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[Louard]

This update comes a day early. I won't be available to do the update on Friday, so Thursday it is!
It was a lazy week for me, so it won't be a very big update. I did get some work done on some desert props, though!



And made some interactive sarcophagi!



The Mummy Skull is essentially my take on Dry Bones from Mario games.



And made some/ still working on some wall mounted blow torches!!



Also wanted to mention that if all goes well, I'll be attending GDC in San Fran in March! This will mean re-vectoring my efforts to concentrate on making the beginning of the game as presentable as possible rather than painting the whole thing in broad strokes.

I will keep you all posted on the GDC situation and let me know if you are planning to attend so we can meet up!

See you next week! I've got to go finish that blow torch and then plan the next four months!

[gimymblert]

I would love to see an inventive takes on shells though!

[Louard]

I would love to see an inventive takes on shells though!

Shells? Like Koopa shells? I do have some doodles for a thingy that can bounce around like a Koopa shell, but I don't think that's going to stay in scope.

[tylerfunk]

If those mummy respawns aren't final, it would make it more special and give it that extra charm if you had them 'wind' themselves back up in the bandages.

[gimymblert]

I would love to see an inventive takes on shells though!

Shells? Like Koopa shells? I do have some doodles for a thingy that can bounce around like a Koopa shell, but I don't think that's going to stay in scope.

[gimymblert]

Staying on scope is the most important though.

I once try to stay on scope and tried to make a game with only a single feature: a platformer with relative camera on planetoid (arbitrary surface variation). It took me 3 years and finally I give up because I needed skidding and I cried.

1 single features can kill everything lol

[Louard]

Back to our regularly scheduled update...

I'm working on a new level, level 1-3. It's a big descent to the goal and all about learning to use the double jump power up.




I'm having fun with it. I even added a couple of hidden areas! These are fun for breaking up the look and action of a level and giving the player a sense of exploration and discovery.



And I'm currently working on a basic flying enemy for the game: Killer Bees!



Expect to see more of this bad guy next week!

That's it for this week's update. Not a glamorous one, I'm afraid. It's what happens when I spend most of the week with my nose buried in the editor. So I will leave you with a couple more screenshots.




See you all next week!

[Louard]

So, Level 1-3 is done for the moment and I've got my new bee enemies working!



I suspect they will cause... quite the buzz...

Moooving on! I've got a good chunk of work done on Level 1-2 which makes me feel pretty good about having a nice presentable World 1 to show off to folks at GDC in March.



Notice the fog effect? That's actually three things working together...


The camera background colour...


The scene fog...


And finally, my custom gradient objects to simulate height fog.


Put it all together and you've got a nice misty forest feel.

Now, I've had all the parts needed to do this in place for a while now, but it was only this morning that I figured I would write a simple script which ensures all three colours match up when the level is loaded. In short, I simply grab the camera background colour, and then set the fog colour to match and finally I set the colour of the gradient object material to match as well. This should make it nice and easy for me to make changes and adjust the background colours of levels to get them just right without having to fiddle with all three colours individually.

It's not a HUGE thing, but when you're working on your own, every little time saver like this can really pay off in the long run.

Next week I should be finishing off work on Level 1-2 and then moving on to, either, 1-4 or the first boss level, not sure yet... We'll see next week! See you all then!

[gimymblert]

Just stupidly wondering aloud Do all those cubes use an atlas? It's like the best case to pack them

[Louard]

I'm glad you asked! I'll probably do a "lessons" post about it in the future, but ya, everything in Suzy Cube makes heavy use of atlases. All particle graphics are on one atlas, all enemies (except for theme specific ones) are on one atlas, all level objects are on one atlas per theme and then there's another atlas for generic objects that don't belong to any theme in particular. So, yup, all atlases, all the time!

[gimymblert]

Atlas not shrugged

[BomberTREE]

This looks really fun guys 
Definitely watching this thread!

[Louard]

Level 1-2 draft is done! It's all about teaching the player to use jump pads including the normal kind, bounce pads and jump activated pads. I thought the tall trees of a forest motif would be perfect for this.





I also put in work on converting my previously lava-rific boss into it's watery World 1 version. I set up its attack sequence too and did a bitty bit of set up work to simplify making the level leading up to the boss.



Otherwise, just a little bit of bug fixing, nothing to write home about.

Next week I should have a completed boss level draft and, hopefully, some early progress on Level 1-4. Until then, have a great week, folks!

[Louard]

Ugh, barely an update this week... I spend the first few days working on our annual holiday card so I knew the update this week would be slim... then I updated Unity... And, as usual, I then had some bug fixing to do.

The funniest still isn't fixed...



Get it? It's funny because it looks ridiculous, and bees are bugs. it's a bug which affects bugs. Funny.
Also, it only happens on my iPod which is a pain in the ass. It's so much easier to debug stuff when it happens in the editor too.

Well, I'm going to get back to work on the World 1 boss level... Ya.. That level I promised would be done this week....



Oh, speaking of which, this is how the level starts right after you hit the trigger which gets the water flowing... and RISING!! DUN DUN DUUUUN!!

Ok.. I think I'm done making promises I'll just end up breaking, so... See you all next week!

[Ishi]

Yes, keep it up!

I love the colours in the rising water screenshot - it's very bright and vibrant. For me a lot of your other levels look a bit hazy - not sure if it's just the fact that there is fog there, or because of the distance of the fog, or if it's just the colour of it.

Have you done experiments with how much fog to use? I can definitely see how the heavier fog could be good for aiding distance/depth perception so that might be the reason it is like it is.

[alvarop]

This already looks like a lot of fun. Liking your explanations and approach. Looking forward to this.

[owendeery]

This continues to look great. 

[gimymblert]

bugsception why thing don't go round in a cube world

[Louard]

Yes, keep it up!

I love the colours in the rising water screenshot - it's very bright and vibrant. For me a lot of your other levels look a bit hazy - not sure if it's just the fact that there is fog there, or because of the distance of the fog, or if it's just the colour of it.

Have you done experiments with how much fog to use? I can definitely see how the heavier fog could be good for aiding distance/depth perception so that might be the reason it is like it is.

Depth perception and draw distance mitigation are the two big reasons for the heavy fog, you nailed it. I think the reason the latest screenshot doesn't look so hazy is that the playable tower barely recedes into the fog distance compared to, say the misty forest or long descent in the desert, both of which have much longer sight lines.

And thank you for all the kind words, guys. You have no idea how much I need it right now!

[Louard]

This update is a non-update, if you will.

I've decided that rather than end up posting half baked updates throughout the holiday period, I figured I would would on Suzy Cube when I can, not worry too much about it and then come back with a single update in the new year outlining any progress I may have made between now and then.

Holiday preparations have simply been taking up more and more of my time and I would rather not force myself to work on the game if it doesn't make sense just so I have something to post to the blog each week.

And so, I say goodbye to you all for the time being and hope you'll all pop back in in the new year!

Happy holidays all and have a safe and happy new year!