New viewpoint. Working doors.

• Metal power now switches to USE when facing a door.
  
• USE can now open/close doors. Though, the usefulness of closing a door is debatable. I should maybe just automatically close the door after 5 seconds or so.
  
• Changed the viewpoint to be higher up, making it more RPG-like and lighter on the FPS. Perhaps, I will have a button to switch between viewpoints.
  
• I made some discoveries with BasicEffect when combined with the old school tilemap approach that I am using. Mainly that I can have 3 directional lights and an ambient light per tile! I started writing my own effect, when I discovered this, so now I don't need to.
  
• Added an in-game editor to speed up minor changes. Should be handy when adding lighting. Need to add level save code. Note: the editor will not be in the released version.
  
• Ice power now creates ice cubes in all 8 directions. Previously, it was only the 4 cardinal directions like the air powers.
  
• HP and name of enemy injured now appears in HUD

Doors, Ice, Prompts

• Ice Power - Initially, I was going to have the ice power as an ice blast, but that seemed to just be the fire power with different graphics. So, I had a rethink: If fire destroys, then it's opposite, ice, must create! So, the ice power creates ice cubes that can be used to block enemies. They will also be a handy weapon when pushed, as they don't decelerate (think Pengo). Also, they can freeze water hazards so you can walk on them. So far, I only have them being created, so they are a work in progress.
  
• Added doors that can be opened and closed. A lot more trouble than it sounds. I am drawing the doors as actors, so that they are easier to move. As a bonus, this makes them block and unblock the player correctly.
  
• Added prompts. These will be used for informational screens and conversations with NPCs. Up to 2 NPCs can talk on each page and the player can choose from up to 3 responses.
  
• Metal power - Initially, this was to be just punch. But I have decided to make it contextual.
  When you are near a friendly NPC it will be Talk.
  When you are near a terminal/door/etc it will be Use.
  Otherwise, it will be Punch.
  Note the new icon for it in the HUD (bottom-right). It will always be activated as right-mouse (right-trigger on gamepad).
  

The pie is a lie, too!

• Added alpha to actors and blocks. Found an interesting "undocumented feature" : When you make a mesh see-through, you can only see things that were previously drawn. Anything drawn after the see-through mesh, will still be blocked as if the mesh was opaque. The way I minimised this effect was to draw all the opaque things first, then draw the non-opaque.
  
• More work was needed on the editor to rotate actors, so that I can have decorative objects on the walls cheaply.
• Added a basic HP and SP status bars. The SP (special power) will drain as you use your powers, and regenerate as you don't. It is to stop players from spamming powers.
  

DEMII goes to the beach

Mostly working on optimisations and other behind-the-scenes stuff. I came to the realisation that seeing as I have a grid of 64x64 tiles and each tile can have a mesh...the is no rule to say that the mesh must be 1x1 tile! In fact, I could save a lot of work, here. I tested it with an empty map consisting of nothing but 64x64 (4096) sand tiles. I got 12fps. But one sand tile that is 64x64 squares got 63fps (the refresh rate of the video mode as I lock to vertical refresh).

I just made this hut mesh. It needs better textures, but thats OK for now. It is 4x4 tiles and would make a village quick and easy to make.

Push puzzles complete!

• Push puzzles completed and tested. Special trigger tiles activate only by a stopped crate.
  
• Fixed clipping issues when pushing objects. Previously, you could push and object into the edge of a square and it would combine with the wall. I was collision testing the middle of the object and not the edge.
  
• New weapons icons for the HUD. Much nicer looking and match colors of the XBox controller, for clarity as to which button is which.
  
• Note the new model for DEMII herself. Still a work in progress, though.
  
• Fixed a lot of issues in the editor. In fact, thats where I spent most of today's efforts.

Trigger Tiles

Spent today mostly working on the map editor. Added trigger tile and actor configs to the editor. The game, itself now loads the trigger tiles and reacts when player enters that tile. So, I now have all of the elements for the push puzzle rooms!

Low Friction Tiles

• Got low friction tiles working. Actors pushed on these don't stop until they reach a non-low friction tile, or get blocked.
  
• Started working on trigger tiles.
  
• Designed a number of push puzzles
  

Updated my to do list and noticed that most of the outstanding items are little things, with exception of 2 daunting jobs: Enemy AI and animation. I also note that I am 3 weeks away from the deadline I set myself. I must progress faster than what I currently am, if I want to meet it.

Designing the puzzles is interesting. They can add play time and challenge to a game, but make them too hard and it leads to frustration. I don't want to make them too big a part of the game as puzzles are only fun until you know the solution. Then it becomes a memory game.

The 80/20 rule bites

Been a while since the last update. Most of the changes are non-graphical...

• New Particle (point sprite) engine. Now animates, moves and ages particles. On collision, it injures and changes particles. eg. fire turns to smoke, etc.
• New menu system. Manager works, but needs coding for the options.
• HUD. Displays all weapon and highlights the current weapon. Based on percentages of the screen as opposed to pixels, so it retains size/place on resolution change.
• Design change: All acts will have an overmap for clarity.
• I have also been learning/wrestling Blender. A new model for DEMII is in the works. Advantage of Blender is it exports to FBX, which contains animation! It can also export to .X with animation. I will be playing around with this today.
• There are a few XNA animation libraries around. None of which are documented well. Dont know which to use, or maybe I should just write my own.
• Design change: After seeing the "ice puzzle rooms" of some Zelda games, on youtube, (they are basically the old chestnut Sokoban :D ) I have decided to do something similar. Should be easy as. I love this idea as it is gameplay without violence, which suits a female child character. Bonus!
• Level Editor now creates rooms. You choose the wall,floor and corner style you want, as well as the map region, and it creates the room with all of the corners and walls rotated correctly. Big time saver.