Improvements, boss battles, more difficult.

So, I've put in a lot of work, but I haven't made any update posts in a while.

To summarize, I've added/changed a lot of stuff, but nothing particularly amazing, although I did give Daisuke a new jumping slash. I've mostly done a lot of tweaking to the gameplay and fixed a lot of bugs. For instance I've adjusted the gravity, added music and more sound effects, fixed a LOT of glitches and bugs, given the bad guys a slightly more sophisticated AI, as well as rules and boundaries.

I have however finished building both the 1st and 2nd parts of the level, and am working on making the mini boss fight against the Naginata bandit. I'm trying not to make him too easy, without making him impossible to beat .. it really is a fine line.

What will be cool about this battle, is that it will be similar to a MegaMan boss, in that once you enter the boss battle, the background will no longer scroll and you will be able to freely explore a given area. What is also going to be cool, is that the camera will be zoomed out a bit to make Daisuke and his Opponent appear a bit smaller, in order to give more space for maneuverability.

I have also made the regular enemies significantly quicker, and thus much more difficult than before.

Here are some pics of what I've been working on, please excuse the hitboxes.

Jumping Slash:


Jumping Super:


Level 1 Area 2:


Naginata Bandit:


Fight !!


These images do not represent the final product. I have since changed many of the hitboxes, which will not be visiblae in the final version of the game, and I have and will continue to change several other elements as time goes on.

Senban Shuriken.

I haven't been able to put in too much major work on Daisuke lately, BUT I did fix some bugs, figure some things out AND I gave Daisuke a new skill.



Ah yes, would Daisuke really be a ninja if he COULDN'T throw shuriken ??

Figuring out how to get them to work properly was a bit of a pain, but now Daisuke can throw Senban Shuriken fast and furiously! They will be especially helpful since I'm beefing up the number of enemies per level!

Coding.

So, I've realized that much of my coding has been really sloppy and should have been made much more organized. At this point, I really don't want to go back and reorganize all my code, but it looks like I might have to.

Part of the problem lies in that I have certain variables which I want to remain constant throughout the span of the game (ex: points), other variables which will only need to be refreshed with each new level (ex: health) and the remaining variables would be particular only to the portion of the level in which they belong (ex: enemy variables).

So I would need at least 3 different layers of code, each spanning over various chunks of the game.

Also, I realized how terribly ugly and poorly written my hitTest coding for all my enemies has been. I really should go back and condense it, not just for the sake of organization but because the way that I currently have it written is just plain embarrassing.

I just don't feel like going back and dealing with this quite yet. Maybe once I've gotten a bit more of the art I need done, I'll go back and fix all this junk code.

I did however already go back and fix a bit of the code that I realized was just plain stupid. I managed to condense about 30 or 40 lines of code down to about 2 or 3. I don't even want to talk about how I did that because I feel really dumb for it was written before.

For some of the hitTest stuff, I think I'll have to go back and make some new hitboxes. I really realize now why making hitboxes are so important. It isn't about the structure of the box, or where it is that's important to the programmer, it's because it serves an independent purpose as an instance which makes coding SO much easier. This may however negatively effect the way some interactions occur between Daisuke and his enemies.

Gameplay Trailer.

Ok, so I made a little gameplay trailer using footage of me playing the current build. It shows off the first map and the various enemies that inhabit it. Enjoy!



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKhEZQ8BXl4

Bomb Bandit details.

"Bomb Bandit" isn't a very strong guy, which is why he doesn't attack you directly like the other bandits. Instead, Bomb Bandit will hide behind something, or someone and chuck his powerful bombs at you.

Bomb Bandit hiding behind Hammer Bandit:


Together they make one tough barricade!

Bomb Bandit, Naginata (MiniBoss) Bandit

I made another bandit character! I think he will be the last of the regular bandit baddies.

He throws bombs! So watch out!


I've also made this character who is currently called "Naginata Bandit", but I'll give him a real name later. He is going to be the first MiniBoss fight.

Adding baddies.

So, I've been adding bad guys to the level, and it has been a bit of a pain in the ass.

It isn't so much the adding of guys, it's the fact that I'm making more complex bad guys than before. When it was just the bandit swinging his sword around and chasing Daisuke like a madman it was no problem, but with the new bad guys I'm putting in, it has become a bit more difficult.

"Bow Bandit" is a character I had in one of the early builds of Daisuke, he was very simply a bow and arrow guy that just repeated the animation of shooting over and over again and didn't give a crap where Daisuke was in relation to himself.

For this new and improved Bow Bandit, I will be making him shoot arrows at Daisuke. The secret to beating this character will be to keep moving and not to stand still, otherwise he'll hit you. Also, this guy is in a tree, so it should make it a bit more interesting.

Here is a pic of the first "new and improved" Bow Bandit:


The "Spear Bandit" is pretty new. I first made him about a week ago. Originally he was just going to stand around and stab at you with a spear, serving as a type of barricade, but I figured that that was kinda lame and that this character had a lot more potential.

So the Spear Bandit has become my most complex bad guy so far. His main function is that he runs at you holding his spear, which not only hurts you, but pushes you backwards and will continue to do damage. You can jump over his spear and get in his face to slash him, but if you don't act quickly, he will use his close range attack to knock you back into spear-range. I'm also thinking about possible adding a way to deflect his spear with an attack.

Here is a pic of the Spear Bandit, complete with hit boxes:


Neither of these baddies are done yet, but both should be finished pretty soon.