buddibeacon

[buddibeacon]

Shift + Ctrl + Z Speedart - February 1st 2021

⚠️ Signs always point the right way! Right?

Found a few players were getting lost in some of the one screen puzzle rooms, Needed to get a friendly arrow to point the right way. Looks like having a huge undo buffer in Inkscape made for some pretty cool content! Enjoy this each action time-lapse for the new arrow signs!

[buddibeacon]

Crushed it, Literally - January 30, 2021

🛑 I cant let you go any further!

Not much to show for this week, I had to mess with the code for the player controller because I wanted to make it easier for the player to move. A few testers commented on how painful (some literally) to constantly swipe to go in a single direction. Now a single swipe and hold is all you need to keep going in a direction. (Although in the precision courses speed is king)

So if there has to be a lesson for this week, It would be TEST, TEST, TEST. Get a lab coat and perform science experiments on friends and loved ones to get that juicy test data. You can get helpful information from almost anyone by watching and listening to their questions.

[buddibeacon]

My case for Inkscape - January 24, 2021

🌈 Glamorous Pastel Gem Tiles! I should take some home with me!

I made a new Tilemap of gemstone edged temple walls. Temples will be the Hardest levels in the game, Made for players who are really looking for challenge. These levels will require focus, reflexes and quick problem solving however remain completely optional. With that said I would like to talk about a program dear to my heart... Inkscape!

🧰 Don’t blame the Tools, Blame the Tool using them!

If you are a programmer and a terrible artist (Like Me) I can not recommend Inkscape enough (Or Illustrator but I will get to that later). There are some artists that can turn a blank Krita, Photoshop or Gimp page into a beautiful work of art while I can basically use it to make a digital game of Tic-Tac-Toe or draw childish symbols for cheap laughs. There are multiple reasons why I like it but the main reasons are...

1. Objects, Paths and Everything Nice!

I don’t have a drawing tablet and when I borrowed a friends I did not have the finesse to use one to the best of it’s ability, However with Inkscape everything is done in objects and shapes meaning you can make flat, material/flash looking art with just a little bit of know how with a mouse and some well placed copy/pastes. For instance let’s try make a simple version of the above Inkscape logo!

🏫 Take a seat, Class is in session.

With just 3 shapes I was able to make a quick mountain and once you gain an understanding of stroke, gradient and other manipulation you can get some great effects! Like below, I added a simple black outline and added two gradients to give the icon more depth.

2. Time to blow up! SVG and Scaling are your friend!

Simply put, .SVG files can be exported to any resolution needed for your project’s because it is all paths and objects! As you can see below zooming all the way into the above example in Inkscape will show the .SVG files in at work showing the path of the object instead of being a bunch of pixels!

🧈 Smooth as silk, Smooth as... Other smooth things.

3. It costs my favorite number, The number Free.

This is a hobby for me, I don't want to pay a cent before or after sale. If you have Illustrator I know that it can be a lot more powerful but I simply don’t want to pay the Adobe Tax of $20 a month for something I can get for free that is functionally the same to me. The free goes further than that however, Free as in Open Source but that is a conversation to have another time.

Well thank you for reading this far! I am going to crash to sleep! If you would like to support Slamburrowers the best thing you can do is Share and Like my progress to increase its reach!

[buddibeacon]

In Extension, An Extension - January 23rd 2021

🥊 Prepare to get a punch, Someone is in charge!

I created a new move! The Charge Punch. At the end of each level there is a mini-game where the Slamburrower winds up to punch through the rubble to the next level. However I slowly realized if he has the ability to perform a charged punch at the end of the level he should be able to perform it anywhere. So now if you simply tap the play area you will have a strong move to break even the strongest purple bricks!

📍 New Map Icons! Feel like going anywhere, I would love to take you!

Created New “World Map” Icons for levels! Green ticks signify you have completed the level while Gold means you collected everything and got the Par Time in a single run! Who knows? A map full of gold ticks might get you a little surprise?

🎨 Only for the most refined pallet!

I have made a bunch of awesome Tilemaps which has taken my debug maps from looking Shabby to Chic. I have made a total of 6 maps at the moment. All of them slowly rising in difficulty. Map making I think is the most painful of all the job at the moment as I extremely dislike designing maps. I much prefer to design the tools to create the maps than the maps themselves! However maps need to be made! The plan is to release the game with 21 Levels and 7 Temple level’s Which will require a massive amount of skill from the player, If you can even enter them!

Well that is all for today! I sent a test build out to a few friends and got some great feedback! If you would like to support the creation of Slamburrowers the best thing you can do is re-blog and share it with your friends! See you next week!

[buddibeacon]

Look me up, I’m kinda a big deal - December 8th 2020

Small update today, Been working on the world map. I have already made the majority of the systems behind it, However I need to make it all look prettier.

💼 Where are we off too this time?

These blocks are looking up data from a list of levels. For now they are being pulled from a script but I will update them to be pulled from a single .json file instead. As you can see it above it also shows how many stars you have collected and if the par time has been beaten.

🛬 Now arriving at LD_1

I’ve also set it up and error message if the level is not referencing a real level. Just to make debugging a little easier. I am hoping to have 32 levels total with 8 being locked being 100% completion.

[buddibeacon]

Come on and Slam - December 1, 2020

So, How about the last 31 days? If you think I am royally screwed... You might be right. However I have been crafting something in secret and it is time for the world to see.

May I introduce you to Slamburrowers!

🚧 Everything you see here is suitable for miners!

Been keeping this a secret, however on the last 31 day stretch I am hoping to still complete my goals. The majority of the base mechanics are complete and It is working great on mobile. Hoping to have it on the Google Play Store by the 31st!

👊 Come on burrower! Give it the good old One Two!

I have the majority of the progression and mechanics nailed down. The only thing left to do is make levels and art, The things that are fun to take screenshots and show the world!

I have plenty more to show in the next 31 days.

🧩 How will our hero punch his way out of this one?

[buddibeacon]

Aim for the Moon... - August 23, 2020

... and if you miss you will land among the stars... OR your project will never see the light of day.

⌛ Here come the excuses...

I got a deadly disease! My car got stolen! I got kidnapped! My dog died! Actually that last one did happen...

But in all honesty, it got hard, So many small moving parts totally overwhelmed me, I can now understand why simple projects can have teams of 4-10 projects. So what to do about it? I’ve decided that completing simple projects that I reference and reuse for future projects is more helpful.

I’ve moved on from wild-port, I do want to come back, And I honestly think something is there that I can make. Except the scope was too much to release as a first project.

So instead of aiming for the moon, Let’s see if I can land properly after take off.

I sat down and made something simple... Paper Scissors Rock!

😒 Well, at least you were able to keep it simple...

PAPER SCISSORS ROCK BATTLE ROYALE!

😡 ... GODDAMN IT!

You might be wondering, Why I chose to do something so simple. There is a catch... I want to make it one of those IO games. I am a networking administrator in my day job and strangely I have never tried to mess with multiplayer or networking code in general.

It will set up a game with AI or join a server with other human people with the remaining slots filled with AI.

I am planning to have the games have a max of 99 players in homage to Tetris 99, However, depending on the limitations of Godot's ENet infrastructure it may have to be reduced.

The game, for the most part, is done, I could clean the structure of code and directories and release the current build right now and call it day. The multiplayer code is however too important to me and what the whole project is about. I'll show some other parts during development as well but I hope that it will one day be an app the can be downloaded to your phone or PC and allow you to connect to a server I host!

[buddibeacon]

The Comeback Kid - February 11, 2020

Well that was an emotional wreckage. After my little beach holiday I came back to realize that the pathing system I showed off on the last post. Ruined everything! However I have finally gotten out of my demoralized drunken stupor to give the covenant back their bomb. Went through the full cycle of Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally Acceptance and came out on top

However it is 12:30am, so I wont go into too much detail about all of it but feel free to look at the fruit of my labour! Goodnight all, I am slamming that pillow with my face so hard.

📔 Dear Diary, Today I met a lovely young Func named Clamp. I intend to see more of him.

[buddibeacon]

The Narrow Path - February 1, 2020

A whole month hey? 11 more till I hit my deadline, I am confident in my progress however. Small update today as I am planning to go to the beach for some much needed RnR today.

🎢 Keep your hand’s and feet inside the ride at all times!

Above is my flight path, I can use this to make more dynamic levels instead of going straight ahead. With this I can push down into caves, push to the side of a building and other engaging feats. Below I have it in action! 

🎠 Merry go all the way round!

I will need to adapt my scripts to make the players position in the path be the core factor in disabling passed enemies. So I will attempt to get that working next. As well as iron out some movement bugs from the paths.

Alright that is all! I am dying for a swim!

[buddibeacon]

Someone Has Been Busy - January 26th, 2020 🦘

For once I think I can actually say...

“This is a work in progress and subject to change”

So let us start from the top... 

I have programmed the escape loop today, Now the player can leave the trench to rebuild and repair and with it I made a neat little GUI interface for it. Which means finally I can use the interface I made at the beginning of the year.

🏃‍��️ Run away! Run away! That sounds like a tomorrow problem!

On top of that I started work on the new spider drone prototype. However I came to the discovery that the new version of Blender does not work with the DAE importer/exporter and I saved over my 2.6X model. If anyone know’s how to get it working with Blender 2.8 let me know! However I can still show him off! That red ball with the cone in the video will be this guy. He will proceed to open up and reveal his weak point to take a shot at the player.

👅 You look mighty tasty!

As you heard in video I also have two sound files made all by me. Amazing what you can do with post processing. To risk ruining the magic for the laser I gently slapped my glass whiskey bottle against my fan and for the rocket I grumbled into a bottle of sparkling water. These sounds are no way final however it was fun to learn how audio works in Godot Engine.

I have also messed around with a terrain add on to help make maps. That was more because I was getting bored of coding and procrastination more than anything. I may not keep it in the final game but you can still check out the plugin here! You can see the results below...

https://github.com/Zylann/godot_heightmap_plugin Thank’s Zylann!

🏡 Location, Location, Location. Automated Security for your Families Safety!

Tomorrow I hope to work on controller implementation and the spider drone attacks. The schedule is to have a closed playable demo ready for my friends and family at the end of February for play-testing purposes. I want to make the ship feel as good as I possibly can before I do any sort of full level design or major artwork. In addition, to my fellow Australian’s HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

[buddibeacon]

Locked on and Loaded - January 23, 2020

Well it has been a quiet few days, I have not had much to show however now I can spill the beans on the progress I have made for the missiles. First the modeling!

👙 No... Not that kind of modeling, Although I believe I have the strut.

Very simple model. Mainly need to have it to see how players would react. I ended up thinning the model even further in Godot because it looked a little too chunky. I am definitely not the best blender modeler but I will have to continue to to practice to do even better.

Next up the orientation code, Back to the sandbox to test this one.

💘 Straight through the heart and your to blame.

With a little bit of tinkering I was able to get the chaser to continue pursue the ball. Once I had that code ready to go I could apply it with a few more tweaks to the missiles. I also added a timer the ignition time, to send it skyward for a few more seconds to give the player time to identify and deal with the new threat. Below I have added just a simple particle effect to make it look a little nicer.

🚬 Who said smoking wasn’t cool...? Don’t smoke it is actually terrible for you...

With all that we have the final product. I need to tweak and modify the finer points and fix up the collision, However it is a healthy baby missile! Next up is to get the Spider Drones working and then I can get a trench run completed. See the finale below!

💤 I woke them from their little naps.

[buddibeacon]

And The Way You Look Tonight - January 18, 2020

Well, I went through all the stages of grief the last 2 days. Trying to get the fighters to look at the right direction. No matter what the documentation, No matter the tutorial, Every time it failed always spinning around in circles like crazy. However it dawned on me ages after starting, The code was actually working...! However I moved the mesh NOT the spatial holding it. Seeing the below image made me scream a sigh of relief. You need to make stupid mistakes to learn from stupid mistakes.

🔭I’m watching you, Wazowski. Always watching...

With the above discovery I was able to immediately add it to the ships code and voilà, My own creations want to murder me! Not something someone should be excited about but I reassure you it is for my best interest.

✨Na, Na, Nana, Na. You can’t catch me!

With this code I was also able to make stationary turrets that shoot up into the player, I will however will need to deactivate units that the player passes so they don’t get shot from a blind spot. I have two of my major enemy types complete! I have 2 more in mind for play testing. 

Missiles Fire off a single missile to track and hit the player. The launch pad will need to be destroyed to stop a launch on the next attack run.

Spider Drones A little more interesting, A spider drone will bounce from surface to surface to keep in front of the player. Dealing weak damage will bounce it back prematurely.

And with that I am done for the night, If you got this far thanks for your interest. I am hoping to get a playable demo into the hands of some friends and family to play test and get an idea on what they are thinking. Once I have the core run in place then I will think about making it all look prettier.

🎥 Enjoy the cinematic experience.

[buddibeacon]

Incoming Enemy Fire! - January 16, 2020

Another quick update, Enemy fire is working! Need to catch some sleep as I have a big project on at work tomorrow. Also enjoy the results of spawning a bullet inside it’s own ship below!

🧨 Self-destruct in t-minus NOW!

[buddibeacon]

Incoming enemy fighters! - January 15, 2020

Small update today, Added the destruction script to the enemy and added them to their own collision layer. Now bullets can be set to deal damage to the player or the world. Still having trouble with the fighters handing the bullets back to the world. Will hopefully have that fixed tomorrow.

🗯 Who made that man a gunner? I did sir, He’s my cousin!

[buddibeacon]

Coming through! - January 14, 2020

Figured it out! Now bullets will query a target and apply damage where possible! If the target can’t receive damage, the bullet it gets deleted. Extremely happy with this. I still would like to apply a flash or impact effect to give a little more feedback but baby steps, we need to walk before we detonate.

🙅‍♀️ (Please don’t judge my horizontal bullets, too tired to fix)

Next up I will try get enemies to shoot back at the player model, Then I might even have a game on my hands.

[buddibeacon]

*Pew Pew* - January 12, 2020

Got the ship cannon working today! It is now firing independent rounds, However I am still struggling to get it to hit targets, The two static bodies are connecting however they are not reading a collision. At one stage the bullets were firing from the middle of the map and the only reason I knew was because I saw little dots in the distance!

🎯 “I have you now...” - Darth Vader, 1977

The other thing I messed around with was the particle systems! I have a tiny bit of experience with particles with the use of JMonkey engine back in 2013 however I am very green with their use in Godot engine. I made a 2 effects the one being the above slipstream and the transparent glow on the cannon rounds below!

☢ Beware the glow!

I might have to make a separate “Sandbox” project so I don’t clunk up my current project with test and debug scripts. I had a lot on today so I did not push myself too hard programming wise. But tomorrow I hope to have the bullets interacting with targets!

[buddibeacon]

I Love the Way You Move! - January 11, 2020

Little bit of a break, Have not been happy with a lot of the progress I have made. However I have learned a LOT over the last few days.

Started the morning off trying to mess around with my idea for the space combat module which involved Modeling and Making the flight section. It still feels a little bit Jank but still Rome was not built in a day. 

💍 (Cheap and easy targeting rings, Might be more helpful with a turret)

I know the basics for modeling, However I am far from perfect. I used Blender to create the temporary model

🚀 (This bad boy goes all the way to eleven!)

Tomorrow I want to get targets and blasters set up. Maybe even AI shooting back, But let’s get my land and property protected first!