The Beginnings of an Alpha
This week, I continued to work on developing my game Eterna Hunt by adding more core mechanics into the game in order to develop an Alpha version.
I wouldn't call this a fully complete alpha as my terrain is lacking and I only have the basics set in place as of now, but it does show the basic elements of the game.
I will not be adding more to the terrain until all of my scripting is complete for now as it slows down my laptop considerably and would rather have the game elements work than have a pretty game that doesn't function.
This week I did quite a lot of scripting!
I included a little spider enemy that looks at the player as they walk around the map, and walks towards the player and attacks when they get into a certain distance of the spider. When the player swings the axe at the spider it dies! When the spider attacks the player, it takes away some a heart from the health bar... or it should. I can't seem to get this feature to work at the moment but the scripting is there so it's only a matter of figuring out what went wrong.
Image of the spider enemy coming towards the player
Source: My Unity Project
I also added a health bar, along with hearts that can be collected from the map which increase the health by 1. This gives players a chance to recover health after an attack from the spider! The hearts are greyed out when the player loses them from damage, and when the player collects the heart it turns back to red. The hearts by default rotate, and when the player walks over them they make a sound and disappear.
Image of collectable heart
Source: My Unity
I also made a Game Over screen that activates when the player health reaches 0. As there is a bug with the code to get the health to reach 0, I can't actually test this feature at the moment until the code issue is resolved. The script to trigger the Game Over screen is there however, so in theory it should work once the spider is actually able to damage the player.
Game Over screen
Source: My Unity Project
Overall I'm happy with my development of my game so far and have been finding it easy to follow tutorials and use assets. However, my script seems to want to have a hiccup here and there, which has been difficult to try and resolve since I don't really know what I'm doing.
I am meeting my targets- I planned last week to add enemies and a health bar for this week which I did! I have a game with a main menu, collectable objects, health bar, enemies, weapons and a game over screen so I would consider it playable and in the stages of being an alpha.
Next up I'm going to look at implementing a hunger bar, fixing up my code errors, finding assets to use for my game and working on making several enemies and hearts and objects placed throughout the map.
Hi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteYour game looks great so far! I'm really impressed with the amount of detail you have put into your ideas. The concept of the game is brilliant and it already sounds like an addictive game. I like survival games so I'm really looking forward to seeing the end product.
After reading about the mechanics and the description for your game, I can already visualise what it'll be like. It's unfortunate the your laptop is acting up when you add more objects to the game... mine is the same! not ideal.
The health bar and enemies look great in your game. The time and effort you've put into this really shows in your work. Will you have other characters within the game? Best of luck with the rest of it!
-LM
Hi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteSo great to see your game making progress! I don't think anyone would have a fully functioning Alpha version of their games yet, example: me. But with what you have you're very close! Just with some fix to your script and adding in your proposed features, you'll have a complete game in no time!
Since you already made some progress on your Health UI, after you fixed majority of your bug I would recommend adding in a respawn system where the player can return to a certain location after they see the GAME OVER screen.
You should look up some assets for a ranged weapon like a bow or crossbow (crossbow might be easier: less animation) on the asset store.
That's all I have to say now.
I have some songs that might help with motivation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D94yoe5MmKI
Disclaimer: I will not be responsible to addiction to jazzy tracks, changing lives and healthy exercises that involve lifting.
Enjoy and have a nice day!
Hey Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog it looks like your game is coming along really well I really like the enemy spider aspect in your game it is really well developed and the fact that the spider has a health bar is really impressive I also like the fact you added a game over aspect into your game you obviously put a lot of time and effort into your game alpha which is really good. Glad to see that everything is back on track for you and that you are meeting your targets and that everything is going well anyway I will leave it there hope to read more about your game soon.
-Jennifer :)
Hi Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteYour game looks amazing! I like your idea about the enemy spider. It almost has a minecraft vibe to your game it is brilliant! It is really clear how much work you've been putting into the game Well done.
I have question about the coding of your game...how did you do that by the looks of it your game runs smoothly
keep up the good work :)
Jen CB
Well a good day to you Kayleigh!!!
ReplyDeleteI have to say from reading over all the project process that you have made and written in the past few weeks that you never seem to make me say that this game concept is the bee’s knees. I understand that you will have to do a lot of game scripting and everything else is something that can cause a lot of tiredness but just know that you have made a great effort into your amazing and interesting game concept that as long as you have something made of a work in progress or elements of a finished game then I can say that no matter what it will be great. I wish ya all the best for how the last few weeks go for you because no matter what you have made really great progress (probably a lot more then I have in mine but I have time to make something)
Cheerio!!!
-Sam
Hi Kayleigh
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog about your game.All i can say is wow! with how much you have gotten done in such a short amount of time. I love the idea of collecting hearts to regain your health when taking damage from enemies and was also wondering have you considered making it different difficulties as you can then make it that the hearts appear less frequent for the character adding more panic to the player and risk to the player, which will overall make the game more challenging for the players looking for more.
Besides that I love the look of the game as it kinda gives me minecraft vibes especially the screenshot with the spider and the character holding the axe. I honestly cant wait to see how it turns out in the end and am looking forward to hopefully playing it son. Best of luck in the coming week,
-Dillon
Hello there Kayleigh,
ReplyDeleteYour game looks excellent so far. It is very eye-catching and caught my attention straight away. I love to look of your game and looks very enjoyable. I love the way the spider is looking. It is impressive the way you were able to add the spider into the game and also to make the spider stare at the person while they move around the map. Was it difficult to add the spider into the game?. It seems like you are really enjoying your journey to making your own game.I love the way you have the players lives in the top corner to indicate to them how much health they have lost/how much health they have left. The game over screen is a cool addition to add to your game. I am also going to add a certain screen to my game when the player dies or a screen saying 'You Win' when the person wins the game.
Cya Soon,
Aaron Hogan
Hey Kay,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that your game is coming along quite well especially with the setback of your computer being slowed down by Unity. It was smart of you to priorities your scripting over making your game look really pretty because like you said it's better to have a functioning game. The health bar and the hearts you can pick up around the game are really cool and I'm sure you'll figure out how to get the health bar to function, I believe in you. I really like the little spider enemies that you put in your game, they're really cute and creepy at the same time. Can't wait to see you're finished game.
- Casper :)