Before Slope physics rework: Version: 0.20
After Slope physics rework: Version: 0.30
Current version: Version 0.35
Hey everybody! So I wanted to get more into writing stuff so I started reading some other dev blogs just to have an idea in how to make them and not just go blind typing whatever comes to my mind. I've been working on Project Sonic Alien and also doing some other behind the scenes work for some other stuff I want to launch soon, but for now let's talk about what progress was made in Sonic Alien.
Last month
So last month I remade the entirety of the slope physics code, taking this huge leap of faith was scary because last time I tried doing this I got stuck for way to long with no results, so when I decided to re-tackle this beast I was intimidated. Lucky for all of us everything went all right and now we have some fully functional custom Sonic slope physics!
Level design
So this is a first for me, the only levels I have ever made are the ones on Frog to the moon so doing these was a huge leap forward! Version 0.20 had some tiny little circuit levels planned, the game's identity was still being discovered plus I was designing stuff around the jank so I did good in never making anything out of it.
Version 0.35 opened the possibility for full Sonic stages so that's what I attempted.
Stages
Here are some pictures of the stages. The sizes are masive up to 15000 px wide! I took Sonic Advance as a reference and for the first stage Sonic 1's Green Hill zone, slowly it spiraled into it's own thing. Unfortunally my character is pretty fast and can accros the level in less than 40 seconds playing it as a pro, casual player would take around a minute to complete. Multiple paths are already built in for the majority of levels, hopefully it will spark interest for exploration and replayability.
Interactables
The first stages were made only with what I had avaiable, soon enough I knew I had to make more stuff if I wanted to make the levels interesting, so here are the interactables that were made this month.
-Falling blocks: Fall a second after you step on them
-Falling platform: A platform you can jump through and falls after a second you land on it
-Speed sensitive spring: The power of this spring is equal to your current movement speed
-Speed mutiplier booster: This booster multiplies your speed by 0.2. Don't be fooled, that is allot combined with your base speed build up!
-Ladder ball: His only purpose in life is for you to destroy him and gain extra height
-Elevator: It goes down when you land on it and goes up 5 seconds after it goes down
-Switch and gate: A switch that when destroyed opens a gate
Enemies
Enemies were not fully coded on 0.30 so he is what got done
-Motorbug equivalent: Moves in a straight line - Can move, attack, die
-Air enemy: added vertical sine movement - Can move, attack, die
-Static ground enemy: Can move and die
-Drill fish: They dash towards you when you are in their line of sight, they are also fully coded
-Munchers: Leaps in the air when the player is Muncher.X-150 - Can attack and die.
More enemies are planned in the future.
Player updates
-Ground roll can no longer be spammed
-After shadow V0.5 has been implemented
-Damage code was implemented
-Beta secret break ability was implemented
I won't be posting screenshots of all of these because it's just to much stuff but if you are interested in seeing more you can check out my Twitter for screenshots, videos and gifs!
The future
I really want to start a Patreon to support development, but I will wait until tiles, music and some other stuff are implemented. A rebrand and trailer are also on the works and a company or studio social page.
As for the game depending on how well it does I have allot of plans for expanding.
A hub world, cinematics, characters, dialogue, unlockables, collectables and... CHAO GARDEN!!!!
I'm pretty much by myself and don't know many people in the game dev world so in case you have any advice for me it would be highly appreciated! :D
That is all for today and I will see ya soon with some more updates!