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5:13am - Geez gravy. I think I've been here at the McDonalds two hours already and I haven't started work yet, I just looked at Twitter (so many tweets today!) and watched some YouTube.
But I guess I've run those distractions into the ground and it's time to actually get started.
Well one thing first. I want to say I was really frustrated with yesterday. I hadn't planned to spend the entire day in bed, but I just found myself incapable of getting up again after I laid back down after writing about Rosewood Cottage. Not until after midnight, anyways. I woke up and fell asleep at least six times yesterday, but couldn't find the will to get out of bed. And worst of all is that I didn't feel depressed. I didn't feel bad for no apparent reason, or even for an obvious reason. I was just being lazy. That's really upsetting.
But, well, it happened. And now I'm here to work again.
Heh, I'll get to the work eventually, I just remembered another thing. When I finally did get up I talked with my mysterious inner circle and they said they loved the ideas I talked about for Rosewood Cottage. They suggested I make both, or one game with all those themes. Like, a quaint town of talking animals which is surrounded by magical realism, where magical forest creatures entreat your help as the inheritor of a mystic debt as the impetus for you exploring the magical domain you live in.
That is pretty darn rad, I have to say. It's a better idea than most I come up with when I'm awake, anyways. But it's more of a setting or story prompt than an actual game. So it'll have to wait for the future. Still, I want to comment on Rupert. Have you ever read the books or seen the show? He lives in a totally bizzare world and goes on some frickin' insane adventures, while living a relatively normal life in a quaint english country village of talking animals.
Alright, now I really should stop talking about that stuff and get down to work. I have a top-down character controller to make.
The main problem I've got with the basic character controller you can get from the Unity Tutorials on the Unity Website is that I want my character to stop under their own power and not just by friction. So, when the controls are released or reversed they should quickly stop and turn the other way. I'd kind of like to set up an animated sprite for this, but I don't want to go to that trouble of arting something I'm only going to use for testing.
Part of my problem is that I only like using CC0 assets for my games, even in testing, since otherwise people expect you to give them credit or worse. I don't need that kind of stress for assets I might accidentally include in my game later.
So I made my own thing that's basically eight sprites of a bouncy ball with a face in four directions. But I could make a much better character if I spent most of the day on it. Le-sigh.
I'm going to focus on the coding for now. Currently it just takes the smoothed axis data from the keyboard/gamepad/whatever and applies a force in the direction indicated multiplied by the speed value set in the inspector, and it only slows down or stops because of the Linear Drag set in the RigidBody2D Component.
I want to change it so that it adds a force required to stop the player when the controller enters the dead zone or reverses, or when the movement keys are released or reversed.
6:10am - Actually, I've gotten it to a way I like just by changing it to GetAxisRaw and using the drag and speed variables.
So, what am I going to do with this super basic top-down character controller?
6:21am - One bathroom break later I'm still not sure what to do next. I thought I had chosen a destination, but it seems I just said "Any of these things need a top-down character controller and a few similar elements" and now I've got a basic top-down character controller that doesn't really do anything...
Mmm...
I could make some basic elements just to have them I guess. Like, something to load levels from Tiled would be nice.
I could also make a simple game like my Smol Mouse Thief only this time make it a top-down 2D game with certain elements included for options, like, I could make my guy swing a sword like Link and shoot a gun like, uh, I dunno, I'm thinking something like those guys from Smash TV. What's a better example? Oh I know one, I want to make frickin' 2D Spiral Knights. Sword and gun and maybe shield and maybe dodge and maybe bomb...
Then I can add and remove elements as needed by the game I'm making.
Frankly, Spiral Knights is one of those games I'd like to remake entirely and "Do it My Way".
Huh, on a lark I went to see if three rings was hiring and apparently they're gone, replaced by Gray Havens, a group dedicated to keeping their old games alive. Also Gray Havens has no corporate info on their site so I guess they're not hiring anyways...
6:42am - It's becoming clearer and clearer that I'm going to need some art resources for my next step, and I'm going to have to make them myself. The difficult question for me is, single sprites or collections?
I could make a set of classic style sprites for each frame and pose I want, or I could draw some simple shapes and animate them into poses in Unity itself. I guess I'm going with the second one, right now it feels like the right choice. It's much easier to do, but I don't know how to do it exactly. I know Unity can do it; I've seen it done. But all the examples of it I've seen had pregenerated characters. So, this'll be an interesting learning experience for me.
7:16am - I watched a couple tutorials and it doesn't look so bad. I also tried to get a copy of Spriter but their website is messed up right now so I can't. I'll have to try again when I get home, in case it's a McDonalds problem.
For now I'll try to make my character parts in Inkscape.
7:42am - I've been looking for good advice online for drawing top down characters for video games. Most of the advice is for professional artists trying to make some professional level art, though. ^.^;;
8:26am - I'm workin' on drawin' my dude. I'm feeling a little worn out and hungry though, and I've realized just how long I've been out here at the McDonalds. So I'mma get sommat to eat for lunch and take a break.
9:11am - Back to work I guess.
10:06am - Dude is drawn! At least in one direction anyways. I've got bits I can mutate into other bits. I'm getting pretty worn out though. I've been out a long time working on all this. I think it's about time I went home and rested.
But I guess I've run those distractions into the ground and it's time to actually get started.
Well one thing first. I want to say I was really frustrated with yesterday. I hadn't planned to spend the entire day in bed, but I just found myself incapable of getting up again after I laid back down after writing about Rosewood Cottage. Not until after midnight, anyways. I woke up and fell asleep at least six times yesterday, but couldn't find the will to get out of bed. And worst of all is that I didn't feel depressed. I didn't feel bad for no apparent reason, or even for an obvious reason. I was just being lazy. That's really upsetting.
But, well, it happened. And now I'm here to work again.
Heh, I'll get to the work eventually, I just remembered another thing. When I finally did get up I talked with my mysterious inner circle and they said they loved the ideas I talked about for Rosewood Cottage. They suggested I make both, or one game with all those themes. Like, a quaint town of talking animals which is surrounded by magical realism, where magical forest creatures entreat your help as the inheritor of a mystic debt as the impetus for you exploring the magical domain you live in.
That is pretty darn rad, I have to say. It's a better idea than most I come up with when I'm awake, anyways. But it's more of a setting or story prompt than an actual game. So it'll have to wait for the future. Still, I want to comment on Rupert. Have you ever read the books or seen the show? He lives in a totally bizzare world and goes on some frickin' insane adventures, while living a relatively normal life in a quaint english country village of talking animals.
Alright, now I really should stop talking about that stuff and get down to work. I have a top-down character controller to make.
The main problem I've got with the basic character controller you can get from the Unity Tutorials on the Unity Website is that I want my character to stop under their own power and not just by friction. So, when the controls are released or reversed they should quickly stop and turn the other way. I'd kind of like to set up an animated sprite for this, but I don't want to go to that trouble of arting something I'm only going to use for testing.
Part of my problem is that I only like using CC0 assets for my games, even in testing, since otherwise people expect you to give them credit or worse. I don't need that kind of stress for assets I might accidentally include in my game later.
So I made my own thing that's basically eight sprites of a bouncy ball with a face in four directions. But I could make a much better character if I spent most of the day on it. Le-sigh.
I'm going to focus on the coding for now. Currently it just takes the smoothed axis data from the keyboard/gamepad/whatever and applies a force in the direction indicated multiplied by the speed value set in the inspector, and it only slows down or stops because of the Linear Drag set in the RigidBody2D Component.
I want to change it so that it adds a force required to stop the player when the controller enters the dead zone or reverses, or when the movement keys are released or reversed.
6:10am - Actually, I've gotten it to a way I like just by changing it to GetAxisRaw and using the drag and speed variables.
So, what am I going to do with this super basic top-down character controller?
6:21am - One bathroom break later I'm still not sure what to do next. I thought I had chosen a destination, but it seems I just said "Any of these things need a top-down character controller and a few similar elements" and now I've got a basic top-down character controller that doesn't really do anything...
Mmm...
I could make some basic elements just to have them I guess. Like, something to load levels from Tiled would be nice.
I could also make a simple game like my Smol Mouse Thief only this time make it a top-down 2D game with certain elements included for options, like, I could make my guy swing a sword like Link and shoot a gun like, uh, I dunno, I'm thinking something like those guys from Smash TV. What's a better example? Oh I know one, I want to make frickin' 2D Spiral Knights. Sword and gun and maybe shield and maybe dodge and maybe bomb...
Then I can add and remove elements as needed by the game I'm making.
Frankly, Spiral Knights is one of those games I'd like to remake entirely and "Do it My Way".
Huh, on a lark I went to see if three rings was hiring and apparently they're gone, replaced by Gray Havens, a group dedicated to keeping their old games alive. Also Gray Havens has no corporate info on their site so I guess they're not hiring anyways...
6:42am - It's becoming clearer and clearer that I'm going to need some art resources for my next step, and I'm going to have to make them myself. The difficult question for me is, single sprites or collections?
I could make a set of classic style sprites for each frame and pose I want, or I could draw some simple shapes and animate them into poses in Unity itself. I guess I'm going with the second one, right now it feels like the right choice. It's much easier to do, but I don't know how to do it exactly. I know Unity can do it; I've seen it done. But all the examples of it I've seen had pregenerated characters. So, this'll be an interesting learning experience for me.
7:16am - I watched a couple tutorials and it doesn't look so bad. I also tried to get a copy of Spriter but their website is messed up right now so I can't. I'll have to try again when I get home, in case it's a McDonalds problem.
For now I'll try to make my character parts in Inkscape.
7:42am - I've been looking for good advice online for drawing top down characters for video games. Most of the advice is for professional artists trying to make some professional level art, though. ^.^;;
8:26am - I'm workin' on drawin' my dude. I'm feeling a little worn out and hungry though, and I've realized just how long I've been out here at the McDonalds. So I'mma get sommat to eat for lunch and take a break.
9:11am - Back to work I guess.
10:06am - Dude is drawn! At least in one direction anyways. I've got bits I can mutate into other bits. I'm getting pretty worn out though. I've been out a long time working on all this. I think it's about time I went home and rested.
