The following was written retrospectively to account for a gap in reports

Map Changes

Over Winter break I added Map Fog, clouds that would disappear when the player got close enough, and remain disappeared when the player re-entered the map. This system was very similar to the one I used to track what enemies should remain dead.

Sometime around Christmas, I was discussing the project with a close friend. I noted that the temporary map I was using was a Robot Island I had created years ago for a different project. We joked about changing the game to Dracula: On Robot Island. I liked the idea so much that it stuck.

New Level

I created a new level to test the game in, which was a big step up from the bland environment I had been working in. This included a background image, trees in the foreground, and interior/exterior textures for the house. Next came a door, which would activate objects inside of the house, and deactivate objects outside of the house. Finally, I created 2 defense mechanisms. A very simple, and slightly buggy turret, and a spawner that created drones which would chase Dracula. The final thing I added was a generator that powered the defense systems. When the generator is destroyed, any attached defense mechanism loses power and turns off.

The Town

The following week I created a town. For the most part it’s just a bigger level, but I also made modifications to pre-existing assets. I added a Defense System script, which would serve as a container for any defense mechanisms. When a generator was destroyed, it would turn off a specified defense system, not the individual defense mechanisms. The enemies, now named “RoboGuys” were already programmed to wander from waypoint to waypoint, but that was too boring. I wanted to have robots generate just outside the level borders and walk from one side of the level to the other, drawing inspiration from the townies in Shovel Knight. I created a an enemy spawner, and a continuous movement script. The robots could now switch between walking straight and waypoint wandering. The most important addition to the RoboGuy was the suspicion value. If Dracula is too close to an enemy for too long (or if he just hits them), The enemy will become alerted, alerting any nearby robots and activating any nearby defense systems, and run away.

Upgrade System

The pride and joy of the project. When it’s complete I think the upgrade system will be the coolest part of the game. When an enemy is killed for the first time, the game adds it to a list which is visualized in the upgrade menu. From there, you can scroll through the list defeated enemies, which each bring up their own list of skills. You can then select one of those skills, which will replace Dracula’s current attack. The most impressive part of this is the swapping of functions, but I’m also very proud of the dynamic menu.

Final Touches

The last things I added over winter break was an interactable object class. At this point is was only used to create a treasure chest, which dropped money upon destruction.