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Oracle’s Eye Development: March Goals

In mid-December, I wrote Oracle’s Eye Development: Gameplay Tweaks, Planning Next Steps. I will summarize the list of next steps below:

  • The Player should not be able to occupy the same space as a Ball.
  • Graphics: the quality of the images and the animations need to be improved greatly.
  • Sound: need to add music and sound effects
  • Levels: Rooms should be able to have different dimensions. The Player should be able to choose levels from a menu, and finishing one level should allow him/her to continue to the next one.

I’ve accomplished the first item. The Ball and the Player feel more solid since they don’t overlap each other.

I have managed to implement level loading using TinyXml. The player can’t choose levels yet. The level to load is hardcoded currently, which means that if I want to test different levels, I will need to recompile each time.

1.5 out of 4 ain’t bad, right?

Since I wrote that original article, I’ve added a few more items to the list:

  • Cross-platform builds: I want to have a Gnu/Linux and Win32 binary built from the same source.
  • Installers: I want Gnu/Linux and Win32 installers.
  • Reintroduce banked walls: otherwise, having to reset the level if the Ball gets into a corner would be annoying.

I want to be able to compile and build packages to provide people a way to try the game. It’s hard to get feedback when the only people who can immediately check out my progress are Gnu/Linux users who don’t mind unpacking a tar.gz file and finding the binary. I’ve improved the Makefile so that it is easier to compile the program, but I’d like to be able to provide an installer. I think providing RPMs and .deb files would be a good start. As for Win32, I’m sure there is some installer setup that I can get scripted to run on my Gnu/Linux system. I just need to find one.

I had eliminated extra items like banked walls and pipes because I thought doing so would help me to focus on making the game. They became nice-to-haves instead of necessary components of my game. Now that I’ve had a chance to play the game, I can see that certain items are going to be a bit more necessary than I originally thought. It is easy to kick the Ball into a corner. The only way to continue is to restart the level. I’d prefer for it to be impossible for the Player to kick the Ball into a dead-end.

I’d be optimistic about finishing the game by the end of March, but I have a feeling that I will push back the date again. We’ll see.

2 replies on “Oracle’s Eye Development: March Goals”

Hey if you end up having a windows version, and need someone to build levels, I can do a few. I ddi about 90% of the levels on a game called Grek’s Puzzle Challenge (which the creator couldn’t bother to stick with and polish so it gets to a real selling state). http://www.dreamturtle.co.nz is the place for the demo.

Looks like you’re making good progress, keep it up.

Keith

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