This month hasn’t been the best for me. I’ve certainly made progress on the game but it’s not the sort that leaves me itching to get back to dev each day. Development is feeling like a chore and my excitement is dwindling.
My issue is that, while I have what I think is a neat mechanic with the mining, I am yet to figure out the game in the broader sense – What is the goal? What makes you want to mine? I can’t see where I want the game to end up.
I’ve reached a point where I need some players to let me know what they think. Hopefully some fresh eyes will help me refocus. It will take a little bit of polishing to get things setup for this, so keep an eye out for something playable early next month.
Anyway enough moping, here is a break down of some of the progress I’ve made this month.
Wall Jumping
Something was missing with the movement, adding wall jumping seems to have helped a lot. There is still refinement to be done but it certainly makes moving about the world more interesting.
Caves
While spawning the grid, the creation code will now also remove sections to form caves. This opens up space to add enemies and other elements, while breaking up the monotony.
Enemies
I did get an enemy into the game this month and I’m happy with how it turned out. Enemy AI isn’t something I’ve done much of so getting it working was cool! Basically, the enemy will look ahead of itself and will use raycasts to determine whether to turn around or not. So if they reach a wall or the edge of a cliff, they will turn around.
Scoring
I’ve added a very basic scoring element which will hopefully expand as dev progresses. The player is awarded points for each destroyed block; purple are worth 10, red 20 and blue 50. The idea is to introduce a risk vs reward element – sacrifice some time in order to reach the rarer, more valuable blocks.
Character
I was doodling and ended up polishing up one of my ideas. I’m not sure if I’ll end up using the design in the game (will come down to animating and the game’s overall style) but cool nonetheless.
