Basic Level Blocking

Basic Level Blocking - screenshots.

Basic Level Blocking

This week I started out by searching for a program to use where I could manually paint some backgrounds for the cave environment. I downloaded a program called GIMP, GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP Development Team, 2024). I then created some ground and wall tiles for the cave environment. I found the program very useful and easy to use for manually creating the tiles I needed on one sprite-sheet, which could then be spliced within Unity using the Sprite Editor. 

I set the sprite mode to Multiple and changed the Filter Mode to Point (no filter). I then created a Tilemap and applied a Rigidbody 2D, Tilemap Collider 2D, and Composite Collider 2D to set it up so that the colliders only apply to the walls and not the floor tiles. Which was achieved by manually setting the floor tiles as Collider Type None, as I had learnt in previous course tutorials. I set the Tilemap to the Tile Pallette and started building the cave environment level.

So far, I've created one large level of the cave environment, I plan to add more to the environments such as rocks, stalagmites, water obstacles - rivers, lava etc. Enemies should start in locations that I set, which have now been planned for and marked out temporarily in the red circles within the screenshots above and below. The explorers you must find should be able to randomly spawn in the locations now temporarily marked by a yellow square in the screenshots above and below. The Explorers starting position or spawn location should change each time the game reset or played, ensuring you search around the cave and the explorers aren't in the same position each game.

Basic Level Blocking - Player, Enemy, planned spawn location marker example - screenshots.

The plan with the level is to flood the cave with water slowly when the game starts, which is a work in progress and need to research more methods of how to achieve this in the best way.

Feedback From Other Students

I received feedback on the playability and look of the game level. Just that the level looks cool, and I received a screenshot indicating that some of the cave dead end areas were too small for the player to get through. So, I have adjusted the environment to ensure there are no areas like that where the player can't get through. I tested that for the Player character and also tested it with a sourced sprite-sheet the Top-Down Boss Enemy (10kStudios, 2024). 

References List

 10kStudios, 2024, Top-Down Boss Enemy, https://10kstudios.itch.io/top-down-boss-enemy-animated

GIMP Development Team, 2024, GIMP, GNU Image Manipulation Program, https://www.gimp.org/