Steve's Blog

January 28, 2021 Planning 2D Platformer Design Lucidchart Description: Visualization tool for diagramming and flowcharting. Overview I want to begin designing the 2D platformer character controller creation tool, so I looked for diagramming and flowcharting tools and turned to Lucidchart. I have used it a couple times in the past, and thought it would be a good source to go to again for this. It covers both the helpful programming diagramming as well as just general note and design organization is a clean and visual way. Design Start: Inspirations and Controller Component Breakdown Since I want to make a strong character controller creating tool, I want to gather good resources to draw from to see what different components I want to include in the tool. To start this, I began laying out all the basic components that I think can make up a 2D platforming character in a game that I am interested in covering. To support this, I have also began listing games with...

January 26, 2021 Camera 2D Platformer Design Title: Mario Style Camera Follow Tutorial By: Press Start Youtube - Tutorial Description: Camera tutorial that follows similar to Mario for 2D platformers. Overview I got to implementing this tutorial into my 2D platformer project, which let me observe some of the pros and cons of this approach the way they created it. They created a direct following camera, which used a threshold to determine if the player is some distance from the center of the camera, and if so, starts to follow them as they move. I also created my own camera controller variation which moves in more Camera Controller: Follow Camera (by Press Start) This is the camera controller created in the tutorial linked above. The camera follows an object, generally the player, smoothly as they press against the borders of the camera threshold. The object must move some significant amount of distance before the camera moves. This keeps the camera f...

January 20, 2021 Tilemap 2D Unity Beginner Programming: Unity Game Dev Courses Unity Learn Course - Introduction to Tilemaps - 2019.3 Description: Basics of using Tilemaps for 2D projects in Unity. Tilemap Basics Grid Only one in scene Creates layout for scene that Tilemaps rely on Cell Size: size of each square on Grid; applies to all Tilemaps within Grid Cell Gap: space between each square on Grid; applies to all Tilemaps within Grid Cell Layout: layout of tiles on grid; Options such as rectangle, hexagonal, isometric, isometric z as y Cell Swizzle: direction Grid is facing; options such as XYZ, XZY, etc. Tilemap There can be multiple in a scene and it has two components: Tilemap and Tilemap Renderer. Tilemap Component Controls how the Tilemap behaves and how tiles within it work. Controls how Tilemap behaves and how tiles within work Animation Frame Rate: affects spped of animated tiles in Tilemap Color: color and transparency Tile Anchor:...

January 19, 2021 Player Controller 2D Platformer Design Title: A Perfect Jump in Unity - A Complete Guide By: Press Start Youtube - Tutorial Description: More involved tutorial for jump controls for 2D platformer. Overview This tutorial goes more in depth on the jump control and mechanics for 2D platformers. This starts to involve logic for varied jump heights when holding the jump button as well as ensuring the proper number of jumps (generally a single jump, but can help lead to double jump or multi-jumps). This tutorial also involves some simple animations through script to help add life to the jump mechanic, such as squeezing during the jump.

January 14, 2021 Camera 2D Platformer Design Title: Mario Style Camera Follow Tutorial By: Press Start Youtube - Tutorial Description: Camera tutorial that follows similar to Mario for 2D platformers. Overview I want to get back to working with 2D platforming programming and came across this useful tutorial for creating a decent camera controller. Tutorials like this are always nice as the camera is a very critical element of the overall feel of a 2D platformer, but it isn't something I necessarily want to focus my time on for now, so this gives me a good starting point that I can quickly implement and tweak for my needs starting out. If it becomes more critical later in the process, I can come back to it with other methods.

January 13, 2021 Unity UI Design Title: Making UI That Looks Good In Unity using Color Palettes, Layout Components and a Blur Panel By: Game Dev Guide Youtube - Tutorial & Information Description: Making better looking UI, specifically through Unity. Overview As I close in on another end point for the Architecture AI project I am working on, I am tweaking the UI elements again. This motivated me to look a bit more into UI design again, and this video looks like a nice quick pickup to provide some significant improvements to my usual UI options. This will also cover making it look a bit nicer, which is a good compliment since I have generally focused on just getting UI elements to work well previously.

January 11, 2021 Raycast for A* Nodes Architecture AI Project Original Downward Raycast and Downfalls The raycasting system for detecting the environment to setup the base A* pathing nodes was originally using downward raycasts. These rays traveled until they hit the environment, and then set the position of the node as well as whether it is walkable or not. An extra sphere collision check around the point of contact was also conducted so as to check for obstacles right next to the node as well. This works for rather open environments, but this had a major downside for our particular needs as it failed to detect openings with in walls and primarily doors. Doors are almost always found within a wall, so the raycast system would hit the wall above the door and read as unwalkable. This would leave most doors as unwalkable areas because of the walls above and around them. Upward Raycast System Approach Method The idea of using an upward raycast was that it would help al...