It’s been a while since I posted a list of updates. Here are some things I’ve done lately:
- Since the player can jump now (see this post), this means only one weapon can be equipped at a time – because the second mouse button is used to jump instead of attack. This concerned me, because I was worried the player would have to constantly open the menu to switch attacks. So, to avoid this issue, I made it so the mouse scroll wheel switches weapons, like in a FPS. You can still use the menu, of course – but you don’t have to. And if your mouse doesn’t have a scroll wheel, well… get one. It’s 2009.
- The jumping will be useful for getting over holes and such, but I also wanted it to have a purpose in combat. So, the player can now preface a ground combo with a jump attack. Just think of fighting games, and you’ll know what I mean. My inspiration for this came from Mortal Kombat 3 and Henry Hatsworth, so it’s a good example of influence coming from very different games.
- I added a simple world map. This is very preliminary, but I have big plans for it: multiple zoom levels, a key, mouse dragging… basically, I’m going to include some of the interface features we’re all used to from Google maps. It’ll be in the style of our game, of course – it’s going to be on some sort of PDA the character carries around.
- I’ve been tackling a big issue: getting the game to run full screen at any resolution and any aspect ratio. Some of you might recall the game running with a big black border around the visible play area. Well, that border is gone now. Real full screen for everyone! This means the sprites may get scaled up on your system, but it’s a subtle scaling effect that most people will never notice. Best of all, any necessary scaling is applied when the game first starts up, so it doesn’t affect the frame rate.
Now that I’ve made changes to the way the game appears on the screen, I need to fix all of the menus. Once I do that and test everything myself, I should be ready to release another demo version. The maps and scenario will still be the same, but these new features make a pretty substantial upgrade IMO. Also, I’ll probably throw in a couple of new maps to feature the 3 new enemies: bee hive, jumping rock, and knight. There are also new accessories to equip and one new usable item (Eagle Feather; warps player to most recent save spot), so I’ll find somewhere to include them, too.
