Things Are Starting to Move!
Click HERE if you’d like to skip straight to this week’s video. I didn’t think anything this week would put a bigger smile on my face than last week‘s zombie heads taking flight. I was happily proven wrong during one of the tests with the now-working zombie-spawner. One shambling fiend broke off from the rest and slipped around the side door while I was focused on the zombies in the yard.
I’m not making a scary game; not this time anyway. That’s sort of a weird statement for a zombie theme, but this is more of an arcade-style game. Nevertheless, I jumped after turning and finding myself face-to-face with my side-door surprise guest! While a part of me wishes I had been recording, it was probably better that I wasn’t. I don’t have the manliest of yelps, but it was great to be surprised by something I didn’t explicitly tell the game to do.
Welcome to the Game, Becky-Sue!
I was SO close to having a working animation for Carl’s wife, Becky Sue. After bringing her into the game and writing an animation trigger for throwing an item, I started the game and was ready to be dazzled with my own blossoming animation skills.
At some point, I completely goofed up the parenting on her hair. I’m thrilled to see that the original artist included that much detail in the hair. I hope that thought warms my heart as I go back and try to fix this. For now, Becky-Sue is just going to stay still. Mostly because I find it unnerving to have that weirdness going on behind me.
The UFO Now Actually Flies!
The F in UFO specifically means flying, not F-spinning. Up until now, the UFO has been a giant merry-go-round in the sky. Not any more! I broke the spinning part pretty quickly and turned it into an Unidentified Somersaulting Object. I’m sure there’s a way to tell the UFO to only rotate on a specific plane. Until then, it will just sort of hover and glide. Even with just that, it’s still pretty cool seeing that thing glide overhead and block out the night sky! Watch the video to see how it looks now.
Who Put the Couch in Couch Invaders?
I did! Well, I didn’t build it, but I picked it out and did the work to get it into the game. I couldn’t be happier as this couch came in two different versions, one of them using Normal Maps. Simply put, these allow you to make an object look more detailed without increasing the number of triangles in the object.
This couch only has about 5000 triangles in it. It can look much more detailed than that due to the Normal Maps that tell it how light would look across its surface.
Combining the Normal Map with a Texture Map lets you fake your way to something closer to reality!
What’s Going On Next Week?
I would really like to add something to the game to show your score, ideally something that could also contain a pause menu. I don’t want it to be another object you have to keep track of, though. Instead, I’d like to try to spawn a cell phone in your empty hand if you hold it out in front of you (you know, like you were looking at your phone).
The table in the backyard needs to go. There is an inventory ring system, like how you holster weapons on the hips, and that is what I’d like to switch over to. I’d also like to embed a ring or two in the couch so that healing snacks can appear over time.
If I can bolt down Becky-Sue’s hair, I’d like to get her animated and tossing ammo. In my head, it seems like a lot of fun to catch ammo and try to reload while gunning down the undead. There’s only one way to find out, though!
As always, thank you so much for following along. As much fun as it is to work on this game, it’s even more fun to share it.
-Mario