In this update I added a shield system where you press and hold a key to spawn a shield around you which blocks projectiles. The shield has a ‘capacity’ resource which runs down the longer you hold it. When it runs out the shield stops working. When you release the key, the shield will recharge and fill back up in between engagements. I also added an ammo function which tracks how many missiles you are allowed to fire and disables the firing capability when you run out. For me both of these tweaks are an attempt to add more frequent and relevant decision making to the game. I want the player to be having to make as many decisions as possible over the course of the game and so am trying to add mechanics which force them to consider their next action, even if they are doing so very quickly. The balance between something fast paced and strategic is interesting to me and something I’m hoping to explore further as I go.
Just added some new features to the game, the latest is a simple health system, big shout out to Jessie Etzler for the free script and easy to follow YouTube tutorial here. I’ve also added a simple music system I wrote myself where depending on where you are in the game world it will crossfade between three different music loops. I walk through the script of how I did it in the blog, maybe it will give you some ideas for music systems in your own games. I also made some improvements to the targeting system for the enemies which still needs a bunch of work but is feeling a lot more responsive and fun. Combined with the health and music it’s starting to feel more like a real game experience, which definitely has me feeling more motivated.
Trying to keep the rhythm of posting something every day or at least every day I work on the project. Today was a long day at work so I am sharing a short piece of music and a game design document I created in Xmind. Xmind is a cool, free mind mapping / flow chart tool which you can download here. I enjoy it for this type of project design work and you might too.
Was this interesting at all? Not sure if this type of non-unity focused content is interesting or useful for anyone but I’m still figuring out the format here. Thanks for checking it out!
I’m back! It’s been a while. I was very busy, but now, here I am. I’ve decided to experiment with a new format for this blog which will focus on posting short video developer blogs, showing the progress I am making with learning to make games in Unity. This is a short intro to my current level of progress, as I work further on the project I will provide more detailed explanations of what’s going on and what I’m up to. This first short video is showing what I’ve created so far and explaining a few of the systems involved.
The project I’m currently working on has the working title: Butterfly. The basic idea is that you fly around in 3d space as a butterfly and shoot missiles at other butterflies. Although at the moment it’s quite absurd my goal is to develop it into something more visually beautiful. I’d like it to be a visual audio experience as much as a game and so I’ve got some placeholder audio and visual assets in there to start. Once I get things going a little less shakily I’ll post some web players so you can try the mechanics yourself.
A few notes about my approach.
My goal in posting these videos and blog posts is to try to meet other people who share my interests, and to hold myself accountable and motivate myself to make progress. I feel like having an audience, even if it’s very small, will help to keep me on track. I was very inspired by what the people at Overgrowth are doing with their documentation project. I am not as cool as them, nor is my game, but hey.
I am very inspired by the Lean Startup methodology so a big part of the reason I am sharing this in such an early state is to try to get some impressions and feedback from anyone who looks at it. I welcome all feedback, positive, negative and everything in between. If you think this is a dumb idea, that’d be great to hear! If you’d like to see it go in another direction, that’d be great too. My goal is to try to build up this simple prototype and iterate on it until it becomes something cool and fun and to try to do that in a fairly public way through this blog.
I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment here or on the YouTube page where the video lives. I promise to reply to everyone.
