UPDATE #12: Cameras and Artificial Intelligence

UPDATE #12

This update has taken longer than we were expecting mainly because we have been addressing two things that were not working correctly and were giving to the game some usability and playability problems. We are referring to the Camera management system and to the enemy pathfinding that is described below. Added:

New Game Over transition that works better than the existing one and that allows for a smoother transition to the respawn position.

Although not visible in this build, we have started to work in the destruction of the world as the dark forces of evil are getting the edge of the victory and their influence grow stronger. The visual effect of burning down the level is starting to take shape and will be one of the new mechanics that will force the player to move forward with both characters, while finding a way to progress between burn and tear down parts of the level. Fixed:

• 

• Camera Management The camera was causing some problems and in battles with the enemies or when jumping, as the camera instantly moved creating a visual impact on the game that was not really great, and in the case of the battles, making the player to lose the focus on the enemies. We have worked in a system similar to the camera systems that you are able to find in games like Super Mario, where the camera features a dead zone that will cause it not to move while the player is inside the area, and then to smoothly follow the player and focusing on it.

  

• Enemy Pathfinding and character detection The enemy pathfinding was harder to solve, as the some of the enemies were correctly finding and chasing the main characters, but others were or totally ignoring them or killing themselves in the process of reaching him, even if the path was blocked with fire or water. We think know that the enemies are more aware of the environment and of the player position in the map and act in more clever way.

By improving the camera and the pathfinding we have been able to address some improvements on the stability of the framerate and we think that we have achieved a build that is always running above 30fps. As always, don't forget to share any feedback or suggestion to us on the discussion board, we are counting on your help to make Upside-Down Dimensions a great game and we need your feedback. We have started to upload videos of all the changes that we are doing to the game to our Youtube channel which will allow to keep a better track on the progress that we are doing to the game. Upside-Down Forums Thanks for playing our game and Stay tuned...