Jorney Entry 1

Activity: Inspecting the Design & Starting implementing the platformer

Time: 3,5 hours

The one page design I am tasked to implement isn't much complicated, the general idea of the platformer level is easy to see. When creating a tilemap it became a little annoying that the design has not its tiles properly aligned into a grid, and I had to decide where to place them exactly. The "surface" area was made from grass without that being specified in the OPD. I hope to find better way for transition between cave tiles and dirt/grass tiles.
Placed interactables and made them work, some were easier (boxes, health recovery, pressure plate-door connection), some needed more care (keys..., poisonous liquid - figuring how to resize it took longer than it should).
I had to improvise in the case of pressure plate opened door, where it would animate into the cave beneath it creating invisible barrier. I did not find a good way to nicely remove the door after it is opened, so I slightly modified the level and added tiles beneath the door with just a space for the box to be pushed through.
I enjoyed actually writing (tiny) script to open final door when all 3 keys are collected, and added key UI. This release now contains core game logic of the level, allowing player to reach surface.

Next goals:
-adding enemies according to OPD
-creating cave environment art
-fixing bug where restarting level places character on a wrong spot
-implementing the Gems and weather change according to OPD
-inspect whether I can change the camera area according to OPD, now it captures too large area