Today I wrote 2 more tools today, one to instantiate level platforms en masse, and the other to instantiate backgrounds en masse. With 8 minute levels it would have taken several days just to copy/paste the platform and background game objects, and label them properly. Now all I have to do is tell the tools how many I want instantiated and where, and it takes care of the rest. Quite the time saver.
At this point I'll spend another day or two writing automation tools for the entirety of a level. Creating new ones from here on out should be a lot faster.
Meeting with Casper tomorrow to go over progress!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Dev Blog 28 - Level 5 & More Automation
After finishing cutting up Level 5's music track into 114 pick-up MP3 files, I realized that writing the timestamp file would take far too long and be error prone. I wrote a little Python script that reads the file names of the entire directory and writes them to the timestamp text file. It's nothing fancy, but yet another time-saver.
All of these automation tools are coming in quite handy for the longer 8 minute songs - will try taking a stab at a master note background assignment tool later tonight.
Update @ 11:48PM - I realized that I needed a tool to automatically instantiate Notes, since creating and naming 114 gameObjects would be tedious. I wrote a tool to do just that - it instantiates a given number of Notes only in the editor mode and assigns them to be parented by the Notes gameObject. This worked quite well, all of the other automation tools worked flawlessly with it.
Now I will need 2 more tools: one to assign Y positions to Notes based on proximity to platforms (this will likely be done by drawing a ray directly downwards in the Y direction). Another to assign notes to MasterNote gameObjects so the background color changes work properly (this will likely be done by drawing a ray directly backgrounds in the Z direction and checking the name of the background it collides with).
These will be more complex tools to write, and might chew up a lot of computational power. While it would definitely be a time saver for me, it could affect level loading times. While assigning Y directions and MasterNotes manually would be tedious, it certainly isn't difficult and might be worth it to improve the end user experience.
All of these automation tools are coming in quite handy for the longer 8 minute songs - will try taking a stab at a master note background assignment tool later tonight.
Update @ 11:48PM - I realized that I needed a tool to automatically instantiate Notes, since creating and naming 114 gameObjects would be tedious. I wrote a tool to do just that - it instantiates a given number of Notes only in the editor mode and assigns them to be parented by the Notes gameObject. This worked quite well, all of the other automation tools worked flawlessly with it.
Now I will need 2 more tools: one to assign Y positions to Notes based on proximity to platforms (this will likely be done by drawing a ray directly downwards in the Y direction). Another to assign notes to MasterNote gameObjects so the background color changes work properly (this will likely be done by drawing a ray directly backgrounds in the Z direction and checking the name of the background it collides with).
These will be more complex tools to write, and might chew up a lot of computational power. While it would definitely be a time saver for me, it could affect level loading times. While assigning Y directions and MasterNotes manually would be tedious, it certainly isn't difficult and might be worth it to improve the end user experience.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Dev Blog 27 - Automation Tool Fix!!!!!
It's currently 1:46AM - after posting this UnityAnswers thread I was planning on going to bed, but I got a very quick response from user fafase. After some comments back and forth, I was able to fix the issue with his help! It took a little over an hour, but it was completely worth it! I'm very happy this automation tool works now, it'll be a real timesaver.
Can't wait to get back to work tomorrow and utilize the tool!
Can't wait to get back to work tomorrow and utilize the tool!
Dev Blog 26 - Levels 4 & 5!
Today I cut up the background track for levels 4 & 5 and added level 4 in game - they sounds great! Level 5 took a loooong time to cut up and has yet to be added in-game (it's an 8 minute track). It'll take a while to implement in-game, but will be very worth it. I might spend some time writing automation tools to make it less tedious.
I also fixed a small issue where some of the color backgrounds in levels 3 & 4 were glitching through the black and white. For now I'm completely focusing on generating game content, more levels to come soon.
Update @ 12:58am: Took a stab at writing an automation tool to assign the mp3 files to their respective Notes - this will be a huge time saver. It isn't quite working yet, I'm getting NullReferenceExceptions out the ass. I searched StackOverflow and UnityAnswers, there were some threads that helped fix parts of the automation script's errors, but still didn't resolve the issue overall. I posted a thread on StackOverflow and on UnityAnswers, hopefully I'll get some insight from the community.
I also fixed a small issue where some of the color backgrounds in levels 3 & 4 were glitching through the black and white. For now I'm completely focusing on generating game content, more levels to come soon.
Update @ 12:58am: Took a stab at writing an automation tool to assign the mp3 files to their respective Notes - this will be a huge time saver. It isn't quite working yet, I'm getting NullReferenceExceptions out the ass. I searched StackOverflow and UnityAnswers, there were some threads that helped fix parts of the automation script's errors, but still didn't resolve the issue overall. I posted a thread on StackOverflow and on UnityAnswers, hopefully I'll get some insight from the community.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Dev Blog 25 - Song reworks, tool improvements, bug fixes
Today I discovered and fixed a bug so Note pick-up no longer interrupts punching animation. Notes placed right in front of crates were causing unneeded deaths.
Additionally I reworked the songs for Level 2 and 3; there we a lot of timing issues with the way I cut up the song. The re-cut version sounds much better timed in-game!
However after reworking the songs and re-doing the timestamps, the automatic note placement tool wasn't quite robust enough to handle the changes in-editor (they worked fine once the game was played). This proved annoying to adequately do level design. I improved the automatic note placement tool by adding a "reset button" (boolean value) to the AutomaticNotePlacer.cs script so I can easily reset the notes in the editor if needed (useful when songs are reworked or timestamps change).
Additionally I reworked the songs for Level 2 and 3; there we a lot of timing issues with the way I cut up the song. The re-cut version sounds much better timed in-game!
However after reworking the songs and re-doing the timestamps, the automatic note placement tool wasn't quite robust enough to handle the changes in-editor (they worked fine once the game was played). This proved annoying to adequately do level design. I improved the automatic note placement tool by adding a "reset button" (boolean value) to the AutomaticNotePlacer.cs script so I can easily reset the notes in the editor if needed (useful when songs are reworked or timestamps change).
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Dev Blog 24 - More stock levels!
Today I did the level design for 2 stock levels, one with my song and one with /u/ioncehadsexinapool's track titled "ALSO heard this before". I very much like how his music works with Chromacore's gameplay.
With my song, I tried implementing a section of the level where gravity was reversed. This proved much more complex than I anticipated, so I put a pin in it for now.
As of right now I'm focusing on generating game content, i.e. creating more stock levels. I will probably revisit the gravity reversal at a later time, but new game mechanics isn't something I need to worry about right now.
The working session with Ronny went okay - we didn't actually implement anything, but tried 4 methods of mp3 analysis (none of which worked). After trying to debug for a while, I handed this off to Ronny entirely so I could focus on the task at hand. Right now the 2nd gameplay mode is on the back burner for me.
With my song, I tried implementing a section of the level where gravity was reversed. This proved much more complex than I anticipated, so I put a pin in it for now.
As of right now I'm focusing on generating game content, i.e. creating more stock levels. I will probably revisit the gravity reversal at a later time, but new game mechanics isn't something I need to worry about right now.
The working session with Ronny went okay - we didn't actually implement anything, but tried 4 methods of mp3 analysis (none of which worked). After trying to debug for a while, I handed this off to Ronny entirely so I could focus on the task at hand. Right now the 2nd gameplay mode is on the back burner for me.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Dev Blog 23 - ALL THE MUSIC TRACKS!
Great news! I've identified 8 tracks of /u/ioncehadsexinapool's music that would work well with Chromacore. He was nice and trusting enough to hand over the stem files for these tracks so I can implement them into the game.
This is huge. Music tracks was the one thing I was in desperate need of (I'm not great at making them myself and progress was slow). Now I will be working on implementing and designing stock levels based around these tracks.
Additionally I will have a working session with Ronny at 6pm today to implement an audio analysis algorithm, update to come later!
This is huge. Music tracks was the one thing I was in desperate need of (I'm not great at making them myself and progress was slow). Now I will be working on implementing and designing stock levels based around these tracks.
Additionally I will have a working session with Ronny at 6pm today to implement an audio analysis algorithm, update to come later!
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