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[dotsquid]

Hey everyone! So I decided to gather all my courage and reveal the project which I started to work on in early 2014, paused in October 2014 and to which I returned two weeks ago. Initially the project was written in C++ and used Cocos2d-x. I spent plenty of time implementing my own "prototype" system which allowed me to relatively easy create the templates for almost any type of the objects in the game and then instantiate them in the editor. Besides that I implemented a hot level reloading (press "Upload map" in the editor and instantly test that map on Android device), neat and flexible contact dispatcher for Box2d-based physics system, event/messaging system for low coupled code. I also optimized some internals of Cocos2d-x related to redundant transformation matrix calculation, which drastically improved the performance on the maps with lots of objects. I was almost happy with Cocos2d-x, except some crucial points (some of them partially changed later): poor particle system, UI and audio support; no real component system; no (or relatively poor) animation editor (it was quite hard or nearly impossible to make scripted scenes or cut scenes); prototyping is not as fast as it could be; development of the engine went in wrong direction: js, 3d, vr; almost no applications for contract work. A lot of basic things must be done manually before you start coding the gameplay itself. But then I had more than 1.5-year pause from the Astronaut in particular and from software development in general. When I got back to the game I decided to update both Cocos2d-x (from 3.0.8 to 3.1.2, which featured with a new particle system, yay!) and Visual Studio I used before (from 2013 to 2015, C++14 FTW!). Surely everything appeared to be broken. I spent two or three days trying to at least compile the game and the editor. And even when I managed to do that the game was a total mess: stencil masks stopped working at all, some changes in parenting/trasformation caused wrong positioning of the objects, clear black screen on restart, crash on exit, etc etc. And then a risky (or better call it stupid?) idea came up to me: why not try Unity3d? So I joined the dark side and the last week I spent moving the project to Unity, trying to remember C# and learning the new engine. Surely I could stay with an old engine and code base. But due to 15-months lack of development, I've had to waste some time on recalling things, so why not try something new and promising? So now it's called the Cosmonaut - what a cardinal renaming! Still a working title though

Click to watch in better quality Click to watch on Youtube Click to watch in better quality

	The game is a 2d platformer with exploration/adventure elements. At first I was aiming mobile platforms (Android and iOS), but now I'm trying to organize the gameplay and game control keeping other platforms in mind (PC, consoles - why not?) You're playing as a guy in a space suit which allows you to make interplanetary jumps and cling to the planets and other objects with an electromagnetic hook. The problem is that the oxygen you carry in the suit's tank is limited, thus you can die by asphyxiation in open space.. or drown in water planet.. or burn in plasma.. or meet an unfriendly life form.. or.. well, I guess you've got the idea.

Although if you are lucky and skilful enough you can survive and move on through the galaxy.


Click to watch in better quality


But don't be so careless. It's so easy to burn at work.


Click to watch in better quality

All animations are based on the old version and do not represent the current development progress.
Stay tuned! Thanks

[Pixel Noise]

Sounds interesting enough. Following to see more updates 

[dotsquid]

Sounds interesting enough. Following to see more updates 

Thanks! 


Not so many comments as I expected and wanted to be...
Anyways, my switching to Unity3d is in progress. The week ended up with this.

Click to see in higher resolution

The Cosmonaut has learned to bounce on the planet's surface, make a space jump and turn over. Implementation of the electromagnetic hook is on the way.

So far Unity3d has made a good impression on me. It's really cool to see the scene just while you coding the gameplay. The
extensibility of the editor is mind-blowing.
Although there were some unexpected discoveries:

• Point Effector 2D has only a Force Magnitude parameter. It would be useful to have an Acceleration/Gravity parameter. If two objects with different mass are effected by the same force, they will approach different speeds. That's not how the planetary gravity works. Anyways, I've implemented my own GravityForceField script with bells and whistles I need.
• There is a single collision/trigger callback/event for all colliders attached to a GameObject. What I mean is that if the GO has several Collider2Ds, there is no way to distinguish which one of them has collided or triggered.
• Collision masks are implemented via Layers which are used in rendering as well (e.g. Camera culling masks). Really WTF?

Stay tuned!

[Babar]

I think this looks great 
I definitely love hook gameplay.

I also think we all have the same feeling about "not enough comments", but comments will not make a great game :p
Following yours

[dotsquid]

I think this looks great 
I definitely love hook gameplay.

I also think we all have the same feeling about "not enough comments", but comments will not make a great game :p

Thanks.
You are right! But comments are so inspiring and motivating.