Dueling
Dueling was improved to allow the user to select a time of day and weather conditions for their duel. I created icons for various weather states and also considered creating icons for time of day since the slider was not very intuitive. However, I wanted the user to have the flexibility to choose any time of day for their duel so I left the slider for now.
I spent a lot of time trying to create a variable sprite sheet to use with the slider which would allow the user to visually see exactly what the time of day was when moving the slider. However the application I used kept getting corrupted and my progress was wasted.
(Notice most of the frames started getting corruption/noise in them)
Weather
With the introduction of a weather option in dueling, I wanted to revisit the weather system. Previously, various weather changes was done using a timeline to manually adjust curves of humidity, cloudiness, and wetness. However, this made it difficult to change between multiple states and only allowed for smooth transitions between sunny and rainy states. Manually adjusted curves allowed for more visually appealing transitions, for example rain should start pouring before the ground’s wetness increases. However I decided to swap this system for a more simple state based system as shown below
I realized I can accomplish close to the same effects by tweaking the interpolation speed allowing me to have wetness appear at a slower rate than rainfall.
I also added a function to change between weather states based on a “momentum” system which helps transition states realistically. The progression of weather would go from sunny to cloudy, then to rainy, and finally thunderstorm.
Lighting was improved in thunderstorms to be an actual directional light, rather than a flash on the screen. I think the effect looks great, but I may also consider trying post post process effects with brightness and contrast for better performance.
Planning
I spent some time researching and planning out various maps and boss progression. I decided to add a tutorial boss to the first level to introduce the player to the concept of bosses and duels. Most bosses will be placed around chokepoints on the map, forcing the player to fight the boss. I may also add optional bosses that are not necessary for progression the player can fight to gain experience or special items.
Other Changes
Some minor UI improvements include modifying the duels and challenges tabs to only show details when an item is clicked. I also created an icon on the map for dueling locations which unlocks after you beat the enemy at the location.
Time Allocation (14 hours total)
- 8 hours – Programming
- 2 hour – Asset creation
- 1 hour – Planning
- 2 hour – Debugging and play testing
- 1 hour – Saves and file backups