Unicorn Training Enemies: Flapwick & Psybat

     Flapwicks are big ol' Zubat looking monsters that fly around and pause to screech every couple seconds. Every third screech has a slightly bigger hitbox than normal but all screeches do the same damage. Hitting a Flapwick makes it alternate between moving horizontally or vertically. Like spinners, these were meant to wander freely but I'm having trouble with the code for that but this Drillor style wall bumping works perfectly.

     As for the Psybats, they took most of the code from Goorbs and basically flap in place until you hit them. When hit, they throw one of their four levitating rocks at you which do more damage than Goorb balls but don't bounce everywhere. Once all the rocks are gone, the bat resorts to feeble screeching like it's Flapwick cousin until you can take it out. The rocks will block everything but the Cut and Surge spells so you'll have to time your shots or switch over to a spell that can kill them.

New (Fleshed Out) Unicorn Quest Ideas

     A bunch of ideas for Unicorn Quest came to me last night as I was trying to fall asleep and I couldn't help but keep waking up to make note of them all. These all happen to be either little details I said "I'll figure out later" or mistakes I'm noticing with Unicorn Training's design. Having all these details down has me more pumped than ever to just start that project already!

     I really want to prove what current me is capable of rather than me from a year ago. Sadly I won't be touching it until I start my senior capstone class so it's pretty far off. I have other fun projects to occupy me until then though, so I can wait. Catch all the new brain blasts below the break!

Lifespan of Downloadable Games

     My girlfriend bought a Sega Genesis at a retro games shop to replay games from her childhood and we've been playing it all weekend. It reminded me of how good it feels to be able to play something so impactful a decade later and see it in a new light with an older /wiser mind. It got me thinking about how good it would feel to have people going back to play games I've made decades later and remembering how I made their childhood. That's when another thought about permanence came to me.

     With Fish Feaster going away I can easily see Apple or Google just dumping their appstores some time in the distant future for a clean slate, or even closing it off as the appstore of decades X through Y. Do downloadable games have the same literal lifespan of physical console games? I know those can decay slowly over time, but since downloadable games can be stored anywhere and played on anything with the right emulator, do they have more longevity? I wonder if games I make 10 years from now will be remembered 30 years from now...

Web Versions of My Unity Games

     I made a couple of my games playable on the web as html games. My teacher wanted to play my Phoenix Wright game and told me that the exe file I linked on my Games tab wasn't working. She suggesting making a web version so I made a new build in Unity and tried it out. I also did Feed The Plant that way like I intended a while back. I ran into problems with making it playable on the site before so I made a ZIP file this time so people can download and run it that way. The only downside to running these on the web is the little Unity icon in the corner that slides in when the game starts. It's not too annoying, but something to keep in mind.

     You can try them out yourself here: Feed The Plant and Phoenix Wright