UAHDX Progress #4: Gameplay, Scoring, Powerups

More UAHDX Progress!

Part 4: Gameplay, Scoring, and Powerups

       It been a week or two, but the UAHDX team (Josh and I) are kicking it high gear for more development action, especially since our time for working on this school project is running out! (It's due by the first week of December, and we still have much to do in a short time.)

       Since our last post, we have coded and begun to implement many features. We are currently working on the Medium difficulty, Battle Mode game scene. Due to how we are coding and designing the game, each game mode/difficulty combination is modular, and relies upon a core set of scripts and resources. After finishing with our 1st game scene (the Medium Battle Mode), the rest will go downhill. We have plopped our 3D game models into the game, have implemented proper scoring, the announcer for scoring, and a scoring HUD. We have also added the ability for both a human and CPU to control the paddles. The former feature is quite functional and bug free, while the latter feature is in the early stages of development, and needs improvement, especially with coding an intelligent AI with removal of collision issues. Each paddle can only move within a certain area, with some interlap between these fields for multiple players in the Battle Mode.

    Furthermore, we have imported and implemented a majority of the main game sounds. A powerup collectible object has been created; however, the glue-logic for allowing a player to keep powerups and use them at will is pending to be written. This glue-logic will be performed using an invisible powerup thinker. We have, however, begun implementing some of the powerups, especailly those which are based upon physical objects. Such powerups include blockade, bumpers, portals, multi-puck, and army. These powerups will be dis/enabled by the game engine using our powerup thinker object.

    Below is a video showing everything is action, as to the time of this writing. As a developer of the game knowing its inner-workings, I cheat (a lot), in order to show off the features. My paddle (the red one) can move anywhere, and I can dis/enable Unity gameObjects and features on-the-fly using the Unity Editor during runtime. I do this so that I can focus the video recording on specific aspects of our progress. There are a few bugs in the video, but overall, the progress is fine.

C&CC welcomed! Also, if you know me personally in the real world, and want to Beta test the game, email me. I'll be sure to add you to the Credits screen :).

-"Tamkis" (Tony) from the UAHDX team/EagleSoft Ltd