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[Codestar]

Began working on resource spawning. Really want to add different harder to break types of dirt blocks to the existing generated levels, but I'm having some trouble with trying to generate a height map from an existing 2D Array.

I'd like to figure out how to do something like this with the dirt blocks, but figuring out how to do it with an array that's already been generated is a big headache. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it.


Other than this, I've been doing a lot of optimization work. Restructuring the code I've already been working on to be optimized for Google's V8 Javascript engine is proving to be quite the challenge as well. Especially considering that ImpactJS is beast of an engine to re-write.

The way that inheritance is propagated down the entity chain is a huge resource hog, and I'm looking to split apart some parts of ImpactJS to be more component based like the developers for Cross-Code did. Hopefully it will improve my CPU performance in the long run.

[Codestar]

Thanks to the folks in the TIGSource technical sub forum I was able to implement different types of terrain blocks using a distance transform algorithm. These blocks would be harder to break and require users to have upgraded abilities. These would also have a higher chance of spawning rare minerals, so when the player has the appropriate stats, they can come back and mine them later. Here's an example of a full map with different terrain blocks placed throughout the room.

[Codestar]

New gameplay gif!

Got finished implementing some simple wall jumping/sliding. This ability will allow you to scale large vertical sections of blocks. You can also grab on to ledges if you're close enough to them.

[Codestar]

UPDATE:

A few days ago I began work on a sprite animation and packaging tool. Later on, this will allow people to mod the game and add in their own sprites/animations/sound effects. After I've finished this, I'm going to try to start on making some new pixel art for the game.

[PeteHuf]

This is looking really cool! Would the mod support also allow people to plug-in new map generators/obstacles? It seems like those would give the game the most longevity. It would help ensure there are always new challenges and things to figure out.

[Codestar]

Thanks! Yeah, the finished product should come bundled with most of the editors I use for development. The level editor should allow people to make entire maps, section templates, and randomized obstacle templates. The animation editor might actually turn into a full blown entity editor, to which you can make entities to put into the game and give them "behavior components" to make them do certain things.

So for example, if you wanted to add in your own special plant background entity and have it glow, sway back and forth, and spawn some particles, each of those things should be available to you as components for your entity. Depending on how robust I make the editor, you might also be able to do some JS scripting in your mods. (depending on if I open up an api for it.)

[PeteHuf]

That sounds fantastic! (And ambitious.)

For my game, a lot that goes into the environments is loaded from xml files (I've made schemas, but no editor.) The XML describes things like textures to use for the blocks to give cosmetic differences. Ex: "This plant grows on top of this type of material." "This material represents the 'hard' blocks in this area." The map generation (where the blocks are, which ones are 'hard') is all hardcoded though. I'm not sure if I'll ever want to open any of it to modding. I love the concept, but the online competitive aspect of my game complicates things.

[Codestar]

I think having an easily modable game really helps with the replay value as well as advertizing the core game to a lot of potential players. This is why I hope to release this game not only as just a fun game to play, but also as a great procedural generation exploration toy for people to play with and make their own content.

[Codestar]

UPDATE

I've started revamping the sprite style in Mine to the sky, going to increase the size of the tiles as well as the character.

Here's my first iteration of redoing the character sprites. Larger sprites will allow me to give more detail and make the character better reflect the concept art. This will also make the upgrades/new helmets more readable.

old style


new style

[Canned Turkey]

Oh yes I very much prefer the new style, it looks a lot nicer.

[Codestar]

Thanks! I'm currently working on background tiles now. I'm not entirely sure of the approach I want to take with tiling the dirt blocks.

I'm currently torn on whether I should stick with the current tiling that I have, where each tile is a distinguishable dirt block and is wrapped with borders or go with my new approach which is wrapping the blocks and keeping the inner tiles dark. I've gotten comments from other pixel artists that the previous approach seems t0o noisy.

old tiling example


new tiling example

[Cakeprediction]

the new tileset looks a lot cleaner, although putting some random stones or detail in general randomly on the plain blue might add a little bit of charm/make it feel less empty

[Chris MacAdam]

You could always try to have the old tileset and have it fade into darkness, Kind of like terraria.
The new one is cleaner though, could always just add more tiles in the darkness of the new one too so its not as empty as said.

[Codestar]

Thanks for the suggestions, I believe I've come to a solution after looking at how Nintendo did the tiling for the caves in Yoshi's island. In my game I'll have the former "blackness" tiles be randomized combinations of various rock patterns. This will also allow me to show minerals and crystals in a more natural way as well.

YI example


New tileset

[Chris MacAdam]

Ya much better with more going on in the darkness! Looking good

[Cakeprediction]

Yeah, that looks good

[Codestar]

Thanks! I've kind of kicked into full on drawing mode so I'll probably be posting a lot of updates on the conversion of the current assets and such. Last night I whipped up this new idle animation as a test. The sprites before didn't even have an idle stance, they just had a static sprite for idle.

[EdFarage]

The game is looking pretty good, i just have one small thing to point out, and i presumably think that you've already noticed that.
And assuming that you didn't do that on purpose too... but when your camera is scrolling, some tiles "shake off" the flow... like, pay attention to one of the gifs, the ores in the cave tiles are moving a little bit off than the rest.
Other than that, i love the vibe this game is giving me, reminds me of the countless hours ive spent mining in minecraft

[Codestar]

Thanks, yeah I knew of that bug. It was a problem with the sprite offset not being the same as the blocks offset. You've got a good eye for detail.


UPDATE


I've started working on a couple of background assets. Making pretty good progress overall. Really dreading the day that I'll need to replace that large Yoshi's island cave background. It's going to be quite the challenge.

As for code, I'm currently working on refactoring some of the core ImpactJS code to work with a new (and hopefully faster) inheritance library. I've got to squeeze out as much performance from the engine as I can because there is going to be a lot of entities on screen at any given time and I want this game to run FAST.

[Codestar]

UPDATE

So at this point I am extremely on the fence about continuing to develop Mine to the sky in ImpactJS.

Impact's entire code structure is not very v8 optimization friendly and porting everything in impact to a cleaner Entity component system based approach seems like more of a hassle than just starting fresh in Phaser and using it's nice ECS based structure for doing things. Luckily, I don't think it will be too painful concidering that a lot of the core game logic is done, but it's still a huge loss in productivity.

What's sparked this is that I've noticed over the course of my development that the game is getting slower and slower, and this is a result of the same things that plagued the Cross Code developers. Too many properties on objects to get optimized properly and huge inheritance chains.

I really want this game to run fast in a browser because it is ultimately going to be a relatively fast paced game. Here's hoping that phaser helps me reach that goal. Not to mention I'll finally get to use webGL and shaders in my game (which was going to be a huge headache to impliment in Impact).