It's been a long 2013 so far, thanks to the Flu making itself known with a vengeance in the house, but we're back with a Mid-Month update on our One Game A Month Project for January, Bacon Run.
After the initial design and construction of 3D Level assets in Blender and some initial testing in Unity 3D, I was able to pull myself away from the brink of Flu-induced inactivity this weekend and correct some major issues with the meshes and game-play discovered after testing in early January.
A few tweaks to how the Maze Meshes were exported from Blender and the auto-smoothing problem was fixed, as well as how the materials were mapped in Blender, was a major boon to the overall look of the game.
Also added was a "Breadcrumb System"; a trail of breadcrumbs left in your wake to help backtrack through the maze when you take a wrong turn - this greatly assists the player in having a sense of awareness to their location, and prevents "Going In Circles" for an excessive amount of time.
One final feature added was a particle emitter from the goal, the Bacon-Monolith that is your prize at the end of each level - this also gives a sense of orientation to the player, greatly improving the time required to complete a level and keep it from becoming overly frustrating.
I've taken the liberty of documenting the creative process behind Bacon Run, more for me that anyone else, as the One Game A Month Challenge is a learning and growth tool.
