Save / load support
Just finished adding a basic save game implementation. It saves the current level and all your constructions, but there are currently a few limitations:-
Try it out at the link above!
Multi-player avatar added
Now when you connect to a multi-player game, the other players see you as this guy. Like all the assets in the game so far, he is just a placeholder, not representative of the final look. Eventually I hope to have character customisation or at least a selection of characters to choose from, but this is this first step!
Alright! Here’s a playable demo of my construction game. Once it’s loaded, to play, just select Start New Server, then select one of the levels. There are hints at the bottom of the screen for the controls, and you can hit escape at any time to get your mouse cursor back.
There’s still a way to go with improving the user experience of building things. Then there’s a ton of stuff to come such as save / load, a parts inventory system, as well as a progression loop that actually leads you through the game.
Hopefully though, this is enough for me to get some useful feedback with what I have so far!
Careless torque costs lives
Most recently I’ve been working on the gear torque transfer code to improve behaviour at low rpm with high torque loads. These high torque situations arise when you build things like this fairly heavy 4WD truck or the walking creature that has to lift it’s own weight. I’m finding it’s hard to avoid some gear slip without incurring stability problems (jittery rotations), but I’ve definitely made some progress.
Other than the gear behaviour stuff, I’ve fixed a bunch of construction usability bugs (mostly around how component orientations are aligned when joining components together). I actually spend quite a lot of time just building things in the game, and seeing what issues arise, doesn’t take long before I find more problems to fix!
In fact, I have come to the conclusion that I need a significant reworking of how components snap together to really make much further progress on improving usability. Before I begin this rather daunting undertaking however, I’ll be putting together a playable demo of what I have so far.
For a bit of a break from the other stuff I’ve been doing, last week I added a propeller component – naturally I had to then use it to build a quadcopter! 🙂
The propellers aren’t configured to generate enough lift to get fully off the ground (if I increase lift too much, the copter will flip over as there’s nothing to stabilise it). Part of the problem is that all four rotate in the same direction, so the whole quadcopter counter rotates, it would be pretty easy to resolve this however. For now though, back to coding…
Overdue for an update I think! Over the last few weeks, nothing much has changed visibly, the work has been mostly under the hood. I’ve been improving the usability of the construction process, as well as fixing a few bugs that had crept in with recent changes.
Further construction usability improvements still need to be done, so that’s next up.
Here’s a demo of the construction game I’ve just started making. You can fit parts together to build machines, vehicles, aircraft, buildings or anything else. Right now it’s just a sandbox demo, but I have plans to eventually turn it into a proper game!
Next on my list to do:-
