The best way to show the latest changes is through a video. The graphics are still placeholder but you can get an idea of what it will look like. My next step is to make it possible to move from floor to floor. Once that is in, it should feel like a real adventure rather than just a tech demo.
The aesthetics like text and menu animation are details that could have been ignored until later in the project, but it helps keep motivation up to see cool visual effects. When it’s just a slog of behind-the-scenes changes, it is easy to lose track of the excitement of the game. The visuals are also not nearly as complex as the tough stuff like AI and collision, so I can get some easy wins on those days when I just don’t feel like working.
I’ve worked on several new features over the last two weeks, including an upgrade system and a shopping menu. Nevertheless, as I build test maps I continue to find ways to tweak pathfinding so that the monsters behave intelligently, smoothly and aggressively.
One issue is the weight given to creature positions on the map. I give walls and trenches a weight of 9999 to ensure they are never a preferable part of the path. I also poll the creature positions to give creatures some weight–without this, the monsters don’t bother to move around one another, and it’s just not scary.
Fine-tuning of the weight added to squares occupied by creatures has paid off. Below are three examples of too little, too much, and just right. All three screens were taken at the same point after game start, and you can see how many more monsters can reach the player with the proper weight bias.
Weight 0 (no bias). The monsters form a line and get congested. Only 9 creatures have gotten in so far.
Monsters are shaded different colors to show their current movement mode:
Red: Full pathfinding (cannot see target)
Yellow: Uncrowding (cannot reach target and only has one direction to move)
Violet: Has line-of-sight to target and moves toward it Gauntlet-style
Blue: Adjacent to target (attacks repeatedly)
Black: Crowded, no movement options (stunned briefly)
Bias of 50. Still only 9 monsters make it into the hero's room. They take too many extra steps to avoid each other and zig-zag.Bias of 5. This is the best number I found--14 monsters have reached the hero in the same time. That's a 50% improvement.
