lizthegrey / mouse-vs-mole

Mouse vs. Mole

A two-player competitive mining game by:

• Kai Ma
• Liz Fong-Jones
• Alan Huang
• Nathan Arce
• Alex Goins
• Tommy Liu

mouse-vs-mole's Issues

Implement block destruction

If a player is up against a block and is repeatedly tapping the keys associated with that block's direction, the block should lose hitpoints then blow up.

Playtest 10/26

• hard to control where you're going: decrease player move/fall speed?
• camera smoothing / inertia
• camera doesn't zoom out enough (left player may go off the screen when zoomed out a lot)
• unintuitive that you can't jump past the top (or sides?) of the map
• easy to break blocks unintentionally (we knew this already)
• what's with the weird graphics artifacts on the sides of the screen?
• ending game sometimes causes BSOD (could not reproduce)

Code/Art: show player vertical location relative to creeping death

Meta: finalize list of features

Assets
-Graphics
--blocks
--chars
--->animation
--powerups

-Sound
--SFX
--Background Music
--->dynamic

Interface
-Camera
-Powerup display
-Creeping death(lava display)
-Controls
-Menu/options
-start/pause/end/scaffolding
-credits/instructions

Mechanics
-Mining
-Moving
-World Gen
--Caves
--Veins
--etc
-Powerups
--Jetback
--Bazooka
--3 more
-Interaction
--Block destruction
--knockback
--damage??

Art: character sprites

These are largely done, minus tweaking I believe.

Sound/Code: dynamically generated background music

Player collision

Maybe we should keep both players from occupying the same place?

Music gets confused when starting new game

On the first playthrough, the music pauses when the window loses focus. If the game ends and then restarts, the music no longer pauses, and in fact multiple copies of it seem to start playing. I'm not sure what the exact trigger is, or why it's happening.

Code: complete port to crafty

We still have bugs to work out, but this work is mostly done.

Code/Art: implement bazooka

Resource sprite placement?

To be clear, what I was trying to suggest on Monday was giving a random x-component to the stars' velocity after the block breaks, so that they scatter a bit (you could even have them bounce off things, maybe). Currently they seem to have a random position within the block, which is also fine play-wise, but looks a bit weird visually. (I think with the current abstract aesthetic it's odd to have them not exactly centered.) Dunno if we want to change this.

Music: block destruction, player falling noises

Implement falling and death

Players should fall if not supported, including wraparound, and should die if they fall more than 3 spaces.

Game end condition

Falling through blocks

It's a bit weird that you can fall through the side of a block (and then you pop out if you try to turn around).

Design: finalize powerup list

--Jetback
--Bazooka
--3 more

What should these be?

Top row should never be destroyed

Art: resource sprites

Code/Level: dynamic generation of board

Implement features on board:
--Caves
--Veins
--etc

Art: player sprites

Add credits

Movement glitches on edges

Really weird things happen with movement sometimes. It seems they only happen on the outermost blocks, i.e. when trying to move into the leftmost or rightmost column, or when falling into the bottommost row. Glitches include inability to move, getting stuck in midair, and falling through a block and then popping out the side. There's a whole bunch of array bounds error spew in the console.

This is probably a known bug, but I just want to make sure it gets fixed. (Presumably the left/top/right should be hard boundaries and the bottom should kill you?)

Sound: new static background music

Old music perhaps needs rework now that we have new theme.

Players should not be able to walk above the screen

Implement resources and point collection

Display countdown timer and points per player

Problems with player sprites

1. All the player sprites are actually 11x15, not 15x15. Sorry; I apparently shrank them without telling anyone. This is the explanation for the weird artifacts while walking.

2. The jump sprite was intended to make the act of jumping look more natural by having the character bend their legs. It's not supposed to last through the whole jump. But jumping is so fast that it's impossible to notice something like that, so let's just not use that sprite. I think it's fine with just walking + facing the right direction.

Playtesting conclusions

Need to clarify visually which character you are playing and that you have a score bar on your side that goes up as you get points.

Play with world size, jumping, starting positions, etc?

Game currently takes ~2 minutes

Implement end conditions

Art/Code: Show block damage

I think the conclusion from the meeting was we should flash the block (or all the connected blocks) to make it clear that you're damaging it?

More expressive player sprites

It'd be nice, though not strictly necessary, if the player sprites seemed to be looking left or right (or up or down), whichever way the player is moving; if their feet (or other body parts) moved when the player walks or jumps; and if they performed some animated action when the player breaks a block.

Block health states

How do we visually indicate that a block is weakened? (Do we need to?)

Code/Art: Powerup progress bar display and powerup collection

Show progress towards powerups, remove old resource system, and credit powerup progress when corresponding block types broken.

Code: Non-choppy zoom in effect

We are currently horridly underperformant.

Wire up pause option

Art: Powerups visible on characters

Powerups need to be compositeable onto characters.

Code: implement jetpack flying

Implement collision detection

Players should not be able to slide past blocks

Music: Background music

Implement going up/down

Up/down keys and diagonal movements should work.

Sound: new sound effects for powerups/movement

Art: block sprites for different colors, decay statuses

Code: ensure that zoom works correctly with larger sprites/blocks

Zooming works for original board size, but not for new board size.

Code: Implement knockback physics

Design: Ensure all features interact well

Implement void of death

Art/code: animate hands

Moles need to have moveable hands. Joint between art/code.

Code/Design: Figure out controls for using powerups

Code/Art: Options screen/menu

New player sprites?

There was a suggestion that the stick figures don't really match the aesthetic of the blocks. Do people think it's a good idea to change the player sprites? (Personally, I kinda like the stick figures, and am having a hard time thinking of any abstract character design that would work well here.)

Art/Code: Splash screen