Max Post for the Week 3/23/2017

I began working on level 2 this week. Currently, there is one moving platform and a platforming jump. I also cut down a lot of code on the respawn system, because it turns out Duncan and I were respawning all objects extremely inefficiently. Today, I started researching how to create a spring system for level two. We wanted to add more platforming elements besides just basic running and jumping, and springs are a good way to do this.

This is what I have for level two so far. As you can see, there is the spring. Right now it lacks functionality. The player will have to do many platforming jumps to go to the left, and then will eventually end up above the base level. The player will have to jump back and over to the ending on the platform to the right of where Pojo begins. The spring of course will not be there, it will be used to jump to the higher level.

Tasks I completed:

• Create moving platform "challenge" in level 2
• Reset moving block on death
• Change Respawn System (cut a lot of code)
• Create new message bubble for level 2
• Get Spring sprite
• Create level 2 in Piskel

Active Tasks I hope to complete:

• Research making a spring
• Create level 2 in Unity
• Implement spring system

Next week I hope to add functionality to the spring, and to complete level two completely!

Duncan Post 3/17/2017

The past 2 weeks I have worked on even more bugs, and actually fixed a bunch, almost all of the ones that are still in the game are barely even noticeable. I also made a Vinnie the Vandal boss that right now is just a sprite from a Megaman game that we will change later. It actually has several cool things about it, I added a feature to the enemy damage script that allows it to become temporarily immune, it is currently just based on a timer feature, but it could be based on other features later. There was a bug where Pojo could still paint the ground when he was dead because we were just unrendering the sprite and so when Pojo landed on spikes he would paint the ground, I took care of that by making the prefab not work when Pojo wasn't rendered. The picture below is a picture of the boss in action, its only movement right now is right or left on an assigned speed.

Another bug I fixed was the painting of the ground, it was double counting sometimes because I had it counting how much of the ground was painted on a very small pixel basis, when I made it bigger it stopped happening. I also merged with Max which took a significant portion of the class. Moving forward I will keep fixing bugs while Max makes more levels. I will also keep developing bosses and powers for the bosses in the future.

Tasks Completed

• Create boss
• Make rough drafts of boss in paint/find sprite
• Continue fixing bugs
• Fix bug for spikes 
• Fix painting ground its bugged.
• Fix percentage counter for paint prefabs
• Do sprint demo
• Log into Asana
• Merge with Max
• Continue fixing bugs

Tasks to be Completed

• Fix bug where Pojo is changing paintoffset when he jumps
• Comment code
• Give boss a health bar
• Give Pojo a health bar
• Make more boss powers

Max Post for the Week 3/17/2017

This week was partly stalled by merging. Duncan and I merged what we have been working on over the last month into one cohesive project! So Duncan's bug fixes are now implemented in my complete level one. There were a number of annoying problems that arose when merging, such as having to resize most of the backgrounds and implement layering into some sprites (what they are/are not on top of).

I also began working on level two at the end of the week. I drafted a rough level on piskel that just contains the idea of the level, not the actual platforming or enemy placement intricacies.

Here is the general idea of the level. You will spawn in the middle, and the right side will be blocked off by a fence. This means you will have to journey left to receive a key. Once you get the key, to avoid repetition, there will be a moving platform to take you above the level! There will be even more platforming challenges up here before returning back to the original spawn point. I have yet to implement a key and lock system, and I have not fleshed out the exact details of the level. That is for next week!

Tasks I completed:

• fix bullet counter when Pojo dies
• Upload Pojo to Dropbox
• Help Duncan with merge
• Fix merge errors (like resizing)
• Research Level 2
• Research lock and key system
• Draft level 2 in piskel
• Blog post

Active Tasks I hope to complete:

• Create level 2 in Piskel
• Create level 2 in Unity
• Implement lock and key system

I will most likely add a lot of subtasks here, as making the level will not be easy.

Duncan Post 3/3/2017

This week I added a lot of features to Pojo and continued my work on fixing his many bugs. The wall jumping has been completely fixed as far as I can tell and has not occurred again in any of my test runs. I had to slightly change the ground detection system and added a distToGround variable that would not let him jump if it was greater than 0, the distance being based on how much y distance the sprite had from the last prefab it had contacted. After all the work on bugs I took a break by beginning to make ideas for bosses, the current name ideas are: Sully the Scraper, Vinnie the Vandal, Darryl the Vacuum, Abdul the Paintbrush, and Rob the Builder all of whom have unique powers. I am going to begin work on Darryl the Vacuum by giving him a sprite and developing some powers for him. We are also going to change Pojo's blood prefab.

Max and I have replaced the old Pojo sprite with a simple square because the old sprite and its polygon collider were causing a lot of problems and we were not even going to end up using it in the final version. I created a bullet randomizer that decides to either make a + or - with a 50-50 then uses the chosen symbol to either subtract or add to the original place where it shoots from - the center of Pojo. Moving forward Max and I intend to merge next week sometime and I will make a boss and implement it into the game.

Tasks Completed

• Create boss ideas
• Fix other numerous bugs that are not game breaking
• Change blood prefab
• Begin implementing different things bosses can do that are special
• Change the way the blood shoots

Tasks to be Completed

• Create boss
• Make rough drafts of boss in paint/find sprite
• Continue fixing bugs

Duncan Post 2/23/2017

I continued work on fixing bugs this week, the primary one being that Pojo can essentially wall jump without that even being intended. I've been through numerous attempts to fix it and I finally got it working although there are still problems with jumping and movement that can be attributed to the sprite for Pojo. Since we are going to use a different sprite eventually I am going to just leave those alone for now even though some of them may continue with a new sprite.

I created a new way for Pojo to calculate the paint as well. I might just rework the entire paint system when we get a new sprite because it is kind of buggy with the current system and doesn't paint based off several characteristics of the ground. There are numerous other bugs that I need to fix right now. The wall jumping has been semi fixed too, it still happens for some reason on certain kinds of walls on the Ground prefab but not others.

Tasks Completed

• Fix wall jumping Pojo
• Fix other numerous bugs that are not game breaking
• Make the bounds for Pojo's death bigger

Tasks to be Completed

• Create bosses?
• Fix bullet counter

Max Post for the Week 3/3/2017

I got a lot done on level one this week! First I timed classic platformer games and compared how long it takes to finish the first level. Length wise our first level is comparable to Mario. I also changed how Pojo can move on the app by removing the arrow keys. Now Pojo moves by touching the left/right side of the screen. This was difficult because I had to divide the screen and detect touches on non-GUI objects. There were a lot of little things that had to be fixed with this, such as not counting GUI objects as screen taps. I also removed the sprite we have been using. This is because there were a lot of bugs that came it and there was no point in fixing them, because its not the final sprite.

As you can see there are no arrows! The buttons look really big, but its so its easier to tap them on the screen on a phone. The reason we eliminated the arrows is because they were awkward to tap on the phone. We moved the buttons to the middle to make it easier to play.

I also added some gameplay updates to make the first level less linear and more interesting. This represents a part of the level where Pojo has to take a leap of faith to make it on to the platform.

Tasks I completed:

• Adjust sign size to look better
• Time Mario Level One and Pojo Level One; compare
• Add more crystals by changing level slightly so its not so linear
• Load up Pojo on the phone and test if it works
• Create Level 1
• Replace Pojo with Red Square for now
• Fix paint offset for square sprite
• Make it so Pojo moves by touching the screen, not through buttons
• Get rid of arrow keys, move jump and shoot to middle of screen
• Pressing button does not count as screen tap
• Make buttons larger
• Fix bug where pojo runs left/right after dying without input
• Fix bug where Pojo infinitely goes in one direction if held down when dies
• Add some game updates to level one

Next week I hope to improve upon the left/right tapping system by detecting multiple touches so Pojo will begin moving the other direction. For example, if two fingers are being held down and one is let go, I want Pojo to go to the side that is still held down. Right now he will just stop. I also hope to fix some jumping mechanics so Pojo maintains momentum in air. This makes the game more fluid on the phone.

Active Tasks I Hope to Complete:

• Move left/right when one finger is let go and the other stays held on
• Maintain jump momentum when button is let go
• Put Duncan fixes into my game (surrounding the old sprite, so maybe no necessary now)
• Look into changing jump height with hold time