The MiniLog - Pistons, Platforms, Ostentatious Obstacles
Hi everybody! Let’s take a look at how development has been coming along.
I’ve been working to expand the dungeons by adding several new obstacles. A few of which take advantage of the new lever tech.
Boulder Room: Frogger
First up, a simple obstacle with boulders you have to run past without getting rolled over. This obstacle is based on the original boulder room, as are the following two rooms we are about to cover. As we now have variants, we’re able to avoid boulder room repeats on a per level basis.
Boulder Room: Raining Boulders
Second is a connecting room which doesn’t pose any risk unless you choose to clamber over the railings and leap to your death.
Boulder Room: Nexus
Third is a larger room intended to serve as a rework of the original boulder obstacle room. This room is significantly more open, offering more places for loot to spawn, and making it easier to see oncoming boulders. The room has more door link points than any room before it. It something of a nexus point in the dungeon.
This room does need a little more decorating and lighting before I can call it complete.
Piston Platforms
This was built to be an improvement on the old TF sewer platforming section. The lever activates a random series of pistons which you have to cross quickly as they retract behind you. I feel this is a lot more forgiving than the earlier platforming section and both the variation and intractability make it feel more interesting.
Moving Platforms
Next up is a moving platform obstacle where you ride a platform while trying avoid getting scraped off by the walls and low beams. The wall and beam positions are randomized to keep the obstacle exciting across successive encounters. We also have levers to one side which let you switch the direction of the platform (in case you need to backtrack).
I’ve found these sections to be challenging but fun. There could be more like this in the future worked into larger puzzle rooms, or rooms with some elevation where the punishment for falling would simply be having to work your way back up and try again.
Bridge Room
This is another low-risk connecting room featuring a lever operated bridge above a pit of death. As the number of instant death pits has increased I've decided to start filling them with green fluid. The color should help indicate it's something you don't want to touch.
The bridge is an asset I intend to utilize in future puzzle rooms so this won’t be the last you see of it.
Liquid Moist Underwater Effects
We now have basic underwater visual effects. There isn’t a lot of underwater action in the game right now, but there are times when the player ragdolls into liquid and the camera dips beneath the surface. This new addition should improve the visuals in those cases.
Shop Room
A basic shop room framework has been set up.
For the shop system I've concluded it’d be ideal to have a means of buying and selling goods with less NPC interaction. You could buy by taking the items set on pedestals, and to sell you would dump all the goods you want to rid yourself of on a "selling hatch", pull a lever, the hatch opens to gobble up all your goods, and then some sum of money is spat back out to you. Shop Rooms could be seen as a part of the dungeons automated recycling system. It’s difficult in universe to justify having an established shop room manned by friendly NPCs in the middle of a dangerous environment like a dungeon. I also like the idea of having less time being spent in menus.
That being said, I think it'd still be great to have shop NPCs you buy from and sell to face to face, but just in the case of dungeons, maybe they could be found wandering throughout the dungeon as though they're adventurers themselves, or we could have markets and stalls posted at a dungeon entrance, or on safe floors which adventurers have completely conquered and established rest points.
Both methods can definitely be utilized but depending on the circumstance one has more of a place than the other.
Other Upgrades
The spiral staircase, spinning cog room, and several other rooms have received a little design and lighting upgrade. In some cases, more detail is being added, older rooms updated to match the newer style, and in others more and improved lighting.
Upcoming
The new build should have dropped a little sooner but I got carried away with some of these new rooms and need to spend some more time on bugfixes, lighting and clean-ups. I’ll drop the new build this Friday by the very latest ready or not, and with we’ll finally have 0.16-A publically release for all in the following week.
As for upcoming features, the subsequent build is set to establish a couple of spells. I’m also working on a carry/drop system for specific environmental objects.
This would be a fantastic mechanic. Letting the player move objects around significantly increases the range of puzzles which can be designed. We could have boxes you place on pressure plates and balls to catapult, run down tracks, or slot into holes. I’ll share more on that soon enough.
For now, it's back to development. Please be sure to let me know what you think down below. Until then~