Object editor first look (6/14)

It's that time again, new devlog! Got two things to cover for this one, the first being progress on the level editor and new functionality to add objects into levels.

Here you can see a sneak peak at this feature, using it to populate a level with coins and a fat fruit. It's still extremely basic and unfinished, but already I've gotten the bare essentials in (placing, removing, and most crucially saving and loading these level layouts). Additionally though these objects are really simple, the groundwork has been laid for more complicated objects to be added to this in the future.

As mentioned before, my goal here is to get it to the point where I can fully use it for making and testing levels. From there, I'll be able to put together new levels much faster. And even better, people will be able to make and share levels of their own. Won't have to wait on me to make new levels all the time, people will be able to test out ideas that I may not think to try, and as I work on new content and level elements for the game, I can add it to the level editor to get it in player's hands much sooner than it would take for me to also create new levels using that content.

And speaking of new content:

Here's a first look at Maya's blimp form. To the surprise of no one it ended up winning the poll I posted two weeks ago with like 2/3rds of the votes, so I started planning out the sprites and how she'll be animated in-game. Mechanically, the way it will work is that collecting a devil cake or some other object will cause her to over-inflate. Unlike normal inflation where she's slower but still mostly free to move as she pleases, here she becomes so big that she starts floating up out of control. She'll constantly be floating higher and higher in this state with limited ability to float left and right, and when she does change direction her body will rotate to reflect that, as seen here. She'll stay this way for a while, but after a short time her face will start to puff up even more, indicating that the effect is about to run out. Once it ends, she turns back to normal in a puff of air and falls back to the ground.

For the most part that's all there is to this idea, but of course there is one other element to it. That being that if she comes in contact with another devil cake before the effect ends, she'll inflate even bigger, and be able to float even higher. And if she touches a third one... well, you'll just have to wait and see I guess, lol. But in the meantime, feel free to let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see as she gets bigger. For this first stage, the idea is that her upper body (arms and chest) are more or less the same as her normal inflated state, but her lower body inflates much much bigger than before. It also ends up pointing upwards, causing her to be almost upside down to emphasize her lack of control and how she'll end up floating upwards. I wouldn't vary this shape too much as she grows (of course she'll stay mostly spherical for the whole thing), but I've thought about having her proportions and angle vary slightly as she grows. Figure something like that could make it a little more interesting than if it was the same thing every time but bigger, but I'd love to hear from you guys! Seriously, if you read this far you might as well leave a comment, lol.

With that said, that'll be all for this post. I'll mostly be focusing on the level editor for the rest of this month and that'll be my next release, so look forward to that. And until next time, later!