AmiRun 2 DevLog #14 Update
08.11.2022 - 09:11 Game, Amirun2, Update
Some additional information about the AmiRun2 progress. Of course this goes on even without creating a video.
Ami can hit
As already described AmiRun can now hit around - this works very well. With a press of the fire button Ami now hits one of three different punches (right, left, and uppercut) while standing.
Ami can also kneel down and punch in the corresponding direction with his fist. What is missing here is the punching during a jump.
Ami can generally only punch when he is standing in place and cannot spam while running. This was chosen deliberately. If he starts a punch and starts running the punch will be canceled.
Boxes and particles
Besides a few new particle effects like the bullets that fly away when Ami shoots or the coins that drop when Ami shoots an enemy, there are now also crates that Ami can hit or shoot and from which weapons or ammo can drop.
To introduce this new feature to the player there is also a crate in the tutorial level that Ami has to open and so the new hitting function and the new crates he can open are introduced. In level 2 the gun is only available if Ami opens the 3 crates on top of the roof, but alternatively he can also try to get through the skyscraper without a gun. However, the Duke now has the possibility to get a laser weapon.
The Laser
The laser weapon has also been reworked, one shot of the laser now shoots 3 enemies and only then disappears.
The player sprite
The AmiRun Sprite I have prepared so far to accommodate more animations in the future, which in turn means that I also had to rework the PickUps and also the graphics for it. I also removed the beer beam function, oops what kind of function? Hehe this was undocumented and it is the counterpart to the beam of Turrican, in the demo this shot can still be triggered if the player holds the fire button for 2 seconds.
You can control this beam by pressing the left or right button, if you move (run or roll) then the beam will stop.
The drop system was also reworked and outsourced to reduce the resources needed the same with the sounds that affect the player himself.
Ami can now Dashen and also Double Jumpen, these functions are disabled for now. I am still thinking about how and where the player can activate this and whether the function is then permanently available or limited.
The player now also has a new GUI and 15 health points, whereby the life is no longer abruptly deducted and refilled but gradually full or empty. In addition, a portrait is displayed that still shows the body condition of the player. All weapons are displayed in the GUI as a small icon next to which is the ammunition that is in the weapons themselves and even smaller next to the ammunition that is still in the inventory. The ammunition can be accumulated by the way up to 999 cartridges plus what is in the weapon everything else is gone.
The levels
Because of these changes I had to rework the Jump'n Run levels, the enemy sprites had to drop the new PickUps.
In level 1 (tutorial) some of Alexa's voice messages were changed and the tutorials were changed because some of the function assignments changed. Additionally, a crate was added to teach the player how to hit and open crates.
In level 2 (Operation Elevator Action) there are now 3 boxes on the roof of the house where you can find a weapon and ammunition. The agents now drop ammo for the weapon(s) and coins for the points and of course still the healthpack. Additionally, agents no longer come out of doors that have already been opened by the player. If the door is opened by DukeNukem then the player gets the laser weapon with the revised laser bullets. The camera controls at the end had to be slightly adjusted.
Level 3 (Ami Outrun) was not touched for the time being, there will possibly be drastic changes, I'm still thinking about it.
In level 4 (Green Beret Crashside) also had to be adjusted a bit in the PickUps. The enemies now also drop masses of weapons and ammunition from the outsourced drop list. The bug that the time is counted even though a cutscene is running has been fixed, that means as soon as a character says something the time counter stops.
The knife was removed because the player can now also strike. I'm thinking about adding melee weapons like daggers, swords, baseball bats etc. that are executed with the fist instead of a punch. These should not be able to change during the game but replace the default punch or the previous melee weapon.
But I don't know if that will happen yet, it's just additional work without bringing any tactical function.
The camera control I have rewritten, there you see nothing of it but happened and now more flexible than before.
In level 5 (space shooter) I have to adjust the GUI.
Level 6 remains mostly untouched except at the end of the rockets that race to Ami there is the exhaust tail still soft fade out!
Level 7 is the cologne level and this one already has the beginning of the level music but at the moment it doesn't go very far because the previous levels were adjusted first. The script for the level is so far but there will be a new video when there is something to see in the level again
Ami can hit
As already described AmiRun can now hit around - this works very well. With a press of the fire button Ami now hits one of three different punches (right, left, and uppercut) while standing.
Ami can also kneel down and punch in the corresponding direction with his fist. What is missing here is the punching during a jump.
Ami can generally only punch when he is standing in place and cannot spam while running. This was chosen deliberately. If he starts a punch and starts running the punch will be canceled.
Boxes and particles
Besides a few new particle effects like the bullets that fly away when Ami shoots or the coins that drop when Ami shoots an enemy, there are now also crates that Ami can hit or shoot and from which weapons or ammo can drop.
To introduce this new feature to the player there is also a crate in the tutorial level that Ami has to open and so the new hitting function and the new crates he can open are introduced. In level 2 the gun is only available if Ami opens the 3 crates on top of the roof, but alternatively he can also try to get through the skyscraper without a gun. However, the Duke now has the possibility to get a laser weapon.
The Laser
The laser weapon has also been reworked, one shot of the laser now shoots 3 enemies and only then disappears.
The player sprite
The AmiRun Sprite I have prepared so far to accommodate more animations in the future, which in turn means that I also had to rework the PickUps and also the graphics for it. I also removed the beer beam function, oops what kind of function? Hehe this was undocumented and it is the counterpart to the beam of Turrican, in the demo this shot can still be triggered if the player holds the fire button for 2 seconds.
You can control this beam by pressing the left or right button, if you move (run or roll) then the beam will stop.
The drop system was also reworked and outsourced to reduce the resources needed the same with the sounds that affect the player himself.
Ami can now Dashen and also Double Jumpen, these functions are disabled for now. I am still thinking about how and where the player can activate this and whether the function is then permanently available or limited.
The player now also has a new GUI and 15 health points, whereby the life is no longer abruptly deducted and refilled but gradually full or empty. In addition, a portrait is displayed that still shows the body condition of the player. All weapons are displayed in the GUI as a small icon next to which is the ammunition that is in the weapons themselves and even smaller next to the ammunition that is still in the inventory. The ammunition can be accumulated by the way up to 999 cartridges plus what is in the weapon everything else is gone.
The levels
Because of these changes I had to rework the Jump'n Run levels, the enemy sprites had to drop the new PickUps.
In level 1 (tutorial) some of Alexa's voice messages were changed and the tutorials were changed because some of the function assignments changed. Additionally, a crate was added to teach the player how to hit and open crates.
In level 2 (Operation Elevator Action) there are now 3 boxes on the roof of the house where you can find a weapon and ammunition. The agents now drop ammo for the weapon(s) and coins for the points and of course still the healthpack. Additionally, agents no longer come out of doors that have already been opened by the player. If the door is opened by DukeNukem then the player gets the laser weapon with the revised laser bullets. The camera controls at the end had to be slightly adjusted.
Level 3 (Ami Outrun) was not touched for the time being, there will possibly be drastic changes, I'm still thinking about it.
In level 4 (Green Beret Crashside) also had to be adjusted a bit in the PickUps. The enemies now also drop masses of weapons and ammunition from the outsourced drop list. The bug that the time is counted even though a cutscene is running has been fixed, that means as soon as a character says something the time counter stops.
The knife was removed because the player can now also strike. I'm thinking about adding melee weapons like daggers, swords, baseball bats etc. that are executed with the fist instead of a punch. These should not be able to change during the game but replace the default punch or the previous melee weapon.
But I don't know if that will happen yet, it's just additional work without bringing any tactical function.
The camera control I have rewritten, there you see nothing of it but happened and now more flexible than before.
In level 5 (space shooter) I have to adjust the GUI.
Level 6 remains mostly untouched except at the end of the rockets that race to Ami there is the exhaust tail still soft fade out!
Level 7 is the cologne level and this one already has the beginning of the level music but at the moment it doesn't go very far because the previous levels were adjusted first. The script for the level is so far but there will be a new video when there is something to see in the level again