Technically Still Counts

Well this post is a tad (5 days) late. That said, I’m still keeping to the 1 post a week schedule! Also changing the overall structure of this an all foreseeable future posts. Going to start with the gaming updates and then get into personal thoughts Here we go!

Game Progress

I’ve worked through several “features” since the last post.

There’s a lot going on here, so let me break it down.

• When the player shoots, there is now bullet spread as indicated by the red lines that are temporarily drawn (I made the bullet travel slow to help visualize better)
• The bullet direction of the tracer bullet correctly moves towards where the camera points (or if nothing, then it’ll travel to the end of the trace)
• The red devil man is a test to tie UI movement to underlying logic, in this case whenever the player shoots

Meta Game Dev Thoughts

This past week’s work has been largely around implementing bullet spread and making sure that the shot goes where it feels “natural”. Additionally, it was quite exciting to realize that I had most of the necessary knowledge to build this, and I merely needed to struggle through the searching for answers online.

I’m at a point where I know enough of the basics to likely build any base system for any game I require (with sufficient googling of course). It’s a good feeling.

However, I know there are areas in which I still lack greatly. One major area is animations and the systems that drive it all. As of this moment, that whole endeavour to understand and utilize it is quite daunting. However, I know that’s something finite and understandable, and it merely requires time.

Mental Musings

I don’t know why but I really have an issue creating posts on Sundays - I think there’s some underlying notion that I doni’t feel like I’ve done enough to share; and though this might be true (it’s not) it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t share something. What matters here is consistency.

During the week I had a catchup with an old colleague of mine and we got into the discussion of my Unreal Engine tinkering. Specifically I bemoaned the fact that I truly squandered my “free time” all those months of being unemployed, however I don’t feel bad about it because my drive to develop a game and spend time on my other projects is only possible because I have a job again.

Until next time!