Description
When pulling a block that is supposed to push the character off the ground, the character edges at the extreme corner of the ground block.

Replication of Bug

1. Stand on an elevated block
2. Pull a block that should push the character off the block

Produces an effect like this:

Current Behaviour

Plugins subscribe to block events and have no way of communicating with each other.

Proposing

An event manager for each block. Block events are raised to this event manager, in which the plugins will subscribe for them. At the same time, plugins can raise their own events, in the event that they wish for other plugins to listen to them. This is useful in #45 where fragile may want to listen for a move event from moveable and not gravity.

We can add some background elements.

A good start would be adding a sky box.

We could potentially build scenery with some blocks using existing textures. (No scripts on the blocks please :)).

As discussed, the current Orthographic camera setup causes blocks to be clipped.

Currently @jo-lyn has added highlighted textures for the different blocks. We need a way to set the highlighted texture in the inspector for the faces and pragmatically change the highlighting on hover/click

Put on hold due to #40

Currently designing the block behavior. Would like to compile what kind of blocks we are intending to have.

• Stone
  • can't be moved
• Dirt
  • can be displaced by 1 tile
• Sand
  • can be displaced by 1 tile
  • affected by gravity
• Gravel
  • can be displaced by 1 tile
  • breaks after player steps and leaves

Model character to include an idle animation(s).

Create a texture to reflect a ruin block. Texture will be a variation for stone block type.

• Foliage
• Stalactites
• Environmental Objects (rocks, trees, etc.)
• Steps/Stairs/Slopes
• Rounded edges of Blocks

We should remove one.

As per discussion in #43, this is more suitable for 3rd person view.

Collation of feedback from play testing during GDG session on 15 March 2018.

Here we will discuss what we can raise to potential issues. If you are unsure what these feedback mean, let me know.

Feedback

Camera

• axis of motion feels weird (some feel that it is flipped)
• many suggested a 3rd person camera (fortnite style), and block grab is for highlighted blocks in front of you
• most if not all people were for perspective
  • related #71
• camera motion (right click) is too sensitive

Character

• jump to grab is hard to perform
• click is pixel hunty (meaning that its hard to click on blocks, need to make clicking easier)
• some suggested hold down button for a "to-grab" motion (this can be like a open arms pose) then release to actually grab
  • this could help with the jump grab
• character motion/jump feels floaty
• character motion feels janky
  • unable to explain clearly but mentioned in general that it doesn't feel good enough
• some suggested making our own cursor so that its more obvious that cursor is used in the game
• difficult to judge distances, esp. 2nd jump in tutorial stage

AI

i talked to them about our two ai options, the sleeping block, and the random creeper

• most people feel the sleeping block is a good idea
• random creeper was suggested also (without me prompting)

Sand block

• should not be top displace-able
• the gravity looks cool

Invisible blocks

• many felt that it looked good (we should work on it)

Other Notes

• we can have all levels in one scene, and chunk the levels to load (optimization)
• look into composite colliders
• art style is good overall
• there's a shortcut in the tutorial level

Motivation

Although @teclu and I have discussed that we will have invisible walls to prevent the player from dying, the player may desire to return to a certain checkpoint where the puzzle has been untouched. This brings up the question on whether to only allow the player to respawn at the start or at selected points in the stage. Either way, I suggest we have this feature to allow for resetting the stage when resuming the game or on request.

Deliverables

• Tech: A checkpoint that will gracefully bring the player back from her current location upon request.

• Design: Method of returning should fit with story. Future stage designs should permit a planned entry to a location for checkpoint saving. Alternatively, we could have a checkpoint trigger.

• Art: An animation that facilitates the graceful movement. It could range from a simple graphic that warps the player or something cooler like an animal swooping down to collect her back.

http://gph.to/2G8crEL

Current implementation of cube is using 6 quads and this results in high draw count.
Doing a comparison with 192 cubes.

Current block:

Cubes:

As shown there is a significant fps increase due to reduce in draw count, if we were to go with these cubes. We need to be able to change how block face hovering and clicking will work.

Due to changes in the design, we must now restrict which blocks can be moved based on the player's location. As title mentions, we could use a radius of sorts.

When a player approaches a signboard, a message would show up. This would be helpful for parts where they do not know what to do, or where to go.

Is this important? :\

Currently if a block is moved twice in the same direction, it does not maintain the acceleration, resulting in blocks falling in constant velocity. Should implement a way to apply acceleration to a moving block when it it is moved again the frame after it has stopped moving.

Since we have particle effects for fragile blocks, we could consider letting gravel blocks take the texture of surrounding blocks so it blends well with the environment. The player will realise they are standing on a "gravel" block once they see the particles.

Press 1 and 2, in quick succession, blocks will merge.

Motivation

Originally we had the camera to had rotate between four preset angles, but upon playtesting the game during stage design, I realised it could be quite frustrating to leave the camera at the previous view once I had finished the block movements I wanted to make in that specific view. Also, the game did look quite strange at certain angles.

* Blue marks a block but it cannot be seen accurately in this view.

Suggestions

1. We can set a reset camera option to bring it back to the standard initialisation view.

2. We can bring back the camera rotate about the four preset angles; we can even use this to change lighting and effects based on these preset positions to make sure shadows don't look weird in certain views. In addition, we keep our current implementation of tilt and rotate but the camera will automatically snap back to the previous preset angle after releasing the RMB.

Its not an important feature so its not very urgent. Also, the latter sounds like a lot of additional work for a minor enhancement.

Any thoughts? @Rinder5 @teclu @jo-lyn

Currently the character is only able to walk at a constant speed. This would slightly limit the platforming element(s) where players have to make a far jump across. Also, players may get tired of the walking speed (and want to speed things up, pun intended). Perhaps give the player a way to activate (or toggle) running, like holding the "shift" key.

Model character to have an animation for the displacement move. Displacement animation should follow the act of pulling, pushing, raising and depressing something.

When player is moves a move able, fragile block, the fragile block script may accidentally destroy the player.

Continuation to #37.

Some GDG members felt that the highlights for pull-able blocks were not obvious enough. Perhaps we could use particle effects to let players know that they can pull a block.

Implement a gravel block that:

• is displace-able
• does not have gravity
• self-destructs (crumbles) upon being stepped on

Model character to have a movement animation.

Debug.Log results in drop in frame rate. We should remove them when merging. Also need one PR to remove all current Debug statements, or at the very least comment them out.

Design and create a tutorial stage. While playing the tutorial, the player should:

• intuitively know what to do next
• be introduced to the controls to the game
• be introduced to the game mechanics, including displace
• be introduced to some types of blocks; namely dirt, stone, sand and gravel
• know about deaths and resetting the game