I can now select units and give command to them, and basic unit movement and attacking behaviour is working.

Now I need to come up with some kind of rudimentary AI for the other side. Why did I have to pick another game that needs AI? Will I ever learn?

So, after some thought, the fixed-vantage FPS idea has been ditched. Side scroller it is!



After spending too much time trying to add solid boundaries for the objects in the first room, I built a tool to help. It's a glorified line-drawing program which saves the boundaries to a JSON file, loaded later by the game. It turns this:


Into this:
{"solids": [[[100.0, 240.0], [160.0, 240.0], [250.0, 330.0], [190.0, 330.0]]......

It is almost certain that I will not finish in time, but I will press on! I have got some of the game mechanics coded, so I need to starting coding the interface and AI, and then start turning it from a tech demo into an actual game.

And now, I give you: Colours!

Wow, everything is going so well. No errors, everything working exactly as it should. It is working so well that I will upload a demo! Good luck.
media.pyweek.org/dl/14/Bottle-of-Awe/Bottle-of-awesomeness.zip

Finally yesterday I could get a couple of hours to add baddies and shots, replaced all art that wasn't mine and got the background moving.


Next steps:

• collision detection,
• deflections
• shadow casting from arm
• title & ending screens
• sounds
• procedural roof and floor
• more types of baddies

What will probably left out

• boss fight
• extension and retraction of arm, which would affect the shadow casted
• make a proper animation for the arm not being cut in some angles

Still no graphics, but one can have a decent battle now:



Before I wrap up for today I should probably make sure destroyed components get removed from the action queue, though.

I thought up a simple graphical style that would suit the game (an imitation of blueprints), so I will begin working on that tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll implement the card game mechanics, so this may end up more of a toy than a game. Well, it did spawn some ideas I'd definitely like to work on past PyWeek, I'd just like to think them through rather than rush to put them in a contest entry.

48-hour compos suit me better, it seems. Either that or I just need to plan things out better in advance (and stick to those plans.)

Day 5:

• Planned out how the core gameplay will work
• Began implementing it. Atoms disappear when linked.
• Got stuck fighting with pymunk trying to implement a lowering ceiling. Will have to work it out tomorrow when I'm more awake.
• Figured out how to get it running on a mac.
• No video preview because the game is in a state of Very Broken And Not Working

Day 6 Goals:

• 2 more guns
• implement weapons
• ability to get crushed

Day 7 Goals:

• multiplayer!!

This is the thank image as it is right now, sans animation. I worked on this, the intro and some other small bits. Im very excited about the tank animation! 

Still coding away on Mechanism (tentative title). I am developing the game and the level editor in parallel with each other - adding new features incrementally. I've been fortunate enough to have several hours a day to spend working on the game. Even so, I'm scaling back on the original concept of the game in order to finish on time.

SUMMARY OF GAME CONCEPT

The game is set in the robot testing facility of FringeTech Laboratories. The player controls TCM-1138, a prototype telepresence robot designed to be used in hazardous situations. During a routine testing session, FringeTech's servers are hacked by a disgrunted employee, who unleashes a virus that infects all the maintenance robots in the testing facility - causing the robots to behave erratically.

The player must use TCM-1138 to clear the testing facility of the infected robots. This is done by placing objects in an infected robot's path to steer it toward a Universal Multi-Purpose Device, which safely teleports the robot out of the level and into a holding chamber where it can be decontaminated. Once all infected robots are removed, the exit to testing area can be opened - allowing the player to leave the area and be teleported into the next test area.

DAY ONE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Coded enough of the level editor to begin creating game levels using "3D tiles" that represent components of the level geometry - mainly floors, walls, and water surfaces. Can save and load game level data to and from text files. Spend a lot of time figuring out how to use pyglet's Batch class to speed up 3D rendering.

DAY TWO ACCOMPLISHMENTS
 
Wrote code to handle the rendering of the player character (a red robot) and a few game objects:

• Teleporters: used to instantly transport game characters and objects to remote places in the level

• Universal Multi-purpose Device: this device has two planned purposes - it can be used by the player character to "save state" (basically saves game progress - sort of like the Vitachamber in the game Bioshock) and it can be used by non-player characters to safely exit the level.

Also implemented the camera system for the game. The game is played from a third-person perspective, and the player can rotate the camera around the player character to view the action from one of four possible angles. The player can also zoom in and out and adjust the height of the camera above
the game level.

Also implemented the game title screen, which displays a 3D scene in the background as the camera rotates slowly around the player character.

DAY THREE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Implemented the logic for player character movement (including collision detection). The player character can now move around to explore the game level!

Implemented code for rendering the non-player characters (maintenance drones).

This is the second time I've used Git on a project, and I am liking it more and more.
I haven't had the good fortune to have to use the reset command yet, but I think that as I grow more and more used to the "git workflow", I'll be able to use my time more efficiently.
The ability to have an up-to-date copy of my work on any computer is really useful; and to be able to update the "main" repository from any computer, (in my case any operating system).