As I am nearing completion on the prototype level (Which will be the tutorial level.) there remains one element that just until now seemed a litte up in the air. Swimming.

Swimming in the first person is unique in that it drastically changes the way you play.
You’re slowed down and you suddenly go up and down the Y axis, more than you could with a simple jump.

It’s often dreaded in games and I know this. It will be used with caution and serve as contrast or variation to a level. Some of it will even be optional, having you dive into waters in search of sunken treasure.

It’s a little hard to program, but I am getting a lot of support from the good guys at the uScript forums.

Video will be up sometime in the future, hopefully, once I can show the swimming and store off.

Things hit a little snag, in regards to animation.
This game will be using animation similar to old games, by using sprite sheets.
http://atomicrobotdesign.com/blog_media/sprite_movement/images/gb_walk.png
As you can see here, the character’s animation frames are drawn on a single image. You program into the game which of these frames to show by manipulating their X and Y axis.
But, thanks to the wonderful Maus over at Uscript, things are going much, much better and I am getting animation into this game. Some much needed animation.

In other news, I have been very active stopping spam on this site. A strange thing is that the more views and activity a site has, the more bots come in to ruin everyone’s fun.
I have put in some plugins and a whopping 26 messages have been marked as spam in the last 48 hours. So, things are safe with those plugins and me on the watch.

Also, to all voice actors who have talked to me, please, drop me a new email at Littlenorwegians@hotmail.com so we can talk.
The next video I will be making will feature your talent, so I’d be glad to get a few lines and your info.

OPEN LEVEL DESIGN
You’ve probably seen this image used to critique modern level design.

The levels in my game will be more open than what you see in most FPS games you see today. It’s important to understand, however, that both methods of level design can be justified. Quake and Doom were criticized even back in the day for being a little confusing and cryptic. You’d hit a button and perhaps a door somewhere opened, you don’t know.
I will try to have greater clarity, by having an omnipresent narrator that will tell you things like “After having pushed the button, the door to the crypts now stand open.”
The truth of the matter is, also, fetching the blue key could be just as tedious and perhaps even more frustrating than just simply killing the enemies ahead or wait for the game to allow you to do a quicktime-event.
Now, usually the linear levels are designed to not break gameplay flow and keep the player focused on the task at hand. Exploration is key in my game and I don’t plan to include heavily scripted sequences that yanks you by a chain. Instead the levels will be open to you and you call the shots.

Also, exploration is encouraged, but not enforced in the levels. Most deviations from a path will be optional and will often lead you back to the original trail or simply have you walk back. This means that the player decides just how much he wants to explore or how little. A perfect example of this is the game series Thief. In those games you typically have a few objectives and could potentially take an obvious path. But you were also free to go off the path and explore and more often than not, be rewarded.

Thoughts? Be sure to leave a comment.

VLOGS?
I am considering making VLOGs or perhaps regular logs about how the project is doing. They will be less formal, as opposed to the videos that are more presentations.
I will talk about the game’s progress, aspects and assets I’ve added, people who’ve joined the project as well as post/talk about their work and so on.
This are still developing for this young game, site and community. So, it’s interesting times ahead.