Day 5 Progress (Cat vs Mice)

mespringfield on 2009/05/01 06:00 of GNAG's Not A Game

Didn't get to work on the game as much as I had hoped today, but I still managed to make some good progress. Here's what I've accomplished since the last update:

• Added "mouse spawners" and mice to the game. Each mouse spawner starts with a limited supply of mice, and it releases a mouse into the game map every few seconds. Some spawners will start creating mice immediately, while others might wait a little while before spawning their first mouse. Also, spawners are scattered around the perimeter of the level, so mice can invade the yard from different directions.


• Added a garden shed to the game world. Reaching this shed is the goal of each mouse.


• Added a simple HUD that shows the number of mice currently roaming around, the number of mice caught, and the number of mice escaped (reached the garden shed)


• Moving the cat to within a certain short distance from a mouse results in catching the mouse (the mouse is removed from the game).


• Added a game difficulty system. Increasing game difficulty results in faster moving mice and more mouse spawners (and thus mice) to catch.

In the next twenty-four hours I'm planning to add collision detection to the game, and then implement some kind of pathfinding or waypoint system for the mice. I also want to give the mice the ability to sense and evade the cat. Then, on day seven, I'm planning to create two or three more game levels, implement the main menu and instruction screens, and do some final testing and tweaking. Looks like I'll be able to get something playable by the deadline, but I have my work cut out for me.