Devlog 1

This first devlog will cover player movement.

The first thing that was done was creating the 3 characters that will have their own movement system. They were colour coded and their size was changed in order to tell them apart.

A basic level layout was created in order to test their jumping abilities as well as their size. 

A box collider 2d was given to each platform in order for them to have a hitbox (so they can be stood on by the players). Each character was given a rigid body 2d component so they could have simulated gravity. The Z rotation was set to freeze in order for them to not rotate unnecessarily and the collision detection set to continuous. They were also given box collider 2d, and had their hitbox adjusted to fit them perfectly (so the edges of the hitbox touched the edges of the character) although this is likely to change when graphics are implemented. 

Next was to make the actual movement. A custom script was written where if the right button was pressed, the rigid body's x linear motion would increase to a custom value (basically moving the character to the right) and if the left button was pressed it would decrease (making the character move left). However, if neither left or right buttons are pressed the linear motion would be set to 0. Although this might not look natural, as the characters are instantly stopping, but it feels better to play as, as it gives more control to the player. When the jump button is pressed, the y linear motion is increased to a custom value, allowing the character to jump. However, in order to prevent possible bugs, some parameters were set in place. The 'jump' action would only happen if the character is on the floor, the 'move right' action would not occur if there is a wall to the right, and the 'move left' action wouldn't happen if there's a wall to the left. This helps prevent the character from jumping forever, and clipping into the walls. 

The next thing to do was to make the movement fell correct and give each character their own movement. The red character should be the most fun to control, it should jump the highest and move the fastest. So after messing around with the values, setting the gravity scale to 4, the jumping power to 18 and speed to 8. The gravity was set to 4, as this felt best when falling. Although the values 18 and 8 might not mean much at first it is actually quite fast compared to the other characters. 

For the purple character, the movement should feel a little slow and sluggish, as this character shouldn't be as useful as the red character. So after messing around with the values, (gravity was set to 4) jump power was set to 12 and speed to 4. A jump power of 12 wasn't completely useless, or frustrating to control but it definitely feels worse than the red character. A speed of 4 is exactly half of the red character, making this character feel slower. 

The last character should not be able to jump at all, but can move around quickly. So therefore, the white characters jump was set to 0 and speed to 6 - as any faster felt unnatural or too hard to control (gravity was also set to 4). This character is quite small compared to the other 2, so although it can't jump it should be able to fit into spaces the other 2 can't.

Feedback:

No feedback was given about the movement directly, only that it felt fun to play, so no changes were made. As for the level layout, it isn't permanent, as it's more a testing ground rather than an actual level so no changes were made there either.

Other additions:

After feedback was given, more progress was made towards the game before the end of the week. The initial level layout was extended in order to test a new feature; mist. Mist will essentially be an area with water floating in the air. Movement won't change in this area, however, the red and white characters will be destroyed upon entering it. Also a spike was added, when any character touches it, that character will be destroyed. At the moment, the mist is a box with box collider 2d, and it is set to trigger. It was also given the tag 'Water' which is important. A custom script was given to the red and white characters where, if they touch a trigger with the tag 'water' they will be destroyed. However, the script only prints the word 'dead' for now. For the spike, something similar was created. The spike itself has polygon collider 2d and is set to trigger. The spike also has the tag 'Deadly'. This is different to water because the purple character might come across something with the tag water and interact with it differently to the other 2 characters. A new custom script was made, similar to the water one, where if a character touches a trigger with the tag deadly, they will be destroyed (though for now just prints the word 'dead').

That was all that was worked on this week, next week should have camera movement, as well as a proper respawning system as well as anything else I get time for.