Starting the Pause Menu

I like how this game's menu is less complicated than it feels.

     I need to start designing the pause menu so I have a nice place to mess around with debug settings. Making a game this huge is going to require a lot of jumping around the map and adjusting stats. It's also another feature that will make the game come alive a bit more. I've made tons of menus before so this should be a piece of cake.

     The idea is to have it pop up above all the camera elements, be black but transparent, have an outline similar to the one above that matches the GUI scheme, and delete itself when the pause button is pressed again. If I make it a prefab in Unity I won't have to worry about hiding all the layers and buttons and rearranging the text. Each menu can be it's own object, summoned when called on and deleted when gone.

     I took my doodles from class and scaled things out on a 1/4 size mock-up in MS Paint. This is generally what I'm aiming for. These are all the things I want available on the start menu. Well, I should squeeze in your current level above the exp bar and add a continue button to Options in case some people don't like pressing the pause button again to play, but aside from that I just have to make buttons and things to match up.

   I'll explain what each menu does when I have the final version up and running. Until then, try to guess by looking at the image. There's a few unannounced features on display but everything is pretty self-explanatory.

Status Report #29

     My mission was to work hard through Spring Break to make my game more tangible. Mission accomplished. Along the way I also finally cemented the game's scope. The design document's numerous blank pages were filled with details with exactly what Unicorn Quest will be made of. I also made a new friend who is working with a team on a pony action RPG of his own. Keeping up with that game is inspiring me to continue work on my own.

Time for graphs and retrospectives below the break!

Working on Teleportation (Video)

     I'm finishing up the code for teleportation tonight (12:25am as I type this) and deciding on how to control is took longer than I expected. I was drafting all kinds of ways to make it work. Six different control schemes were failures but the seventh is pretty nice. Simply tap clover then drag in any direction and she moves as if controlled by the D-Pad. I want this to feel fluid and fun. It's something players will need to do often to defeat the tough bosses I have in mind.

     Describing the methods I'm testing would take up a whole page so I won't bother posting about it. Instead, have a video of it in action. A movie is worth a million words.

Overmap Roaming

The idea of Equica being in the sky came from this game.

     Unicorn Quest will have two exploration screen types. There are overworlds (walk around, visit towns, and solve puzzles) and then there are overmaps (mario 3 style level select). I chose this in order to capture the size of Equica. It's a giant continent in the sky, not some place you can walk across in half an hour. It's full of diverse regions with dramatically different topographical features.