shooting is that the bullet wasn't firing from my fire point, they were instead coming from off-screen, no matter which way I faced it kept firing from off-screen behind my player.

This week I changed the player's health bar to a UI element since I could figure out how to take damage and get the health bar to deplete. I moved the placement of the UI health bar so that it is always positioned above the player's head. Because of this I'm also removing the health bars from enemies and making it so that the bullets that the player fires will knock back the enemy.

Today, there was a glitch that prevented me from being able to play my game. Eventually, I realised that it was a compiler error and to fix it I needed to add a 2DRigidBody to all of the fire points which allowed me to play the game.

This week, I made the basic level design of the remaining two levels, although I might add some more obstacles to increase the challenge of the stages and might change the backgrounds to make the levels look more different from each other. Aside from that, I also fixed a glitch with the death zone so that it kills you when you fall below the platforms across the entire stage rather than just the beginning of the stage. I also made a basic title screen for my game that was made with UI elements. The title screen has two buttons, one that will bring you to the first level and another one that will quit the game, I am planning on making a button that takes you to a level select. 

This week I finished the layout of my stage and set the end of the stage so that when you reach it then you will transition into the next stage that has been created by walking through a hallway. I have also started to create the next stage and have already made an endpoint of the stage where it will transition to the third stage. Aside from that, I have changed the first stage so that you can't attack in it and you have to run to the end without being killed and made it so the second level is when you will be able to attack enemies.

I spent today creating the layout of my stage today. I decided to make the first stage a stage where you can't attack enemies so it will be a bigger platforming challenge rather than attacking. To that end, I was going to make it so the enemy bullets stay in place so there will be a bigger challenge since the enemies are chasing you, however, somehow the problem fixed itself and the bullets actually travel towards the player. One issue that I had was that one of my platforms would disappear and for a short while I wasn't able to figure out why it disappeared, however, I was able to figure it out. The problem was that the platform had gravity on it so it fell through the map when you start the stage. To fix this I just removed the rigid body component that was attached to the platform. The next thing I did was download assets of enemy spaceships. I intend to use them as enemies in later stages, however, I chose to use one as a platform that will occasionally shoot in

I have managed to fix the glitch that messed up the camera by making the camera to rotate with the player when it turns around. I have made it so after a bullet is fired it will be deleted after one second by connecting the fire button to a button that deletes the object. I made the delete button have a delay so that the bullet wouldn't be deleted instantly. I have also made it so the backgrounds are on different layers so that they scroll at different speeds which is something that would realistically happen. I have also placed a health bar that is above both the enemy and player, it follows them wherever they go and it will begin to empty when they take damage. It is locked to the top of their heads which means if they rotate the health bar will also be where the head is. I have also made it so that the player will die after being hit by the enemy too much. I have added the ability to shoot to enemies, however, their bullets don't move and will stay in place. Becau

I started to make an enemy that is able to fly after the player. I made it so the enemy is able to collide with both the player and environment and made the enemy able to track the player by following their movements and updating where they are moving to once every two seconds. I noticed that the enemy bounces back whenever they make contact with me. I will remove this feature but will make a weapon that allows for this to happen again and also do damage. I also made so the bullets from my weapon disappear when they hit an object like an enemy or a platform, but I still need to make them delete themselves after a while. After this, I set out to try and fix the error with my firing. At first, when I made it so the camera would change with the player all it did was flip the whole game and made things like platforms and enemies invisible to me. Then I tried making a new camera that would follow the player but wouldn't be directly connected to the player, however, it would

This week I was able to program a way for my player to be able to fire projectiles that fly forward, however, these projectiles do not despawn and will keep flying forever and every time a fire it spawns another that will also fly forever and not despawn. Also whenever I face to the left and fire the bullet will always travel right even though I am facing left.

This week I was mostly busy with the two assignments that are due in, one that was due in on Monday and the other which is due in next week. However, I have managed to fully set up the main character, how fast it moves, how fast it falls, the respawn feature, the camera that follows the main character, music that plays and restarts upon death and a death box which kills the main character if he descends to an altitude that it is too low. I have also started to make the background for the level I am currently working on and having platforms that match the level's environment.

I have decided to use Unity and have started to make the project with it. Since there were so many 2D sprites that could be found on the asset store. I managed to create the playable character and modify them to be more controllable for how I wish for them to play.

Today I was working on my assignment that was set by Wayne and the assignment that was set by James that are both due in soon. Based upon my progress current project, I have decided to simplify my project by having basic 3D models since I can download these models off of a asset store for free which would reduce the amount of time I would spend on creating 2D sprites which would waste more of my, I will also reduce the amount of stages that I will make. I might also change game engines from Unity to Unreal Engine since it might be easier to create a 2D game with 3D models and because I am more experience with Unreal, however, I will have to test Unity to determine this.