Game
Hensen Hopper
4 months ago

I'm going to set myself a goal to release the first beta/demo of Hensen Hopper by the end of this year. I'm going to try to use static backdrop images rather than tiles for the backgrounds in this game, which presents a bit of a challenge in one aspect...


Tile-based design worked really well for Deathly Descent because the levels themselves are large and varied. In that case, I needed the kind of modularity that comes with a tile-based workflow.

This is unnecessary for Hensen Hopper because the player moves in a very limited space, the camera focuses at one point in the scene, and I don't plan for there to be many unique maps. For this reason, it's probably optimal to use a backdrop image for the level, this will also allow me greater control over what is placed where in the scene.

The only hiccup I can foresee will be the fact I can't simply slap this backdrop into the GUI as a panel, I'll need to place it below Hensen and the enemies in the scene which means I'll ALSO need to figure out a way to scale the image according to the display resolution so, no matter what resolution and aspect ratio the player is using, the backdrop is placed optimally.

Figuring out how I'll do this might actually be worth the time I have left before I need to get ready for work. I DO have a backdrop script already that handles the backdrop change between the profile selection menu and other menus in the main menu scene. I suppose re-analyzing that script and seeing whether I could adapt that to handle backdrop scaling iff the backdrop isn't under the GUI canvas would be a good start.

To Do Before The Demo/Beta:

  • Figure out how I'll handle backdrop scaling (on it!)

  • Draw a backdrop for the main scene

  • Create button art for the main menu buttons

  • Search for a good font for the main menu buttons and in-game text

  • Add collision animation and sound effects for enemy bullets

  • Enemy and player defeat animation

  • Build interactive pause and death screen menus

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I have two things to show off!!! Firstly, the hints system is now (in enough of a sense for the beta build-out at least) functional, and, secondly, I tweaked the honey-bullet sounds a bit to try to make attacking the enemies more satisfying.

OKAY, here's it ACTUALLY finished! Quite happy with how this turned out, actually! I've drawn this sprite in 3 layers, the wings, the elytra, and the body, which will make animating this thing a lot easier when I get onto doing that.

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I added an animation and sound effect when the player collects the heal-up drop. In the lore, this flower is going to be Hensen's favorite food which is why the sound effect is a crunch like he's bitten into something.

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I DID end up making the body and elytra both 1 cycle/s and the wings 6 cycles/s. I'm working on a video of the animation itself playing in the Unity editor so you guys can see it properly. I think it turned out well!