I figured I would make a quick weekly progress update seeing as it seems like I managed to get a massive amount done since last Thursdays post. I’m not going to make a video as they take a bit of time to make but it’s safe to say you’ll be seeing all these improvements in the next development diary.
Interface
This week I’ve mainly been tackling a re-write of the user interface library to convert it into a much more efficient event driven system. This has been on the cards for a while as the old system was a little cumbersome and I’ve learnt a lot since I first wrote it. Also, seeing as we are moving from a prototype build to actual alpha/release code it seemed pretty important to start off on a good footing before we begin to tackle combat and other improvements.
In updating this system I’ve also created a new object interaction interface to replace the pink rectangle that could be seen in dev diary #1. This allows you to accept or cancel an interaction as you walk to it and will support future expansion for when we give you other options. Later down the line objects/items will allow you to perform certain actions without the need to go into your inventory screen such as picking up, examining, using, eating or equipping.
World Objects & Items
I’ve also been re-structuring the objects and items of the game. These were written very early on and so were in dire need of improvement. It was a pretty quick task and most importantly has allowed me to change the way I create art for objects to be more efficient. Objects are now using a Spine file for their art, this allows me to position them in the tile map editor much more easily and also create a polygonal hit box for them individually so that interactions with them has pixel perfect precision. It also means I can animate them using Spine and do some other interesting things later on… exciting!
Spine Interface Items
After I changed the way objects worked I realised using Spine for the detail and list artwork in the inventory screens and such would work really well and speed up the art creation process. So all UI screens now use shared Spine files for rendering item artwork.
Next Week
Dan’s going to be continuing his work on the enemy AI and patrolling this next week. All being well I should have the last few elements of the interface porting done this weekend so that next week I can create some more artwork for Will’s combat animations.
Until Next Time!
Alex