Nebraska Newton Devlog #5 - "Obstacles"

Welcome to number five in this daily devlog series! Today, I'll be talking about a very important part of the game - obstacles.

Prologue

Obstacles are what lend variety to your enemy shooting sprees. And variety is the spice of life.

Obstacles can also give you interesting ways of killing your enemies, rather than shooting them.

Chapter 1 - "Types"

Here is a semi-complete list of obstacles. If I have any other ideas, I'll put them in the game, but I probably won't add them to this list.

Lava. Lava flows from a lava emitter high up on the level's back wall. It is lethal. For both you an your enemies. Luckily, most levels with lava will also have a switch somewhere, a switch that turns the lava off. This switch can also turn the lava back on, which is an important thing to remember.

Spikes. Spikes can be on the floor, on the ceiling or on the walls. They can therefore prevent you from walking, climbing, or jumping.

Frail block. At first glance, these obstacles appear to be ordinary blocks. And, in most cases, they are. However, shooting them will destroy them.

Very frail block. Similar to frail blocks, except frailer. These blocks will crumble under the weight of Nebraska's feet.

Door & Key. Any key you find lying around the level can be used to unlock any door in the level. You just need to pick up said key and walk into said door.

Water. Water can be swum in. While swimming, there will be a slight upward gravity, instead of the ordinary downward gravity. But you don't want to swim for too long, because your oxygen is limited.

Bullet redirectors. This is inspired by Karoshi. Bullet redirectors will change the direction of any bullet you shoot at them.

Corpse pit. These will be reddish squares on the ground. If you kill an enemy in one of them, that corpse pit will turn into something nice (ammo, health) or something useful (a key).

Gate. Like the door, the gate impedes progress. Unlike the door, you need to flip a switch rather than finding a key to open it.

That's all I can think of right now. Please give suggestions.

Chapter 2 - "Implementation"

I've put a few of these in the game already. All I have to put in now are the frail and very frial blocks, the corpse pits, the doors and keys, the bullet redirectors, and the gates.

I don't think any of those will be too difficult though.

Chapter 3 - "Goals"

Due to the LAN I had yesterday, I didn't get a chance to complete yesterday's goals. That means they'll become today's goals.

Goals For Today

* Implement unimplemented obstacles. Like I've said before, this shouldn't be too difficult.

* Make a few levels. Seeing as obstacles are really the framework of levels, I think I should at least start a few levels today.

* Put melee COMBAT in. Melee combat is very important when you're underwater, and facing a dangerous crocodile.

* Fix climbing. I don't like that sprite flickering. It looks bad.

Epilogue

I don't have any social engagements today, so I should be able to actually do some stuff. Woo!

Expect Devlog #6 on Monday. Tomorrow's blog'll be a weekly weblog, hopefully with Chapter Six of SA2015.

F1ak3r