...and now for something completely different!

Rocket Penguin is on hold for the time being because of schoolwork. It currently needs two more levels before it is "finished", and those are going to be elaborate and over the top stages and whatnot. Namely, they will be a fight with a flying six-winged aircraft carrier shaped like a whale and then a crazy flashy special effecty dramatic fight with a wizard in hyperspace.

This put-on-hold-ing is due mainly to the fact I couldn't BS a way to really integrate it into my two gamedev-related classes Experimental Game Design and Game Programming. The good news is that I've managed to BS together a way to use a different project that I've REALLY REALLY REALLY wanting to get to.

Project: SUPERCAT is rebooted, again!!!

This project that I started in high school and then got shelved because I had created six thousand lines of tangled buggy code all in one script, and then started again Sophomore year at CMU and stopped again because I switched to the Unity engine.

Now I'm well-acquainted with Unity, and also have experience and new skills to apply such that I can do this project decently.

A BRIEF GAME DESCRIPTION:

You play as the titular SUPERCAT, which is much like a regular house-cat except that it also has a robotic armor it can pilot. By switching back and forth between using the armor and not using the armor the cat can do both cat-things like scurrying through the ventillation and people/robot-things like punching baddies and shooting lasers. The game world is the sprawling underground ruined laboratory complex in which SUPERCAT was created. Over the course of the game the player will explore much of, if not all of the complex; discover upgrades for the armor; fight a lot of badguys; and discover the secrets of the SUPERCAT's creation and the destruction of Research Site Sigma.

Things I have working so far:

• Character movement, generalized to be usable by the player in both cat and armor modes and enemy characters.
• Moving platforms
• A system for interact-able objects such as switches
• Dialog boxes, for delicious exposition as well as delivering gameplay information.
• 3rd person camera, controlled with the mouse and performs collision detecting so as not to clip through the environment

The game is ultimately intended for the download-the-whole-thing-and-run-fullscreen format because it will be so expansive and immersive but for now... here is a webplayer demo showcasing what is currently implemented!

Three Down, Two to Go!

Out of the intended five levels for Rocket Penguin, I've now got three fully playable and beatable levels. These of course will still need some tweaking, but at this point the needed changes are mainly aesthetic. Later after I have all five levels playable and beatable, I'll go back and do another pass to polish the various details.

I present for your trying-out pleasure: Rocket Penguin 3/5ths Edition

Secret controls:
Press I to invert the Y axis of your controls
Press P to refill your health

Notable changes:

• Third level "Tundra City" is finished, gameplay-wise anyway.
• City with streets arranged on a grid
• Player can choose to turn at intersections by flying to one side
• Street grid (lattice) pathing implemented, used for both moving background objects as well as enemy copters, and the boss.
• Enemy copters and background cars randomwalk through the city. Cars will avoid U-turns at intersections and follow alternating one-way streets.
• Various visual tweaks
• Jetpack glow flare
• Enemy copters recolored to stand out against background
• Health bar animates much nicer