Nebraska Newton Devlog #4 - "Abilities"

Greetings and salutations! I'm going to a LAN with friends today, so I won't really have much time to work on Nebraska Newton. That is why today's devlog is about abilities, something I've more-or-less got down.

Prologue

Every game character needs abilities. With them, he/she wouldn't be able to do much, now would they?

Once you get past the basics of walking, jumping and shooting, abilties can really add a cool factor to your game. Honestly, who DOESN'T like double-jumping and ledge hanging?

Chapter 1 - "Types"

Here's a list of all the abilities, except walking, jumping and shooting, because those are obvious.

Crouching Nebraska can crouch to squeeze under tight spaces and avoid hazards from above. He can also move while crouching, but it's rather slow.

Wall-climbing With a certain powerup, Nebraska gains the ability to climb up walls, like in Knytt. The coding's a bit iffy now, so I'll need to fine-tune it, but it works.

Swimming Nebraska can swim, as of yesterday. He has a limited supply of oxygen though, so you don't want to swim for too long.

Melee This is something I haven't put in the game, but, with the introduction of water, will probably end up putting in. I did have code for this in the orginal engine, but it wasn't finished. Basically, melee entails being able to hit enemies with your gun. In a perfect world, this would be done by taking a swing at them with your mouse, but I'll probably end up making it happen when the right mouse button is clicked.

Chapter 2 - "Implementation"

As I said before, most of it is already in the game. So all I really need to put in is melee. I also need to fix wall-climbing, but that's not a huge priority right now.

The problem with wall climbing is that Nebraska will sometimes flicker off and on the wall if standing at certain distance from it. This probably due to some inconsistency between his movement and how far he needs to be from the wall to climb it.

Chapter 3 - "Goals"

Yesterday I was able to put in all the enemies I detailed. I was also able to start a few levels. I didn't finish them, but I'd say that doing a half of two different levels counts as making a level. So at the moment I have four levels, some complete, some not.

Goals For Today

* Put in melee. If this is the only goal I complete today, I'll be happy.

* Fix wall-climbing The flickering is irritating, and makes the game look bad. It must be dealt with.

* Finish at least one level. Seeing as I already have two half-finished levels from yesterday, I may as well try to finish one.

Epilogue

Today won't have too much Nebraska Newton progress. As I type this, I have another two hours before the LAN starts.

If I don't finish today's goals within those two hours, I'll carry them over to tomorrow. I don't have anything planned for tomorrow, so things should work then.

On Sunday you can expect a break in these devlogs for a good old Weekly Weblog.

F1ak3r