Suzy Cube Update: Friday December 2, 2016

#suzycube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity 

Another light update this week with a bit about Level 3-2 which I mostly worked on last week and a bit about Level 4-2, visible above, which I started building this week.

Deep Down

As I mentioned last week, there was some extra decoration needed to Level 3-2 to help sell the underground theme. A big part of that was adding these gradient planes around the outer edges of the level.

The domain of the mole-men...

During gameplay, these surfaces match the colour of the space outside the level and end up blending the geometry into the background. This helps the space look like it's underground or dug out from the surrounding material.

Shhh...

The use of the gradient planes also allows some pick-ups, like this star here, to be hidden in spots which, at first glance, may seem like they are outside the level bounds.

Along with adding some visual touches and making small tweaks to enemy behaviours and stuff, I also completed a coins and pick-ups pass on the level. It's amazing what collectibles can do to add interest and a sense of purpose to the action.

Getting a Move on

The other level I worked on this week is Level 4-2. It's another auto-scroll level, this time involving moving platforms, mostly moving against the direction in which you are trying to go. 

I'm almost done building out the geometry, I just need to finalize the bit with the stacked platforms and build the final lead up to the goal. After this I'll need to add enemies, coins and other pick-ups to finish things off. The main challenge with this level has been getting the timing of the camera auto-scrolling and the timing of the platforms just right. It's tricky business!

That's it for this update. Like I said, another light one. Next week, I should have Level 4-2 finished pretty early and might move onto the next one or might take a detour to work on updating the level select screen which needs a functional re-work. I hope you'll pop in to find out.