Spring Break 2014 Is Over

     Well, last week was pretty fun. I got a lot of things done and I've never felt better about the Adventures in Equica project. I'm just kind of dreading the endless stream of homework and projects headed my way now that I;m back in school. The hours of college work I'll be doing will cut into game development big-time. My grades are dropping a bit as I care less about class and more about real life problems (finishing Unicorn Quest and starting a company). I really need to pick it up a bit and finish the semester strong for my parents' sake.
 
     I'd say the best parts about going back are seeing my friends again (probably all talking about Dark Souls 2) and relaxing with my girlfriend (the highlight of every week). I'm betting on going back to 2 hours of game development a day but the game will be done eventually. A big thing I keep telling myself is to relax. Sometimes I feel like I need a lot of things done within a week but truthfully there is no deadline. I just need to make the game incredible and I have about a year to do it.

      I really am looking forward to my school hiatus next fall. Once summer school ends (August 14) I get to take the fall semester off and finish up Unicorn Quest with no distractions.

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.