ja_koniga

Trev has been working on the reflection code, and has it working perfectly. I will discuss that more comprehensively later, but for the moment, here is a little update on the editor. It just shows that at the moment, we can define reflective surfaces, obstacles, objectives, props, and other things of that nature! It's all pretty cool, and pretty badly coded I am sure, but it works. When I get file saving going, then the party starts!

Stay tuned,

Zac

Background for prototype of one of the first puzzles that's in development. It involves the character scaring bats using a reflected light beam. Later, I'll add foreground trees, one with a frightening face hollowed out of the trunk. I'm going for dark, spooky and tangled - a place you'd expect to find angry looking trees and bats... Trying to make it feel really solid, not so transparent This is proving difficult.

 I have the feeling that adding the foreground trees will finish this image nicely. I like the idea of having trees less detailed the further into the background plane they are. (In other words, if I get the focus looking solid, I think I can make the rest of this gel.)

Will be cleaning up this image for a while.

Well, not really the death of a modern culture.

 I decided this morning, as Trev messaged me and told me he would get onto the reflection code and give it a whirl, that I would make a level editor so that Henrik and Nic could easily mock-up some levels. Turns out that it was easier than I imagined. I had already done one previously in Java for an assignment last year, and that turned out pretty cool, so I had a good idea about what I wanted for this one. 

At the moment, you can define what you will create, be it surface(glass or orb), or prop(tree or obstacle). Also, each component has a little square handle at each vertex, allowing you to edit them, and do what you will. It's quite cool, and simple. Only 300 odd lines of code so far, but that should get a little larger when I come to doing exporting and the play-test option I'd like in there.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a screenie of the editor in all its four colour glory. 

Funny thing happened at church last night. Some older lady whom I have never got the name of(nor, as it turned out, had many people), came up and started a lively conversation with me about my degree. I must have talked to her in the past as she knew me pretty well it seemed. Anyway, at one point she suddenly got heated and said in a rather angry manner "You can't tell me that sitting there twiddling their thumbs on that remote control thing, staring blankly at a TV all day, is good for energetic young children!" She then looked at me with the craziest eyes, like I was threatening to steal her grandchildren's souls. "My grandchild sits there and plays these things for hours on end! A healthy, energetic young boy! I suppose you help make all those things then!"

Yes, it seems, I am in the soul stealing trade.

I laughed a little, trying to diffuse the situation. I gently explained that games, and playing them socially, is important for a growing mind. Pattern recognition, I proffered, was a very useful and helpful past-time. 

She would'nt have a bar of it! "You will have to do better than that to convince me!". I don't know whether she was laughing or intoning a curse as she walked away. I wondered if someone would give her a game to play as she slipped into the depths of dementia. 

Crazy times people, crazy times. 

Zac

So, I have been bashing away at vector reflections for a few days now. I learnt some wonderful things along the way, and some not so wonderful. I have learnt that reflecting vectors can be very unkind to you, should they wish it. I have also learnt that coding neatly almost always goes out the window as a deadline approaches.

That said, I have made a lot of progress. In a story posted a few weeks back, i showed the early look of the coded prototype, with all its bland blankness to mystify you. Now, I can say I have added some cooler things. Now, the light ray that the player controls can reflect off surfaces. The reflections are proving to be a bitch to get right, but that would be more because of my lack of math-ability rather than innate difficulty.

So, have an image to look at. It's basically a heap of bouncing light rays. Woohoo. Also notice the LACK of true reflections on the line closest to the top left hand corner. The centre reflecting line actually refracts, but that is meant to happen. It's not a bug, it's a feature!

 So yes, there you have it.

Code work continues, and hopefully, tomorrow will be the last day on this as I will have it done to a playable stage!

Stay tuned!