Chicken Bandit Update #4

Well I hit the 4th checkpoint a couple of days ago, but I'm not really following them exactly anymore. They sort of became just a giant checklist that I work on whatever I feel like or when I get some new graphics to put in. It was difficult to set up the later checkpoints earlier in the game because I didn't have everything complete designed or know how it would turn out. I should probably take the time to go through and reorder the list to keep everything more organized, but I might not get around to doing that before the game is finished.

There have been a lot of changes since the last post. I can't even remember them all. I'll talk about some of the notable ones.

We added in some new tiles and backgrounds. The game finally starting to look like it is coming together:



We changed the world map to look more like a Mario 3 type map. Different paths will be blocked off until certain tasks are complete within certain levels. There will be 4 different 'worlds' with at least 3 playable stages for each, a survival stage, special challenge stage, and boss stage. There will also be a couple different stores to buy upgrades, possibly along with some other mini-games. Here is a very WIP screenshot of the map with 0% of the final graphics:



We added a new item system to the game that allows the player to pick a series of items for each level. We didn't want to clutter the screen with very many buttons, so we decided on using a card system for the items where you can only use the top item that corresponds with the top card of the deck. You can also arrange the cards you've collected before a stage starts.

Here is an animated screenshot of the dynamite item:



Coming up next is constructing some of the levels for the first world and making the first boss. I'm beginning to become afraid of how long playtesting/balancing is going to take.

Train Tile Sets and Breakable Doors

We decided that we would use tilesets to create the trains instead of full images. This allows us to have lots of different types of carts without having to add many more images. I've also rolled out my good old trusty Chainsaw Level Editor to take care of things once again:

The carts look similar at the moment, since we only have one basic tileset complete so far.

We also added in the final graphics for the breakable windows and doors. I copied the same tile breaking system I used for City of Doom:

Development is moving along very quickly! Leave a comment and check back for updates!

Chicken Bandit Checkpoint 3

I reached my 3rd programming checkpoint a couple days ago. The checkpoints get kind of loose from here so I think I'm going to have to go back and re-evaluate them and set new deadlines.
The 3rd checkpoint stuff:

-Windows and Doors on the trains
-Doors open up when shot enough
-Specific spawn points for different type of enemies/items
-Arm movement (spinning to the angle shot)
-Lasso graphics
-Text wrapping and typing out in store

I added in a feature before to take screenshots as well as "animated" screenshots (multiple frames combined together in a gif) as I did in Grand Feather. The only problem was that it ran too slow on the device while recording, so I couldn't make a very good video. I spent a long time trying to optimize it and finally got it to run at a somewhat playable speed, 2-8 fps! Here is a sample:

Most of the graphics there are placeholders, besides the enemy and the main character, and the train background. The red rectangles represent windows, and the green represent doors that you have to shoot off. The player can lasso the safes on the train to pull down for bonus money (the lasso animation is not yet in.) You also might notice that the Chicken Bandit currently shoots backwards by twisting his arm back and firing without looking. Now that is a pretty impressive feat (especially for a bandit with no formal training in gun slinging) but there will eventually be an animation of him turning around to fire behind him.

I have also been spending a good amount of time doing the designing for what the final game will be, but I will talk more about that in an upcoming post.

The next step is adding in sound and music to the game engine, which probably should have already been done by this point.