It was one of those weeks where most of the time went into thinking rather than doing. Hence, there weren’t many concrete achievements. The thinking was around UI design, specifically how to quickly switch between different weapons, how to automatically use ranged weapons for distant enemies and melee weapons for nearby enemies, how to handle torches, and equipment slots. I wrote out so many different solutions. None of them were perfect; they each had pros and cons. I think I’ve chosen a solution but need to consider how the solution applies to all the possible scenarios. The solution involves an additional hotbar that lets the player quickly change melee weapons, ranged weapons, and ranged weapon ammo, and logic for when the player clicks on a cell that determines whether to use a melee or ranged weapon. It seems sound to me, but only feedback from other players will confirm whether it is intuitive and user-friendly.
I added a few new map elements, which is something I’m trying to do every week to have a wide variety by launch. As always, there were some bug fixes too.
- Witch’s Chamber. The Witch’s Chamber map element places a cauldron, a witch, and some bookcases and tables in a room. The witch is brewing something in her cauldron, which emits a blue glow. I need to give the witch some abilities. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the cauldron.
- Summoning Chamber. The Summoning Chamber map element places a summoning circle, demon, and summoner in a room. The summoner has just recently summoned a powerful demon in the summoning circle. I need to build out the demon’s abilities and the summoner’s AI (the summoner lets the demon do the fighting and avoids the player).
Also, here are a few examples of the objects added last week:
Next week I’ll implement the UI features I spent this week designing and try them out in the game. This is the next item on the critical path.
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