Summary:
In which a level's first-draft is completed; the game's approach to lighting is adjusted; some extant lighting is tweaked in response to that adjustment; a few lighting omissions are addressed; a level gains a theme; a new level is begun; a hall gains a new trap; and the logic of creature-respawning is altered.
Greetings and salutations!
This week's screenshot shows some lighting within the "Bonehoards" level of the Ossuary Moon--and with that, some changes to lighting in the game:
As with last week, the work of the week just past was primarily given to level-building, with a few other things besides:
As shown above, work continued in the week just past on the "Bonehoards" level of the Ossuary Moon!
Indeed, I think that I may have the layout--as far as it goes in the demo--complete now.
Likewise, the level now also has spawners placed, a few traversal elements added, level-specific art made for its "blockage" objects, and even a first pass at lighting applied!
Now, that lighting did call for some changes to the handling of light within the game:
Previously, tall objects, such as the tops of walls, were always brightly lit regardless of the otherwise lighting of the area. This had the advantage that the bounds of the player's movements were always clear. But, as I found in lighting the "Bonehoards", it also had the disadvantage that when an area was dark, bright walls became glaringly so.
Thus I've changed things a bit: walls may now darken, even become black, as long as the level of the ambient light is lower than fifty percent. However, lights have tended thus far to be clustered towards the interiors of rooms--leaving walls then somewhat uniformly dim. So, I've also had tall objects take lighting in a wider radius (roughly proportional to height), allowing them to pick up illumination from nearby lights.
With the lighting of the game thus changed, so too were the appearances changed of the already-lit Vertical Slice- and Vertical Slice Tutorial- Moons, which thus called for some tweaks to their lighting.
Further, during the above matters I discovered that "blockages" and level-geometry controlled by "aethereal objects" neither of them took light properly at all--something that I have now improved, I do believe.
And finally, with levels now potentially darker, I've increased the brightness of the player's light.
And with some proper darkness around, I think that I've found a "theme" of sorts for the "Bonehoards" level... >:D
With a first draft then complete for the "Bonehoards", I've once again moved on to the next level: "The Halls of the Ancients".
As the "Bonehoards" level was last week, I believe, this new level is currently only at a bare start: a proto-entrance room, with streaming light-beams to signify the exit, and an incomplete start to a splatted texture for the level:
(The light and dark patches come from layers of the splatting texture that currently don't have an image, but that are being applied, I believe.)
And one last bit of level-building to report this week: The "Hall of Traps" within the Vertical Slice Moon has acquired a new surprise: I realised that I had a single innocuous room in the place--and, well, this
is the "Hall of Traps"... >:D
On the "general gameplay" side of things, I've tweaked respawning such that creatures only respawn into rooms that the player has visited. Thus empty rooms should remain empty until the player has seen them at least once. (Or something else happens to prompt a spawn.)
And once again, various tweaks, changes and fixes were enacted in the week just past that don't seem worth detailing here!
That, then, is all for this week--stay well, and thank you for reading! ^_^