Greetings programs! When I converted my old blog and website over to WordPress many years ago it was with the intention to post stuff about my work and various titbits of info around it. But one thing I didn’t factor in was time. UrbX Warriors is taking a huge chunk of my time of late which is good, but means with everything else I’ve just not had the time to post anything decent to my blog.

The funny thing is, I’ve got about 20 posts all half written which I really must set some time aside to finish. I have some gamedev stuff to share so will endeavour to get these completed and uploaded here as soon as I can.

The game is coming on nicely, we have lots of things in it, like triggers and doors and a cool feature called scenes, which allows me to bunch together a load of stuff into a set scene. As an example, say you enter a room, and all the doors shut, a wave of bats fly over the screen and before you know what’s going on a ton load of zombies appear all keen to taste brains, name yours!

One of the things I’ve tried to do with the level designs is introduce the player to varying things through the progression of the levels. So the early levels within the game feel different to the later ones, not only in difficulty but also gameplay. Most of Area 1 is exploration, defeating baddies and moving on, but as you progress through the levels require some thought as doors will only open one way, routes should be noted as some things can only be reached via alternate routes. As an example a key may be seen behind a wall but cannot be reached within that level map, so finding the best route to it is an objective.

Other things I’ve had to consider is how to integrate the different weapons within the level designs. Some things are best defeated with certain weapons, and others not so much so. As the player I’m relying on old skool game mechanics to work this stuff out, no hand holding, learn thought experience of playing the game. A gentle but ever increasing difficulty curve as a template. Something I learned working on Cannon Fodder though admittedly some of the missions were very hard. When you develop a game you are playing it continuously and so sometimes things feel easier than they are because of that.

I best get back to my level designing Currently trying to work out how a scene is going to work with a ton of zombies without it feeling too difficult.

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