Hi! Welcome to my fifth post! If you have not read the previous posts, I highly encourage you all to skim over those first to get a gist of what I have been doing so far! This post was late by 5 days, and I am terribly sorry for the delay. I wanted to make some actual progress that I can show for my game, and that is exactly what I did! Except, on Sunday, I was trying to mess around with Git & Github, and let's just say that I lost about 1/2 of my code for the new feature that I had been working on. Note: I did NOT lose 1/2 of all my code, just 1/2 of the code for the new feature, which will be explained below later. So this post was delayed an additional day as it took me the rest of my Sunday to recover it. Also, this post will have no pictures to sort of build up a little hype about my game trailer, which is coming soon I promise!

So What Did I Accomplish?

A short recap of what I accomplished- the sliding feature. That is pretty much it.  I did finish the code-rework, along with some additional code management. I have to look at the future too a little bit. Learning on good code management as I go. But you guys aren't here to read about my code rework, making my code look pretty and more useful in the future yet have absolutely no effect on the game at that time. Right? And so, to not make this a code-based post like last time, I actually made a noticeable change. Believe it or not, this is actually one big feature to add to the code, yet it may not look like it from a viewer's point of view.

Sliding Feature

Again, the name should be pretty intuitive for what it does. Now, the player of my game, Agility Rush, can now slide in addition to its jump and fall actions! Originally, the player tapped the screen to jump and tapped it again to fall back to the ground. Now, while the falling stays the same, the user must drag up to jump. And if the user drags down? Well, obviously the player object will slide! Now, what does all that entail?

Well first, I had to change my input system to start reading drags and to differentiate correctly between drag up and drag down. Then, the problem came with how to make the body slide. Now, instead of sliding, the player actually "shrinks" in a sort of way. The cube will because a small rectangle that has the same width, yet 1/3 of the original height upon the screen being swiped down. Currently, to exit this state, the user must swipe up, which will make the cube both un-slide and jump at the same time. Right now there is no "time-limit" to the slide, meaning it will not automatically uns-slide after a while.

That pretty much wraps up the sliding feature at its core.

Sliding Obstacles?

Just kidding! There's more to the sliding thing overall. Now, being able to slide is useless if it isn't necessary to slide at any point in the game. And thus comes to existence: The Sliding Obstacle! The sliding obstacle is simply like a regular obstacle, a rectangle, that stretches from the top of the screen to the ground, except for this small gap in between the ground and obstacle. This small gap is not big enough for the regular cube player to fit, however is just big enough for a sliding player to fit through.

After the sliding obstacle, we now have 2 obstacles: one that the player must jump over, and one that the player must slide under. That feels very limiting though. And so, I added a third obstacle, the Jumpable / Slidable Obstacle. In short, this obstacle has the same gap size as a sliding obstacle, however, it does not stretch up to the ceiling. It is short enough for the player to jump over it. This means that the player can pass through the obstacle either by jumping or sliding. However, doing nothing will result in the player dying and therefore ending the game (GAMEOVER).

What's Next? Goals & Plans

Don't forget everyone, I have a milestone set to publish this game by the end of March. Currently, we have 11 days yet. And believe me, a lot is required before the actual polishing. And losing some of my code set me back a bit as well. Below is a list of my plans and goals before the milestone. The goals below are organized by priority making the top most important and bottom least.

Sliding Timing

• Add timing to the player slide.
• This will make the player un-slide automatically after some time.

Changing Current Game Icon

• Even though I updated the game icon and banner, I didn't do it within the application.
• Must update the icon to the new game icon.

Gameplay Video / Trailer (Same As Last Post)

• Record gameplay of my using the game!
• Put video on the project page as well as on the next post!
• Create a very intriguing game trailer.

Add Player Animation (Same As Last Post)

• Spruce up the game graphics a little bit by adding an animated player sprite instead of a box.
• Will have a default set to box, but allow the user to change player look from box to animation.
• Will update all the animations of the player to reflect actions like jump, slide.

Controls Settings

• Add a setting in the Settings Screen to allow changing controls.
• Allows for personalized gameplay, making more people wanna play.
• Offer different modes of controls, or let players set their own.

Flashy Screen Transitions (Same As Last Post) 

•  A transition like fade, zoom, etc, to make my game more appealing. 
• A minor change to make to my screens that I already have.
• Requires a little-reworking in my screen changing system.
• Done using the ScreenManager library found on GitHub for Libgdx.

I have also been experimenting with a software called Hyperlap2D, which believe me is great! However, it is in its very early release stage, and thus has a lot of changes that need to be made.

That wraps up my blog post for today! Of course below this will be the links, sources, and credits (or simply mentions) for this post and my game in general. Hope you enjoyed this post, please follow my devlog, read my earlier posts if you have not already, and please leave any comments and questions you have. I would be happy to answer them!

Links / Sources / Credits

• If you are interested, be sure to also join the Libgdx discord server: https://discord.gg/8tcu8DC8!
• Official Site for LibGdx (Can Download From Here): https://libgdx.com/!
• Hyperlap2D Software GitHub: https://github.com/rednblackgames/HyperLap2D!
• Site for CodeDecks (Currently Use for Game Dev Management): https://www.codecks.io/!