Danger Action Speed Hero **Update #003**
by Jake
First of all welcome to DASH on IndieDB! If this is the first time you pop by there is already lots of content to explore with updates every Wednesday and Saturday. Tonight Wednesday 21 we are live on twitch.tv/babyduka with game play, guests and updates! (8 pm GMT/12 pm PST) Go follow and get notified as we begin the stream.
(The Commodore 64 palette-based Blockset 'Monster Land')
Hello again, all danger/action/speed heroes! In today's update I will be showing some of the work done on the editor UI. Because this room is such an important one I decided to lay down the code and the sketched graphics for a solid UI with a bit of effect and style.
Blockset Display and new UI (user interface):
Until now, all we had was the line or strip of blocks in the upper left corner to help the player navigate in the sets with lots of tiles. It was more of a debug-thing than actual design but we have noticed how our eyes often very quickly visited the strip as we were building, to spend less energy on indexing the tiles in the brain only. So since that delicate feeling of saving a micromicro-mili-gram of neurons was created by the strip being drawn in the corner, I decided to play around with that idea some more.
Also, in order for the overlay not to be in the way, I did a if (obj_selector.y <= view_yview + 64) check to fade the UI in and out if the player is editing in the upper field of the view (camera).
(the UI fades as the cursor is <= 64)
I upgraded the block strip and its selector sprite (blinking white corners) to be a bit more dynamic. Also it is now possible to hold the select-button to quickly scroll through the set. Feels good.
(Upgraded cursor and UI graphics)
In the end I added the current four Blocksets as buttons relative to the blockSet variable I've stored. So skipping through Blocksets is easier for beginners.
(UI buttons relative to which Blockset you're in)
Mech Shadow:
The sharp DASHer mrbmagic wrote in last Saturday's chat room, "it would be cool to see shadows in the mechanical world". Because last week's new background in the Mech Blockset gives an impression of being indoor and close-to-the-wall which allows for some simple shadow-hacking.
(Some simple shadow-hacking. Still WIP but gives a good indoor feel)
Hero Design and Hero Management:
A huge part of the game play, meta, and personal playing experience is the ability to customize and create Heroes. These characters are the protagonists and bi-roles in your creation. Due to prioritizing the editor and its structure mostly here in the beginning of the vertical slice, I haven't had the time nor the vision for the design of the Hero Management room itself (the part of the game engine which handles, draws and writes the Hero-editor). But this week has already opened up some good takes on how the room will be made. No graphics yet, though I lined up three awesome Heroes just to show how cool it's going to be when we're able to select and customize out very own hero!
(Three examples of Danger Action Speed Heroes in their idle positions)
Good start!
The past three weeks have been busy and more than we could have hoped of. Mostly because of all you awesome people here on IndieDb but also the traction pulled from Twitter and Reddit where the #platformer #indiegamedev #pixelart hashtags have worked to invite the people who think it's interesting to follow the development of a 2D platformer creation kit! Some other layers of the onion is also being merged with this process already meeting interest from professionals and journalists in the industry. So: hi, let's get in touch!
PROJECT STATUS: Still waiting for the heroes to arrive!
As you can see the process is very organic, fun and intuitive. Of course there is a production plan and design document, but the feeling of freedom and creativity is very solid during these work days which is good because that's what you, the player, should feel when playing the game!
On Saturday we will hopefully see the Hero Management room + a new type of Blockset!
Watch the development LIVE on the Baby Duka Twitch channel every Wednesday and Saturday! Updates here both days as well.
IT'S ALL DANGER
- Jake, downtown Copenhagen (Denmark, Scandinavia, Europe, Planet Earth)
NEWSLETTER on the new website ► babyduka.com
Open development stream ► twitch.tv/BabyDuka (Wednesdays 8 pm GMT, Saturdays 6 pm GMT)
