The last two days have been, ahh, frustrating. I've been working on enemy path-finding AI. I've never really done much path-finding AI before, and when I do have an enemy with something more complex than walk till you hit a wall, then turn around it's as simple as, walk till you're close to the player, then charge at player. With Doomer, however, I think something a little more substantial is needed. I'm kinda getting into a slump, so I figured I'd write a thing about it. One of these things. A blog-ey thing.

Right now, normal units will wander to and fro, with a little randomized timer running(counted in frames, not time), if the unit hits a wall, it changes direction, if the timer hits zero, the unit changes direction and the timer is reset to a random integer between 10 and 300 (I think, don't quote me). When the unit is within range of the player and has a clear line of sight, the unit is triggered to change state(2), while in state 2, the unit remains stationary and fires repeatedly. (More advanced units will move between shots, or move while shooting, though I'm sticking with the basic components for now.) When the player too close, the unit will walk away from the player, when the player gets too far, the unit follows the player. That's where we hit the issue. When the unit is running, it just goes till it hits a wall, then stays stationary, but when it's pursuing, the unit ignore walls altogether.


I've tinkered with the units returning to a wandering state when the player breaks line of sight, but it makes the units feel more like turrets than actual moving people/creatures/demons which isn't the feel I want going forward. . . unless the unit actually is a turret. I've thought of having the unit slide against the wall or solid object, though I'm still a little lost on exactly how I'd implement it, another thing I've been tinkering with, is having destructible walls. I'd still need to figure out pathing for the more clever units, but for the tough dumb ones, it could be kinda cool if the enemies could just kick the shit out of a wall until it broke. 


Anyway! This is where my head is at the moment. Good luck on your projects and ambitions.

Give a man/lady a Twerk,
Teach a man/lady to twerk


Thanks,

Wyatt White
The Grand Moff Tarkin of Nothing.

CakeNeq Games has undergone some radical changes in the last month or so, maybe that's apparent if you follow either myself or Kelsie on twitter, but I thought I aught to write up a post to both pop the new blog page, and update those who care to know on the current state of affairs. 

Starting with Kelsie and I. We'd started doing games together under CakeNeq while dating, as something to do together, something productive. I'd been making games under the name Design By Chris for a long while before that, but decided we needed our own label, to commemorate the new era, and direction, of the games we were to make. Recently, Kelsie and I had a personal falling out, leading to us parting ways, both in a personal and 'professional' sense. I wish nothing but the best for whatever she goes on to do, and I hope everyone who supported us as a pair will continue to follow and support us both individually.

For now, I'll be continuing to work under the CakeNeq title, trying my best to pull double duty until I can manage to swindle someone into taking Kelsie's place in CakeNeq. You're all gonna see how essential Kelsie's art skills were in CakeNeq, as mine are rudimentary at best. This is part of the reason that CobWoyyz is being cancelled. CobWoyyz was really a product of the dynamic between Kelsie and I, so with her no longer being a part of CakeNeq I've decided to move on to a different project.

Which brings us, to the last point on the list!! The new project. I've been playing around with making a game inspired by DooM for a long time. Origionally I'd planned it as a 2.5D FPS about bounty hunting demons and aliens. After alot of tinkering and playing around with design, I've modified the idea a lot, and I'm sure it'll change alot more before it's complete. All that backstory aside, the new game being worked on at CakeNeq is Doomer Of Worlds. Doomer is about a low level Repairs and Maintinence Technician aboard a starship that has been overrun by creatures from the great beyond. You, the player and your small team are tasked with restoring order to the ship, eliminating the hostile forces, and completing the ship's mission, whatever that may be. Doomer is currently slated as a top down shooter, utilizing mainly projectile based combat, featuring an amount of enemies, weapons, and levels that are, at this point, still up in the air. 

I'd like to put out a web based game-play snippet when the framework is a little more complete (and when shotguns actually work) and plan on working out at least a weekly update, at least to let people know what is happening with the development process.

Thanks,

Wyatt White
Writes the codes and stuff