Game States

Here’s some screens of the new game state system we just put in. With this our game is now re-entrant, meaning we can load and unload levels on the fly. Torque makes this slightly difficult since we have it in between us and XNA (which the state system is build on).

There’s still a minor bug regarding that, where Torque still updates its world during a pause. Box2D correctly isn’t updated, which causes some strange synchronization issues when we un-pause. Unless C# allows us to call a super-class’s function we’ve overridden beyond the immediate base, we’re kind of screwed. XNA provides a base Game class that Torque derives off of and we derive off the Torque derivative… We need a way to update XNA, but not Torque.

Also on display is Andy’s new level. To the right of the player we have some new platform types, the spring platform. These platforms are attached to a spring, so when the player (or any other object) lands on them, they compress downwards and attempt to compensate with spring force. While not pictured, we also have moving platforms (on a track), platforms that rotate around an axis and platforms that change state (like trees light on fire). State changing platforms allow us to do things like platforms that disappear when you stand on them too long.

Engine Update

Not really much screen shot worthy in the realm of updates this week. We’ve been overhauling a lot of stuff behind the scenes, tightening our integration with the editor, etc.

The charter marks now make much more rigid spell chains, thanks to the new cross-hatching joint system Sean devised. We also have a grow mark in its infancy, though nothing to test it on level wise. We’ve added a few hooks into the charter system to allow real-time tweaking of physics properties, much like the previous work on the character.

Collision filtering is now fully integrated into the editor, thanks to a full overhaul/refactoring of the Box2D components that makes it really easy to create new physical objects/triggers. The sandbox level doesn’t really take advantage of this much yet, but Andy has a level in the works that does.

Gameplay wise, we just checked in a new checkpoint/respawn system that saves state. This allows us to rollback the level to its previous state when you die and respawn at a checkpoint.