The goal of this game is to "get to the point".
The point being the urchin, and you get to it by touching it with your mouse.
The point being the urchin, and you get to it by touching it with your mouse.
You have to be careful! Any sudden movements will scare the urchin and cause it to lash out.
After noting down what I wanted to accomplish,
I broke the project down to smaller pieces that I could tackle one by one.
I broke the project down to smaller pieces that I could tackle one by one.
Well, I say "after", but taking notes, doing research, and working on the project itself may all happen in parallel.
Starting with the urchin.
I initially wanted to make it soft and squishy, but doing so would be very complicated and time-consuming, so I settled on a rigid body instead. However, I found I could take the points that make up the body's bounding shape and wiggle them around randomly. This creates an effect that makes the urchin look softer and fuzzier. Constantly changing the collision shape causes the body to bump and roll around, so I shifted it's center of mass down, ensuring it stays upright.
I initially wanted to make it soft and squishy, but doing so would be very complicated and time-consuming, so I settled on a rigid body instead. However, I found I could take the points that make up the body's bounding shape and wiggle them around randomly. This creates an effect that makes the urchin look softer and fuzzier. Constantly changing the collision shape causes the body to bump and roll around, so I shifted it's center of mass down, ensuring it stays upright.
The jumpy behaviour is exactly what I needed to make the urchin seem like it was scared.
I took advantage of this by increasing the intensity of the wiggling as the urchin gets more anxious.
I took advantage of this by increasing the intensity of the wiggling as the urchin gets more anxious.
Once the urchin is sufficiently scared, and the cursor enters a certain range, spikes will shoot out to block the cursor. The spikes are always there, but they blend in to the urchin due to being all one color. In addition, the spikes will only become active if they are visible, which is to say, whenever they are large enough to stick out from the body.
I tried using a system where the urchin would release stress by shooting out it's spikes, essentially causing it to clam up and stop shaking, while it had it's spikes out. Ultimately I decided to remove this system, because it was less fun. And besides it's an urchin, not a clam.
In the current version of the game, the anxiety level is determined entirely by mouse movements.
If I had more time to flesh out this project, I would add more ways to scare and soothe the urchin.
Loud noises could upset it, while food could calm it down, for example.
If I had more time to flesh out this project, I would add more ways to scare and soothe the urchin.
Loud noises could upset it, while food could calm it down, for example.