Tag: Development

Secret Gears

Lots of great stuff done today on Escape Goat 2:

geardetail

  1. Randy drew some decorative background gears, and I hooked them up to operate alongside other machinery in the level. When a block moves forward, the gears turn clockwise, and when the block moves back, they turn counterclockwise again. Looks great in motion and has given my test levels a Metal Man vibe.
  2. Prototype gadget: Bone Block. Works like a bone wall (collapses when stepped on) but drops a full size stone block from its position. It also sets off neighboring bone blocks, creating a domino effect.
  3. Prototyped gadget: Valve Trap Door. Touched from one side, it springs open, then closes immediately after, trapping you or anything else on the other side. Can be used in all four directions to create one-way gates.
  4. Prototyped gadget: Mega Fan.  Creates gusts of wind that blow any creatures in specified direction. Will take some tuning, in first tests has ultra comical results, especially when used to launch the mouse.
  5. Switch and decoration fastening: Floor switches (and some decorations) are automatically fastened to moving blocks in the editor. This way, switches can be placed on gear blocks and elevators. Lots of new machinery possibilities with this.

Tomorrow I’ll put together a few more gadgets and build some test levels around them.

 

The Road to New Goats

Two weeks until GDC.  Most important remaining Escape Goat 2 features:

  1. Transition animations for goat (turning from side to side, jump to fall, fall to land, etc.). Randy has done drafts of some of these, I just need to add the logic to smoothly transition between them.
  2. Squish tolerance fix: creatures are still getting squished unexpectedly, the most problematic situation being coming out of a Magic Hat teleport. Since most teleports end with the goat intersecting with walls near the mouse’s original position, the game needs to resolve to a “safe spot” near the teleport destination. As any Escape Goat veteran knows, it’s possible to get crushed from teleporting into a narrow passage, but that should only happen when there are really no safe alternative spots nearby.
  3. New gadgets. I’ve got tons of ideas cooking, and hope to get some prototypes together starting tomorrow.
  4. New levels. They need to showcase the newest gadgets and visuals (such as lighting) but also provide player training. I have a new device for text-free tutorials I’ll be experimenting with.

The GDC demo should offer a solid 15 minute experience, tuned for showcasing rather than difficulty. The puzzles won’t be brain benders. They should be pretty similar to the first few worlds of Escape Goat 1.

 

Back from the Rabbit Hole

GDC is approaching, and I’m showing Escape Goat 2. That gives me less than three weeks to get everything together, meaning I should have something pretty playable in about a week, so I can playtest with a bunch of friends before showing it to the media.

For the most part, the new systems are in place. We’re running in high resolution, lighting and shadow casting is working, even the new world layout is implemented. One major remaining bug is the squish detection, something that has plagued me since the start of the project. I changed enough of the physics system in the upgrade from EG1 to EG2 that squish tolerance isn’t working properly. This means the goat gets squished in places he shouldn’t–such as after a teleport into a corner, or from getting grazed by a falling block. Definitely something that needs to be fixed before GDC.

Continue reading Back from the Rabbit Hole

PR work nearly done

My Escape Goat press kit is nearly complete.  This weekend I put a lot of time in on the trailer, which is just about finished.  I’m getting some feedback on it and letting it marinate overnight, so tomorrow it should be good to go.