Kilan Larsen
370 Blog Post 3
For the beginning of Sprint 3 I worked to make sure that the player could take damage, die, and respawn using a checkpoint system. I finished this prior to our first build that people would playtest. The checkpoints ensure that the player has a spot to come back to when they die, and only one checkpoint can be active at once. Using the checkpoint model and material that my teammate Sam created, this is what I was able to accomplish:
These checkpoints deactivate all other checkpoints in the scene when one is touched, which prevents having two active checkpoints at once. I also added an invisible death plane below the map just in case the player manages to get out of bounds, so that the player respawns and the game doesn't break.
After creating our first build of the game's digital prototype and having playtesters try it out, we assigned new tasks for Sprint 3 based on the mechanics and features that we would like to complete before the next build. A common complaint from playtesters was that the gun rotation when aiming didn't feel/act right, and was strange to use. Shown below is the before and after of this to show how vastly improved it is:
Bad Gun Rotation:
Fixed Gun Rotation:
After fixing the gun rotating around the player, I began implementing the flying and shield enemies using the new models and materials from Sam. The flying enemy moves up and down within specified constraints, and the shield enemy cannot take damage from the front (and will rotate 180 degrees to always face the player).
With these tasks complete, we now have a more complete feeling game and a lot of different tools for our level designer Christopher to play around with and test different layouts of platforms, hazards, and enemies.
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For the next Sprint, I will be making it so that enemies can aim and shoot at the player to provide more of a challenge, getting a visual for the reload function of the gun, and creating pickups that upgrades the shotgun's abilities such as increasing its ammo, knockback, or damage.
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I'm already looking forward to seeing the results of the next Sprint!