Continuous Improvement!

Sorry I have not posted in a few weeks. I just graduated college and I have been moving all of my stuff and getting used to my new life! Thanks for reading my blog though!

First, thank you to everyone that took the time to try out my first game ever, Bomb Catcher. After a few hiccups I got all the links sorted out and multiple people were able to try it. I got a ton of feedback and I welcomed it all. The comments ranged from someone complaining that I did not provide a Linux release to comments saying they could not stop playing! I loved it all and I am extremely happy to see people playing it. After hearing all the feedback I created a list of the topics people suggested I work on.

Topics to Work On:
-Minecart moves too slow
-Unlimited speed boost should have a limit
-Final score did not report properly after first play through
-Need a menu where users can learn how to play the game
-Add more features to the game

For this post I am going to talk about each point. Some points may be longer than others!

Minecart moves too slow!

I agree! I should have fined tuned the cart movement! I got excited when I got the game running how I wanted so I decided to release it. So, this was the first thing I fixed after reading everyone's comments. It was a quick fix and it immediately made them game more fair at the beginning. The only problem that came up after increasing the speed was, why even have an unlimited speed boost (discussed later). Recap, I increased cart speed so the game is more fair!

Unlimited speed boost, why!?!

My original plan was to have a speed boost bar with limited use, but I decided after playing the game for a bit  that I would not include it. The reason I decided to leave it out was because I had played the game so much I knew how the controls worked. I know how to play the game, I know all the secrets to the game! I know I got used to the controls while testing that I thought they would be good for everyone and I was wrong. As of now, I have not finished working on the speed bar(that is what I am calling it). The bar is visible and (as of now) is on the right side of the game screen. It is a bar that will deplete over time when using the speed boost. It will also recharge after a bit of time. I think adding this feature along with increasing the speed of the cart will allow more strategic gameplay.

Why won't my Final Score update?

This is probably the first problem I noticed and other noticed as well. The final score would not update after your first death. I could not have that happen! I wanted people to compete for higher scores! I wanted to fix that pretty quickly but I was not sure how to fix it. Reading through all my code I realized I just needed to destroy the game object that held the final score information after the game restarted. I read online using the Unity Reference guides on how to do this. It was very simple and after a couple minutes of some trial and error I got it to work properly. To further describe the problem, I save the final score data in an invisible gameobject that does not get destroyed when a new level loads. The new level is the Game Over screen. What I did was added a line of code that destroyed the invisible gameobject when the player decided to play another game. This allowed the gameobject to be recreated when a new game started and the new final score to be preserved.

How do I play?

I hear you! I know I mentioned it in the post but what happens if people don't read it or if they pass the game onto others? This week I added a Main Menu and an Instructions Menu. Both extremely simple and too the point. As mentioned before I am not great at art and I do not try to act like I am. So I put together a plain(ish) menu but it gets the job done!

Add more features, please!

Adding features is not really a complaint about the game just a request. But I agree with doing it. I think adding features is a great way for me to practice building better games. One feature I have started to add is a life token. It allows the player to gain a life. They spawn randomly and only last a certain amount of time. If the player does not retrieve the token then the player will have to wait for another token to spawn. I have played with the idea of more than one token but I am not sure what I will be doing.

-Dan

Finished my first game!

Hey all! I finally got a few hours to work on Bomb Catcher and I finished it. Well, I think I might add to it but the first version is done. I think it turned out well and I have had fun playing it. Here is the link to my public Dropbox with the folder inside: Bomb Catcher

Controls:
There are three controls.
Left arrow(or "a" key) = moves cart left
Right arrow(or "d" key) = moves cart right
Space bar = speeds up cart

I hope you guys and gals try it out. Any criticism is great and I can post all the code if anyone is interested.
**I have notice on some computers the lighting does not work or seems not to work. Does anyone know why this could be? Thanks

Example of the lighting problem.

Now for some information and problems I ran into finishing up the game, there were a few. First, I had trouble importing the cart I made to Unity. Secondly, I had to learn how to save data in one scene and then use it in another. Lastly, I had trouble using data from other scripts.

Importing My Model
I created my cart model in Google Sketchup. Now, I understand this is not the best program to use to model but when I was in High School I used to make things in it all the time so I knew how to use the program. I wanted to get out my first game soon so I did not want to take the time to learn how to use another 3D drawing program. I finished the model and tried to export it and I ran into a problem doing that. Unity likes FBX files so I had to find a converter that converts Sketchup files to FBX files. I used one from Autodesk(I do not remember exactly). It worked and I got my model into Unity. But when I attached my movement script to the object it was not moving how I wanted. I realized the model's axis were different then Unity. I looked online to find a solution and ended up using a empty GameObject and made it the parent to my model. I attached the movement script to the GameObject and my problem was fixed.

Accessing Variables from other Scripts
I have a couple if-statements that I had checking certain variables to trigger events. For example, i was monitoring the number of lives the player has. To do this I needed to access the variable from another script. I had no idea how to do this. Well I knew I could use static variables but I have read to try to avoid those. So I went to the Unity3D subreddit and I asked. I had some answers within a few minutes. I was sent to a website called Unity Gems. They have tons of tips for beginners and answers to common questions. Reading through I found the solution to my problem.

Saving Data From Scene to Scene
This problem came about when I tried to show the players score after they died. I change scenes when the player loses all 10 lives. So I created another empty GameObject and I added it to the scene. Looking through the Unity Script references I found a command that tells the object to not be destroyed. So using the information I learned from accessing data from other scripts, I save the player's score when they die. I do not destroy the object. When the new scene loads I access the script and display the final score to the player. It took me sometime to finally get it to work but I learned a lot in the process.

Here are the links to my reddit post and the Unity Gems website
My reddit post
Unity Gems

-Dan