Slingshot mechanic working!

So I spent a lot of time this weekend experimenting with the Slingshot mechanic.  Interestingly enough, I realized purely by accident that you can "ricochet" yourself off of your surroundings, reaching areas you were not aiming directly at.  This video shows me playing through two puzzles that I hope take advantage of this feature.

I think its very promising!

Meetings and Consecutive Tethering Particle

So this weekend the Programming/Mechanics/Puzzle design team had a meeting to all get on the same page about what exactly it is that we are going to accomplish this quarter on the mechanics front. We are now all on the same page, and we have a much more solidified idea of the exact functionality we need from each mechanic.

We had a small group meeting earlier today. We discussed, among other things, some gameplay improvements that can be made to Level 1. These improvements deal with making Level 1 more about exploration, and revealing the narrative to the player as gameplay progresses.

We also decided on which bell concepts we wanted to use for what purposes.

Flying Golem Bell - calls the flying golems
Gravity Bell - suspends gravity
Wind Bell - calls bursts of wind
Level 1 Bell - used for environment exploration in level 1

And on a programming front, minor improvements have been made to the slingshot mechanic. Also, the particle effect for player feedback for consecutive tether switching has been implemented and looks pretty cool. This led to the discovery of a small bug concerning the consecutive tether switching, but it has been remedied. Huzzah!

Also, this happened.

Prototyping Mechanics

For Sprint #2 I am constantly prototyping in engine the new Dragging mechanic and the Slingshot mechanic.  I will be working closely with Kersti to make these mechanics run as smoothly as possible.

This week I have set up the new Dragging mechanic and have been toying around with it.  There was a little trouble setting up the custom node initially, but Kersti has figured out the problem and I am looking forward to setting up a solid puzzle with them now!

Contest Entry! And Level Design

In preparation for both Entelechy submissions [and another contest], both environment teams for Project Chime are now retooling their efforts to polish up Level 1 of the game.

This means that the Tutorial Level we'd planned to create within the quarter has been moved to top priority and we'll be making a push to have everything up and running very soon.

Meanwhile, our Systems guys [and gals] have been on the ball, coming up with some layouts for both the Tutorial level and Level 2. The following is just one of many concepts. 

The player is represented here as a blue dot, while golems are represented in yellow.

After making their way over to the golems up on a ledge, the player must use the double-tether mechanic to grab onto both of the golems.

After contact is achieved, the player then waits for the third golem [pacing back and forth along the red arrow's path]  to get into range, before tethering to it. The third golem will still continue along its path.

With a well-timed release of the third tether, this configuration will create a slingshot effect, allowing the player to travel much farther.

This travel leads the player to another island, which was previously inaccessible.