Alan Jack’s Post

Controls feel rough, the pin detection needs tweaked ... but the logic is there for random lane generation. "The Dumbest Bowling Game You've Ever Seen" is starting to take shape ... #gamedev #gamedevelopment #gamedesign

Played a few rounds of Wii Bowling with some of the local Glasgow #gamedev folks last night ... so today, this happened. New side project unlocked!

Have I mentioned how much I hate programming game cameras? It's this much. What #gameDev or #gameDesign tasks get you like this?

Okay, #gamedesign / #gameDev question. Pressing "space" in this instance would NORMALLY cause the character to mantle onto the grey ledge. If mantling is unavailable, they would normally jump instead. If this block is in the way, how should they react? Do they jump? This risks the player not realising the ledge is normally mantle-able. Do they have a "cannot mantle" animation? This could be frustrating since they can't move the box. Do they climb anyway, shoving the box away with superhuman strength? This could get crazy. What do people think?

We need more people looking at how to move and animate things in stylistic ways. The games industry has really become a bit stale in terms of motion and animation, a bit too obsessed with technology, fidelity and things like motion capture and AI - and I say this as someone who learned dynamic IK for fidelity and realism last month.

If I wasn't so dedicated to teaching (and staying in Scotland) I'd definitely be looking at this ... I'm sure I've got a few colleagues on here that would be interested as well though!