Time for another weekly update on our ongoing Snake game project. Not as much happened this week compared to last week, but there's still a couple of big things worth mentioning.
Even Smoother Movement
In last week's post, I showed off how we had made the Snake's movement more smooth. However, I wasn't entirely satisfied with that version, so I reworked the entire system once more to make the movement even smoother. You can see the final results below.
This new movement system took several days to complete. Part of that is because the changes made were so significant it broke several other systems, which then also needed to be reworked. Even now, there are still a few bugs left that need to be found and removed. But, ultimately, I think it was all worth it.
The First Animated Model
Another major thing that happened this week was that the first animated model was finally hooked up and fully tested in-game. This model is a prototype of what a normal tail piece might look like in the final game.
These test models are programmed to activate and open their legs when they're picked up, allowing them to quickly scuttle behind the head.
"Now, wait a minute," you may be thinking. "Snake's don't have legs." And you'd be right. Thankfully, our serpentine friend here is no longer a snake. Instead, it is a legion of robotic bug-like aliens called The Glitch, and they're here to take over the Earth. Hopefully, I'll have more to talk about them later.
Background Stat Tracker
A smaller thing, but one that is still important for us making the game, is that I implemented a system to collect gameplay stats from people who playtest the game. Things like how long they took to complete a level and how many times they died doing so. Not really much of a visual to show off here. Just imagine what a Google Sheet looks like. Hopefully, the data we collect with this tool will help us to improve the game as we're making it.
Speaking of playtesting, I wanted to share a demo build this week; but, unfortunately, there are still some bugs in game that prevented us from doing so. Hopefully it'll be possible this coming week.
Other Updates
The three things that I mentioned above are all of the major things that I contributed this week. However, a lot more was done this week by the other team members, which I will briefly cover here.
A checkpoint/respawn system was implemented
Levels are now actually beatable
The camera can now be freely rotated around
The initial level received several design improvements
Our artistic theme was further refined and conceptualized
VFX were made for most of the game mechanics
The Glitch...because they're robotic bugs. Get it?
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