I’ve been programming a lot these past months, but behind the scenes things like changing the Entity-Compoenent-System and implementing unit tests. Today, finally! I have some progress that I can show. When the cursor hovers over any unit now (except if the cursor happens to be hovering on a unit upon initialization), the game can show the MoveMap and AttackMaps! The Movemap accurately computes the unit’s movement options according to the tiles and units occupying them. As you can see, our playable magic horse Silou gets blocked by the bandit, and vice-versa. The river also blocks movement. This time, Silou carries with her a 1-2 range magic tome that extends her attack range past the river. The system works!
Actually, I use EntityX’s event system to trigger a check of the tile upon any cursor movement. So it’s not performing checks every frame or so that the cursor is hovering above a unit, but only when the cursor moves. If you click the “Accept” button when hovering over enemy unit, you can reveal the DangerMap. The DangerMap can be hidden by clicking on the unit again, or clicking the “Cancel” button. For now the game works with a keyboard and/or a Gamepad (mine is an Elecom).
Again, all graphics are placeholders, and the map is a simply a test arena. I haven’t started the design of any maps. I do have started creating many character, and I have the basic thrust of the plot in mind, and a couple important chapters. For now though I think it is more important to have the gameplay systems up and running. The current priorities include: a turn system, more menus, options and player actions… Whenever I get tired of programming, I focus on the more creative stuff. Yay progress!
Average Bear's GameDev 