Week 17 - The mechanics continue!

Welcome back to another Juicy Beetle DevBlog! This week I worked heavily on the timing and trap mechanic functionality, as well as a rough draft of the intro for the player when they first enter the arena. 
Now, there isn't really much to show this week since it is a lot more involved with the programming side, but I do have a snippet of what the starting animations look like when the character enters the arena, as well as some trap sequences. I'm pretty happy with everything so far. For the intro, I'll probably add a few more icons to show the player what to do to start playing (similar to 'Flappy Bird'). After that, I'll probably implement a skip-able countdown as well for the player to prepare themselves a little more (see how we go).
The struggles I had this week was less about the animations for the player, and more about the logic behind the traps. When setting up the algorithms for the traps, I had to think of a few 'hidden' things. Firstly, will the traps overlap if the same trap sequence triggers twice? If so, how will that be portrayed? What about the spacing involved with the traps? Does the character have enough room to squeeze through the traps if they take up the screen?... Yea, so A few things I had to nut out first before plowing ahead, but I've managed to get through majority of these obstacles which is  good. I guess it will come down to testing as well, making sure that the game is still 'fun' and 'feels good' to player.  Another big hurdle I'm scared to test is the screen res from device to device. I know I planned this well in advanced, but I always have my doubts. I think there might be a few issues with the wall traps not matching the background's wall, but again, that will come a little later in development.

I've still yet to fix the bottom part of the arena so the player doesn't obstruct their view while playing, but that will also come a little later (possibly next week). I'm still going off my plan from last week (with a few tweaks here and there), so still on track which I'm happy about. But, besides that, I think that about sums it up.

Until next week,

​Thanks for reading!