#dr teranta

[antimatteratorgame]

I'm starting to run out of excuses to not make the rest of the levels and call this blasted thing done already.

Added explanations for the tutorial levels. They only show up when the player enters the level and will not reappear after resetting a run.

Got another tracker working, so it can now tell if the player completed a level using fewer panels than provided. ("Less panels! Yay!" is just a placeholder and visual indicator that it's working properly.)

The counter for the related achievement will not actually update during the tutorial levels. (Because literally the first one demonstrates that it is possible.)

Fixed a bunch of layering issues.

Finally got an animation to play (mostly) correctly when an AM particle enters a collector.

Yeah, I've been wanting to have some kind of quick animation play when the particles enter a collector so they don't just blip out of existence, but for some reason that turned out to be annoyingly hard to figure out. I think it's partly because I was trying to give the animation to the collector object, and because it already had its "end of level" animation too, things got messy trying to add more to the mix.

Then, while I was doing those layering adjustments, it occurred to me that I could just do for the blue particles entering a collector what I did for red ones getting sucked into black holes. I even had four open frames on their sprite sheet because the antis don't have a "get sucked into a black hole" animation.

Then I ran into some issues getting the sprites to actually line up on the right spot while the animation played, but I eventually got that sorted. There's still some minor wonkiness that I THINK is happening because an anti enters a collector near the end of its animation loop, and the "gotcha" animation is starting at that same point in its animation. So I just need to find some way to make sure the whole animation plays every time, and not just sometimes.

I really am hoping to work on this game more consistently.

I'm thinking of implementing a totally in-game achievement system to make 100% sure all the trackers are working correctly, and have everything all set up for when I'm finally ready to pull the final lever and launch this thing onto Steam.

I swear on my compy's life that it WILL be done this year.

[csleko]

I said the next update wouldn’t be “untitled” anymore! Consider this an official announcement! The basic mechanics are nailed down, so all that’s left to do is add some new things, tweak the visuals, and fix whatever I break by adding the new stuff!

Follow this blog for further updates on the project!      

[antimatteratorgame]

Classic problem.

Adding something new breaks something else.

It occurred to me that adding an animation for the particles entering the collector would extend the time between the last particle of a level being collected and the "win" condition triggering because the counter doesn't update until the last particle object is actually "destroyed", which now happens at the end of that animation. And because the win trigger is also responsible for pausing the Regs' movement, they can continue move for a brief moment while the animation for the last Anti plays out.

I thought, "What if a Reg was directly following the last Anti and collided with the collector while the Anti was still in its animation before being destroyed and counted to trigger the win?"

The answer? Exactly what I was afraid of. You would fail the level even if you technically won.

The EASY thing to do would be to simply design levels where this scenario doesn't happen. All I would need to do is make sure Regs are always at least one full tile away from the Antis, but I don't want to limit potential level designs.

So I actually fixed it. I just gave the Regs a couple more lines of code that check if there's only one Anti left, and if that Anti is in its "being collected" state, then immediately set the Reg's speed to 0.

Problem solved.

EXCEPT NOT REALLY BECAUSE APPARENTLY I *STILL* CAN'T HAVE THEM FOLLOW ANTIS TOO CLOSELY.

I can't BELIEVE in all the time I've spent finagling the hit boxes that I never thought to test if they'd overlap while making a bloody turn! So yeah, turns out if a Reg IS directly following an Anti, and the Anti makes a turn (either by going over an arrow or bumping into a wall), their hit boxes overlap and trigger a level fail.

And I can't adjust the hit boxes any more than I already have because doing THAT screws up collisions with everything else!

[antimatteratorgame]

I'm really happy with how this animation turned out, and a little annoyed that I rushed to capture that video before fixing the bug that was keeping it from playing properly.

So here's a blown-up render of just those sprites. I did fix that problem, by the way, so the full animation will play for every particle when they enter a collector. (Just a bit faster than this GIF. )

[antimatteratorgame]

Small art update.

Yes, I'm procrastinating again. I was never 100% committed to the current title screen, so I've begun the process of redoing it. I do like the pixel Dr. T. I made for it, so I'd like to keep at least that. Thinking about putting him on the big screen there, but I was also thinking about putting the buttons on it, so I dunno.

This is just the render I plan to pixel over and add more details and animated bits. I like the idea of the bright screen glowing with darker, more dramatic lighting, but I'm not sure that will really fit with the brighter tone I've been going for.

I AM making (slow) progress on the levels, and I added a tutorial/hint system for the 5 I've got done. They're basically just the tutorial levels, so they explain the basic mechanics along with level elements as they are introduced, and also some less obvious tricks the player will need to make use of as the game progresses.

Very sorry if anyone's actually following and frustrated by how slowly this thing is coming along. Trust me, nobody is more frustrated than me.

[antimatteratorgame]

Some new art and stuff!

Getting there! Seriously getting there! The last real thing I've been putting off is making a few scenes to go between each batch of levels. (Or maybe every couple of batches? Not sure how I want to space them out quite yet.)

Anyway. I've been working on a more interesting introduction scene, and I planned since the beginning to have it include an exterior shot of Dr. Teranta's laboratory. I have some concept sketches somewhere, but what I ended up doing to make the final version was make a model of it in Blender, and basically just paint over it in Aseprite.

I've actually done this for a few other sprites too. It's mostly larger ones where I find I've having trouble with getting the perspective right. I've always been better at smaller scale sprites like items and characters than bigger objects or non-tiled environments.

It's also how I made the lever for the level selection console, and the new letter buttons that I realize I haven't shown off yet. But yeah! The level selection screen is pretty much done, I guess. It now features a very simple explanatory diagram in case anyone has trouble understanding the layout.

I figured it'd be easy enough to figure out with maybe a minute of trial and error, but better safe than sorry. I made all the interactive parts big and brightly colored, so even clicking anything at random will always do *something.*

And no, I still haven't made all the levels yet. Or any beyond the ones I used for testing. I'm about 99% sure that's going to be the very last thing I do, but that level editor will make things much easier when I do get there.

OH YEAH. I also moved over to Game Maker Studio 2, and it didn't break anything. Lots of interesting and useful features to play with, and those potential issues with Steam I was worried about won't be a problem. (That's assuming they were even issues in the first place, since I didn't get to the point where they would have come up.)

[antimatteratorgame]

Some minor adjustments today.

Done:

Added the ability to skip the intro animation for the title screen by pressing the spacebar.

The invisible menu buttons that appear in the top left corner of the intro animation are disabled until they become visible.

Adjusted the placement of some text objects to better line up with graphics behind them.

Need to do:

Noticed that the zap effect for nanotubes is now appearing beneath the nanotubes instead of on top of them as intended. Need to figure out why this suddenly started happening.

Yeah, I spent a lot of time working on that introduction animation, but it was getting aggravating having to sit through it every time I wanted to adjust and test something down the line. I always planned to add this eventually, so I guess I annoyed myself into bumping it up the list.

[antimatteratorgame]

WOAH! A LEVEL MAKER!?

The game is pretty much at the point where all I have left to do aside from minor tweaks and adjustments is actually make 40 levels that hopefully make fun and interesting use of all the mechanics I've put together.

The thing is...while Game Maker's room editor is very easy to use, it's super tedious to actually test. You make the level (room), launch the game, wait for GM to build it, go through all the menus to select that level, test it, close the game, go back and adjust the level in the room editor if something didn't work, then repeat. And no, I can't just set the room to the first on the list for testing because the mechanics rely on persistent objects that are initialized in earlier rooms, and the game will crash if they aren't able to refer to these objects.

This would be a pain in the butt for making a *single* level, and an absolute nightmare making 40.

SOOOOoooooo...

I tried to put together a level maker, and it actually 85% works! This will make it much easier to build and test levels, then I can set them up in the room editor for the actual game as I get them nailed down.

We're getting there!

[antimatteratorgame]

Antimatterator Version 0.0.9.3

Created a progress tracker that updates a counter as each level is completed for the first time.

Switched out the last placeholder graphics. "You did the thing" is now a fancy screen that comes down and says "Simulation Successful!"

OKAY, YEAH. SORRY. It probably looks like I haven't done anything with this project for almost a year, and it LOOKS like that because...I kind of haven't really done anything with this project for almost a year. (Besides open it, think about the annoying technical crap I still have to do, and just say "nooooope.")

Basically what I did today before jumping back in was make a big ol' list of all the stuff I still need to do in no particular order. I broke it all down into chunks! And I broke those chunks into smaller chunks! You know, like folks say you should do when you have a brain that doesn't want to do what you want to do!

IT REALLY WORKS!

I'm not going to promise more frequent updates, since like I said, I've basically got 98% of the graphics settled, so pretty much all that's left to do is code that mostly won't be visualized anywhere. But progress is progress, and I am WORKING ON IT.

[antimatteratorgame]

undefined

The Antimatterator’s Newest Feature

Hello again! Dr. Teranta here! Development of the Antimatterator is proceeding swimmingly! I’ve even begun work on a useful new component: Nanotubes!

See, I’ve seen the Antimatterator’s grid occasionally configure itself in such a way that it actually blocks the particles from reaching the collection containers. Previously when this happened, I was forced to simply discard the unobtainable particles and generate a new configuration, but no more!

Simply direct the particles into the “plus” end of a nanotube pair...

...and they will be transported nearly instantaneously to the other end!

It’s quantum! Probably!

Unfortunately, there’s still a bit of an “entanglement” problem, so the Antimatterator can currently only utilize one pair of nanotubes at a time. I’m working on a solution, though!

[antimatteratorgame]

Rather than repost all the old updates from my main Tumblr, I made a video compilation of all the changes from the initial build to version 0.0.6 which is new!

Antimatterator Version 0.0.6

 Moved interface buttons to a dropdown menu to stop accidental button presses when attempting to grab arrows. (It was really annoying accidentally hitting “Clear” instead of picking up the arrow next to it.)

Particles now turn away from arrows that point directly into walls instead of following them and getting stuck.

Added “fast forward” functionality, but it brought some friends along in the form of numerous speed-related collision bugs.

I didn’t capture footage of any of those speed bugs, but basically: the characters move too fast for the collision detection to keep up, and they end up ignoring arrows or going through walls.I’ll see about trying to fix that, but I may end up having to just remove the “speed up” button altogether if it won’t cooperate.

[antimatteratorgame]

Welcome to Antimatterator!

Hello there! I am Dr. Tim Teranta, soon-to-be world famous physicist, engineer and pioneer of antimatter energy solutions! 

In order to conduct my ongoing experiments, I need access to a steady supply of antimatter particles. For this, I have designed a special particle accelerator that generates and captures antimatter on a gridlike filter: this “antimatter generator” is fittingly called...

The Antimatterator!

Once captured on the grid, the particles need to be directed into containers by the use of electromagnetic directional panels. Simple enough, yes?

Ah, but the Antimatterator has some side effects that must be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, its method of capture leaves it unable to tell the difference between particles of antimatter and particles of regular matter. If these two types of particle were to collide with each other inside the machine, it could cause a catastrophic annihilation event! So make sure to keep them as far apart as possible, and NEVER direct regular matter into the antimatter containers!

The Antimatterator’s software is still in its early stages of development, but I can’t wait to show off the progress I make in the coming months!  

[antimatteratorgame]

Wanna buy some stuff?

Is it too early to slap some characters on miscellaneous merch and open a Redbubble shop?

PROBABLY, BUT WHO CARES? I’M DOIN’ IT.

Want a t-shirt with the game title on it? 

BOOM. RIGHT HERE.

Want it in sticker form?

I GOT YOU.

Want Regular and/or Antimatter Particles on shirts, stickers, magnets or even a clock because apparently Redbubble does that too and I was like “sure, why not?”

LOOK NO FURTHER. (Regular) THEY ARE HERE. (Anti)

Want a new twist on an old classic science joke to demonstrate your perceived intellectual superiority? 

STEP RIGHT UP.

[antimatteratorgame]

Original concepts for Dr. Teranta. He was originally going to be the protagonist of the tower defense game I was planning to make, and could still be in the future. I very nearly went with the second design, but tried it with a bigger beard for the heck of it and liked the result. 

Because his original purpose was for a game that centered on strategic battles, I figured he’d be the type who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and jump into the fight himself if necessary, so I made his design a bit bulkier and tougher looking than one typically imagines a scientist to be. (I picture him as something of a cross between Hagrid and Dumbledore.)

[antimatteratorgame]

undefined

Antimatterator Version 0.0.9

Added new level hazzard: black holes.

Antimatter entering a black hole will trigger “fail state”

Regular matter entering a black hole will be destroyed.

Added animation effect for particles entering/exiting nanotubes.

Bottomless pits are such an old fashioned hazzard. Looks like another one of those “side effects” Dr. Teranta mentioned a while back. Yes, the Antimatterator will sometimes cause miniature black holes to appear! But worry not! These singularities are far too small and short lived to do any damage to the machine, let alone anything larger like the lab...or the city...

No, they’re only a danger to the particles moving about on the grid. Feel free to dispose of any troublesome regular matter by way of these ominous portals, but antimatter is hard to come by, so don’t go losing any of those particles to the crushing void!