Alright, this update is a big one for me. Up until now, the aspects and mechanics I've been hooking up are pretty standard to platforming games - character animation cycles, pickups, sound effects, pause menu, etc. - but this update marks the first time I've been working on implementing a non-standard mechanic that's specific to this game. At this point it's not super pretty, and not entirely completed, but it's functional enough to be used in-game:
So, here's what's happening in the video above:
- Design-wise, the idea is that a few of the stars the main character picks up will give her special abilities. In this video, you're seeing the character use a star that gives her the ability to create a platform.
- When the player presses the "X" button on their gamepad, the world freezes. An overlay appears on the screen, with a highlighted radius that centers on the character.
- Ideally, when this is completely implemented, I want the player to be able to place the platform anywhere within that radius (as long as it's not overlapping other objects in the world) while they're holding the "X" button, but until I figure out how to get that working I'm simply spawning the platform beneath the character.
- The character changes to a "throwing" pose (again, the idea is that she's throwing a star out, and the star is creating the platform). The character's throwing pose changes depending on if the character is currently on the ground, jumping, or falling.
- When the player releases the "X" button on their gamepad, the overlay disappears, the world is unfrozen, and there is now a platform in the world that the character can stand on. The platform is flashing between those colors because I was testing to see if I could create and use a flipbook animation on the platform, so I made an animation with obvious transitions between frames so I could easily tell if it was working or not. It works! So now I need to make one that isn't ugly.
- The player is only allowed to create one platform at a time (after all, it's a specific star you're throwing out that is creating the platform). So if the player presses the "X" button again, the platform is removed from the world (and ideally I want to show the star returning to the player to visually represent what is happening). Now that "the star has returned to the character", the player is able to use the platform ability again.
Again, I know it's nothing super amazing, but for me it's definitely a small breakthrough. This is my first time where I needed to use the knowledge I've acquired of Blueprint scripting to think outside the box and create something in which there weren't already tutorials specifically relating to this mechanic existing on the internet. As janky as it is, I'm happy with it.
Now to try and make it better!