Overview: Player Mechanics
Hello again, today I wanted to start a general breakdown of the game’s mechanics. Figured I’d start with the player and what they can do.
Movement
The game is primarily a maze of walls that requires the player to make quick decisions. As you move through the maze you’re limited to traveling in straight lines along the x and y. The challenge with how it’s been built out was making sure the player doesn’t get stuck on pixels while taking corners. I probably over-complicated things but the goal was to use Tower of Druaga’s movement as inspiration while fixing the more infuriating quirks.
To work around corners there’s an auto correction to compensate for the player’s position on the tile when they turn. This way if they change directions on the D-Pad before their blocky hit box is aligned with the hallway it will nudge them forward until they can turn.
Attacking
When the player presses ‘A’ they go through the animation of drawing their sword - it’s not instantaneous, much like how The Tower of Druaga handles it, requiring the player to be deliberate. If they’re still holding the button when the sword is fully drawn they can start attacking enemies.
Running into a baddie will do a sort of jousting bout where the enemy loses health while the player loses power. If they don’t have the sword fully drawn when they run collide then they lose a life and restart the floor.
Defending
If the player doesn’t have their sword out then their shield will protect them from projectiles in the direction they’re facing. If the sword is in swing animation then the shield is inactive, this is when the player is most vulnerable. When the sword is fully drawn the shield protects the player on their left side (of the direction they’re facing). It’s a bit strange at first but attacking through an enemy while blocking a projectile on your side feels pretty cool.
Alright that’s all I have today, I’ve already gone on too long. Next week we’ll probably ramble on about some player resources, woo!
~Nathan Kilthorne
