Artifact 3 – Animations Traps

Six weeks has now passed since my team 12 and I started the Space Shooter Project “Heartbeat Bat”. The original concept was designed by Team 7. The Alpha is over and we are now heading towards the Beta.

For this week’s blog assignment I thought I would tell you about the different Traps in the Cave level I have been working on.

In the Cave level there are three different traps that will slow down the player if she hits them.

Stalactite
The Stalactite falls down on the player once the player is within the hitrange. However the bat can make them fall earlier. This is done by letting out a “echo” attack (sonar effect) which sets the ceiling in motion –> The stalactite drops down

Different states of the stalactite
1. Idle state 
– jiggling while hanging in the roof

2. Falling down 
– A icfe part on the roof will indicate where the stalactite was hanging
– The dropping path is animated and decided by the programmers. That was why this state did not have to be animated. I just used the freezed image. 

3. Falling apart 
– I had to create an animation when the stalactite hits the ground since it could not just disappear. 
– I had ideas of making the stalactite bounce on the floor by the first touch but scrapped this idea after drawing some sketches and realizing it would not look realistic enough.
– Since the player will fly past the stalactite quiet quick the falling apart animation had to be quick and direct. The bouncing would not have been on screen.

Gayzer
Idle state 
– bubbling
– harmless state

Activated state 
– Once the player is within its reach the gayzer explodes with hot water and if the player hits the water she will get slowed down. 
– The gayzer has a timer. Every 5 seconds it explodes and lasts 2 seconds.

Cobwebs
The cobweb is the only trap that is still work in progress. Right now I have only done the webs and the shape of the stones that are surrounding the webs. These traps are traps that can be avoided by flying underneath or above them since there is going to be an option for it. The cobwebs have three different positions, one at the top, one in the middle and one on the ground in order to make the level more challenging and have more variation.

When the player flies through a cobweb she has to use the dash ability:
– Cobweb breaks
– When the player dashes through she will be awarded by firefly points

However, if the dash effect is not used:
– Cobweb won’t break
– Player bounces back and will loose speed 

That was all for this time folks. In the next blogpost I will continue with the other animations I have been working on for our game, and I will focus on the Enemies. Thank you for reading!

And remember..
             Time is of the essence!