Saturday, August 28, 2021

Minimap Implemented

I really thought that this one would be simpler to develop. It turns out I spent 3 days to make it fully work. Sigh... It got problematic since I'm not relying on a top-down secondary camera. Well, but now it is done. The minimap is being old-fashioned generated. Its algorithm reads each tilemap's layer identifying each tile type and coloring the respective pixel with its respective color.



With the minimap out of the way, I'm now proceeding with the development of the UI, starting with the unit management bar located at the image's bottom.

Development has never proceeded as fast as now, mostly due to the fact I'm working on it full-time. Lets see how everything unfolds during the next week.

Stay safe!

Sunday, August 22, 2021

UI - First Impressions

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Archrebel project! This weekend was all about trying to come up with a suitable UI. I believe I have something solid to go with now. Below, is a mockup of what 1986 Rebelstar could have featured if it wasn't for the hardware restrictions of the time.

The most critical features are probably the mini-map and the squad's overview for easy unit management. Sure, having a graphical representation of items also provides a new level of immersion, and being able to control everything with a mouse or keyboard will grant Rebelstar fans a new comfortable way of experience this old and revised premise. The inventory has been vastly expanded with 10 slots instead of 4, in which 2 of them are for large items only.

If you are wondering what are the bottom items, let me throw in the following names: smoke grenade, frag grenade, mediprob (it's here too!), and a throwable scanner. The latter will be used to uncover ground without exposing units.

I actually had loads of fun 'pixeling-art' those items; it has been a while since I did some considerable pixel-art work, the effort seems to have paid off though. The image above is the result of nearly 30 hours of work consumed during this weekend. Tomorrow is basically wake-up-and-repeat. I've quit my job so I can develop Archrebel at full throttle and hopefully make a living out of game developing and being able to finish Underlair, my other project.

Let me know your thoughts on the comment section, I always do my best to respond to everyone.

Stay safe!