Devlog - Basic Level Blocking

Devlog - Basic Level Blocking 

Hello again. Welcome to the second devlog for my project game ‘Get that Human’! This week I created the game map/playable area as well as mapped out key points such as: the player spawn location, the power spawn locations, the enemy spawn locations, and the wrap around/warp tunnels. 

Creation Process

Game Map

Get that Human!’s game map takes heavy inspiration from the game Pacman as stated in my initial concept document. The map is maze-like with many small turns and paths for navigating the playable area. To create the map I utilised tile mapping, and for now, stuck to plain white squares with proper sprites being added at a later date. I made the map symmetrical along the X axis for convenience and made sure the map feeled fair, with no undesirable areas in which the player gets stuck, is too far from any objectives, or is boring. In creating the map I had to adjust the tile map grid size to account for the size of the player, how big I plan for the playable area to be, and ease of modification as a smaller grid (and in turn walls) can make the game feel smaller and require too much movement, where as a larger grid can slow down the pace of the game, and make the game feel chunky. 

-Get that Human! Map	-Pacman Game Series Maps

Game Camera

This week I implemented a virtual camera using cinemachine that is set to follow the player. This allows the user to actually explore and move freely around the playable area without losing sight of the player game object. In doing this I had to experiment with how big the camera will actually be. If it is too small, the flow of the game will be disrupted as the user will find movement and game objectives difficult. If the camera is too small, it may be too easy for the user to complete game objectives, but could also possibly make it challenging to keep track of where the player is on the screen if it appears too small. In the end I hope to have settled on a good size but will likely require further testing once enemies and proper gameplay is implemented at a later date.

 

Key Locations

For the players spawn I chose the centre of the map. I did this in hopes of creating a fair chance every playthrough right from the start, as well as allowing players to choose freely where they wish to go in the map and how they will play. 

For human (enemy) spawn locations I tried to evenly space them out over the map. This way it isn’t too difficult nor too easy for the player to gain ‘time’ by ‘eating’ them (don’t forget you are a zombie!). Once the enemies are fully implemented I aim to modify their spawners to deactivate if the player is within a certain radius. This way players can’t sit and ‘farm’ enemies as soon as they spawn. 

For the powerups I positioned them close to enemies but in fewer quantities. This way the player isn’t constantly ‘powered up’ and beating the game, but can still actually use the powerups to eat nearby enemies instead of running around until the effect wears off. 

Finally there are two wrap around/warp tunnels placed on the left and right side of the map. These allow both the player and enemies to instantly travel to the other side of the map through them. I took inspiration for this idea from Pacman as I believe it provides an interesting movement mechanic and strategy to the game. 

Key Locations  RED - Enemy Spawn Locations GREEN - Powerup Spawn Locations BLUE - Player Spawn PINK - Wrap Around/Warp Tunnels

Testing and Issues

Due to the simplicity of the first game update seen last week, there was not much feedback able to be given. I did however run into some game issues. Firstly, while moving around the map I noticed that the player sprite is slightly clipping on top of the game map when pushed up against it. I will need to figure out whether it is the tilemap object or the player object that contains this discrepancy and adjust the collider size to properly match the object. Secondly, an error has occurred with my bullet projectiles. When fired they are not timing out anymore but instead move around the map indefinitely. On top of this some bullets are occasionally clipping through the tile map objects instead of colliding with them. To fix this I plan to implement a destroy on collision mechanic so that when the projectile comes into contact with the map walls it is destroyed.

References

• https://github.com/filippovitale/pacman

Pacman Game Series Maps

Accessed 17/9/23 - Used as reference and inspiration for game map