The wheels are turning, but they're doing it all wrong

I found a script that can make the car go back and forth, but it moves very slowly and the wheels drag across the ground unless they're moving down the ramp, so I'm clearly not doing it right. I also tried to make an object that always rotates in the direction of the player. This would be used as a gun that shoots slow-moving bullets at the player that are moderately easy to dodge but would still provide a challenge combined with platforming elements. That didn't work either, as it rotates in 3D instead of just 2D and the script is so simple that there isn't much to play around with to get it to work right. 

Lastly, I tried to make a ferris wheel platform, a large "+" shaped structure that rotates with normal-sized child platforms on all four ends that move with the structure but retain their original rotation of 0. This would allow the player to board one of the platforms and move in a circle to reach another platform, possibly another ferris wheel that's moving in the opposite direction. unfortunately, this didn't work either. I tried to add rigidbodies to the platforms and check "fixed angle" so they wouldn't rotate with the parent structure, but they developed a mind of their own as they drifted off the main structure and started rotating in all sorts of weird ways. My next attempt was to apply the rotate script to the misbehaving children and set them to rotate at the same speed as the main structure but in the reverse direction, canceling out their rotation. Now they appear skewed and misshapen and I have no idea why. 

So that's what I've been breaking lately. Tune in next week when I cause every game object to form a deadly alliance and beat the player character senseless for no readily explainable reason.

My design thus far

Well, my broken mess of a level design was at least entertaining, but needs a lot of work. It's incredibly easy to break and some aspects of it, such as the swinging pendulums that launch you to the higher platform, only work once. I do hope that this speaks for my ability to come up with interesting level designs though.

The biggest thing I have to fix is the vehicle. It would need to go a lot faster to make it off the ramp with enough force to be impressive, but it already goes so fast the player passes right through it. I need to figure out a way to make the character stay attatched to the vehicle so it doesn't fly off due to the momentum. I'm thinking if I can create a script that temporarily makes the player character a child of the vehicle, it won't get flown off, but I don't know how to do that or if that would even solve anything. It'll be a tough problem to solve for sure.

Level design stuff

Well, I basically played around a bit with the physics of the 2D platformer and came up with a few interesting results. I created a pendulum in the shape of a giant hammer and that hits another giant hammer which the player starts on, allowing them to reach the spinning platform onto which they can reach the trampoline platform, which allows them to access a high ledge leading to a ramp with a vehicle-type thing I made out of rectangles and circles, which rapidly accelerates down the ramp and barely jumps off it. This level design has a ton of problems and I'll get into that next class, but I did manage to play around with it and get interesting results. Getting through what I have so far is challenging but it's not entirely due to it's dysfunctional flaws, so that's good at least.

homework

For homework, I'm mostly going to work on some of the platforming mechanics as opposed to reskinning the art for a while. I know how to do the art component, but as for figuring out Unity, that's what I have to focus on right now. I'll be working on getting the collector script working and I'll see what I can do with level design, but until I get something playable, the art will be put on hold.

Day 4: The Count's personal hell

I've definately learned plenty from trying to replicate the roll-a-ball game, but what I haven't grasped so far is how two identical scripts implimented in the exact same way don't function similarly. I've copied the script verbatim, applied it identically, and yet the count variable refuses to increase when items are collected. It defies all logic and I'm sure insanity will creep up on me if I think too much about it. I'm probably just going to work from the pre-made finished version because I did nothing wrong here.

Also, for my reskin I was thinking of two possibilities. One is that the ball could be transparent in a way that makes it look like glass or plastic, and inside have a scientist controlling the movement, like it's a role reversal where lab rats have taken over and shrunken their captor down to size and made him do all the maze stuff. Another probably simpler idea is a toy box, where it would basically be a rubber ball that could jump and bounce and avoid other toys and obstacles. I'm not sure what the collectables would be for either idea though, or how I would even go about doing any of this. But one thing at a time I guess.

Day 3: Rough Terrain

Well, here I am, behind on my blogs again...

Right, well the terrain excersise was interesting, I really thought that was a cool way to get a basic landscape going. Not to mention the fact that the run and jump variables of the player character were fun to play around with. I kept noticing the trees were rotating by themselves in the denser parts of the forests I was laying down and it weirded me out a bit, I couldn't figure out why they were moving.

I could see myself using this and having fun with it. However, I just opened the file and nothing's there. This isn't the first time I've lost progress on a project I'm sure I saved before closing, this happened with roll-a-ball too. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Maybe I'm just used to PCs and I'm hitting ctrl+S instead of cmnd+S again. Maybe it's something bigger than that. Either way, I'll have to see if it happens again next time when I'm sure to be more careful.

Day 2: The Board Game That Could've been

Last weekend I had gotten a terribly late start on my board game project and ended up not being able to do more than lay the foundations out for what could've been a solid game. The first thing that came into my head for a theme was a zombie survival game, so I went with that. The biggest problem I had was that I was thinking too much about how many variables go into surviving a zombie apocalypse, and doing a search for zombie board games and finding super-complex tabletop setups didn't help the matter. I did end up simplifying it and at least laying the foundations before passing out at 5 am.

Each player controls a group of six people. The objective is to make it through the infected city by rolling the dice and reaching the extraction point. There are several zombie squares along the linear path to the finish, and if landed on, activates a zombie chance roll. Here, you roll a six-sided dice, and each number represents a different zombie event. Calling a coin toss determines whether you win or lose the event. Events are as follows:

1: Single zombie- mild attack that sends you back three spaces if lost.
2: Zombie cluster- stronger attack that can cost a team member if lost.
3: Player flanks zombies- get a surprise attack on a group of zombies and either gain a player or lose nothing.
4: Zombies flank player- get attacked unexpectedly and either lose a player or gain nothing.
5: Zombie swarm- strongest attack that can cost a team two members if lost.
6: Zombie shelter- hide from a massive hoard until it passes and lose a turn.

There are also spaces where the player can collect first aid kits that can prevent a team member from dying if an event is lost, and weapons/item caches like grenades that can cancel out zombie attacks, rifles that allow the player to re-roll, vehicles advance five spaces, and if you're unlucky, a water pistol that does nothing. I wanted to add night vision goggles and some sort of melee weapon like a baseball bat or crowbar or something, but I couldn't think of how they'd uniquely affect the game. They would've come out to six total, so I could use the dice for that too. Though for balance reasons I might want to use cards for the items to make some rarer than others. Obviously I haven't played this game so I don't know what things tip the scales too far and what things don't. And while I'm certainly not patting myself on the back for procrastinating on this project over stress and overthinking, I do think I managed to lay out a solid foundation for a game at least, which is more than what I thought I'd be able to do when I felt like I was dead in the water entirely.

Day 1: Getting the ball(and dice) rolling

The first day was interesting. I didn't know what to expect since I figured we weren't going to start with anything too complicated. Didn't expect board games though. It does make sense though, because it illustrated game concepts without the necessity for pre-existing knowledge of video game development, the likes of which I have some but not much. I started the Unity tutorial about the rolling ball game as well, and while I found myself having to constantly rewind the video to make sure I was doing everything properly, that's far from abnormal for video tutorials, so I'm obviously not worrying too much about whether or not I'm getting it. I figure there will be plenty of time for that later on in the semester when thing get more involved. I'm trying not to think too much about the potential for technical roadblocks, of which I expect many in projects to come, but at least with the board game assignment I don't have to worry about that.