Dev Day Episode 60: pitch black out, it's midnight.

it's the day before, or i guess technically the day i go back to school.

i didn't get as much work done on my game as i thought i would, which is as dissapointing to me as anyone else.

i did do a couple of things however.

i found and fixed a glitch with the particles.

the glitch being that after death, another particle emitter would spawn, and the effect would increase.

it didn't look very good.

i also think justin was having a similar problem with his particles.

this was solved by writing this code into the destroy: event.

///refreshed room cleanup
part_system_clear(part_light_sys);
part_type_destroy(part_light);
part_emitter_destroy(part_light_sys, part_light_emit);
part_system_destroy(part_light_sys);

part_system_clear(part1_sys);
part_type_destroy(part1); 
part_emitter_destroy(part1_sys, part1_emit);
part_system_destroy(part1_sys); 

this clears everything.

i attempted to pass of a prototype to some testers via a burnt disk, however they report that the disk isn't working.

i'm not in immediate contact to them so i don't have specifics.

so i'll send them a link to download the game via dropbox, through my third party contact.

other than that i messed around with the grappling hooks speed settings.

i might have to tinker around with its collision.

this grappling hook is proving to be a real pain.

seriously considering just cutting it out of the game.

but it's a bit late to do that.

...

i also did some research, by that i mean i played a lot of dark souls, and my that i mean i looked at the gameplay and analyzed the level design.

i realize dark souls shares so much in common with a metroidvania game, especially in terms of level design.

one of the most noticeable tricks is that it favors short cuts as opposed to a strictly checkpoint based level design.

i'll want to use this to my advantage as i'm designing future levels.

but as i focus on level 1, i need to think of how the level can teach new players.

level 1 should be linear and teach basic movement, as well as combat, and introduce the theme of the story in about 5 minutes.

and then art assets will be made.

and then enemies will be made.

and then combat will be made.

these three tasks may take 2 weeks at least.

it is my goal to have them done before this semester ends.