Charlie Burkey - New Game Mechanics and features

When working with the two year 2's for what they should be making code for in my game project, some extra decisions were made along the way. Some ideas were submitted by myself when thinking deeper about the game's inner workings whereas other additions were either redone or made from the ground up by the year 2's.

This includes new mechanics and features such as Health Bars, Hidden character spotlights, Spikes that hurt, new movement controls, new character base textures, checkpoints between levels, moving drawbridges, and a controllable minecart system. There were also wider pressure pads and buttons placed on pedestals.

Most of these new implementations came from working with outdated code from my initial alpha build but also as it made the game easier and more flexible to change if needed. However, some of these changes came from a quick thought as some base-level sections of the game had to be altered or discarded as they did not match my current vision of the final game build. Levels were either redesigned or drawn more detailed or scrapped for simpler variations that would not take up production time.

Each new and updated game mechanic/part of the game will be explained below with video references and notes from the Year 2 teammates. Pictures of code may appear also.

Here are the scripts made by the year twos

Version 3 of Death character

The odd blue and white arch sticking out of Death's pointy hood cone is not for the final build of the game. It is only a helping tool for me to use when knowing which direction the player is facing. This is quite handy for when knowing which way the player is going for moving between spaces forward and backward behind the scenes. It is a rudimentary tool but it worked well back in the early alpha when I was first presenting and pitching the game idea in early pre-production.

pressure pads made by jade

toggleable buttons made by jade

Checkpoints and buttons/pressure pads were made with the intention of giving the player more freedom in puzzling over the levels.

questions about checkpoints

checkpoints completed by jade

Health bars for Death and Time by Tung

Health bars are a new addition also, Each character has their own set of health and when they either fall out of the world or touch a hazard like a "spike", the bar will deplete. Originally when the player were to touch a "spike", they would just either bounce off or die instantly. Having this new game feature allows more visible UI for new players to understand how well they are in the game and what is dangerous or not at each level.

hazards and health bars by jade

Working front-to-back movement switching for level sections behind walls or in front of them.

Working character switching

Working changeable Minecart test.

Originally the Minecart idea was just going to be a solid object that the character would jump inside, and move downwards within a tight track slope, only to exit at the bottom of the slope. The track would have a slow gradual descent from one side of the room to the other side and the minecart would not turn around and go back, it would stay where the player left the item and would reset its position when the game has been reset.

Now thanks to the two year two's I recruited, most if not all of the original minecart system has been scrapped and re-made. Jade who was doing the work for this task managed to make the minecart travel in two different ways. As the player switches direction, the Minecart platform moves with them too. If I had more time, I would make a very complicated puzzle out of it, forcing the player to think fast and switch tracks to avoid danger.

Some math was done to perfect the angle of the minecart and as said by Jade "It rotates automatically to go to the next "point" in its track, it travels back and forth, locks the player in position while moving and unlocks them when done". This method is more flexible, and the code is more flexible too, especially if I need to change things behind the scenes like layout or speed for such.