In the past two weeks, I’ve upgraded the level loading system. The first project was locking doors and loading levels within levels. I used this to make a bridge/hydroelectric power plant level. Now the player can’t explore the map freely. You have to obtain a key, enter the bridge from the left, open the door, walk through through the power plant to get sent to the right side of the bridge, and exiting that sub level will put you on the right side of the bridge. Reversing the process will get you to the other side of the river.

The next project was finally creating a base for Dracula to respawn in. I didn’t want to create just an empty level, I wanted it to feel like a home base. There had to be a reason to stop by besides respawning. To accomplish this I added two banks for Dracula to deposit and withdraw from. The first was an item chest which could hold any items that Dracula has. Seeing as how Dracula doesn’t lose items and has unlimited inventory space, its use is superficial for now.

The second bank actually does have a use. The blood-bank can store excess blood for Dracula. This is useful because upon death Dracula will lose all the blood he has on him, but the blood in the bank will remain. When he respawns he can quickly pull the blood he needs from the bank and jump right back into battle. To make this feature even more valuable, I will also add a mechanic that lowers Dracula’s stats upon death.

Finally, I actually added death functionality for Dracula! Before this Dracula would simply disappear upon death and the game would keep running behind him. Now an actual game over screen appears and gives players the option to return to the main menu or respawn at Dracula’s Lair.

It was very nice to have a couple weeks of work that I could do on my own without following along with a tutorial series.