Page Comparison

This page details what needs to be scripted to make a working Player movement controller for this project.

Overview

The player movement controller - Dungeon Movement is the first and most important piece of custom scripting needed for the project. With player movement in place a lot of other aspects of design aspects can be prototyped and refined.

There’s going to be two methods of movement. Although for now only oneDungeon Movement needs to be implemented.:

1. Dungeon Movement: Input-Timed movement based on 1 input = 1 unit of movement.

2. Town Movement: Free, continuous movement based on momentum over time. (Not relevant to this page.)

How it should play

Movement Basics:

• The player character is near the middle of the screen, the camera follows them.

• The dungeon is presented from a top down 2D perspective and the floor is broken up into visually clear to see square spaces.

• Each of these square spaces is measured in-engine at 1 unity unit squared.

• The player character navigates by moving in 4 directions from one space square to another spacethe next: They can move UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT.

• 1 Player Made Input = 1 Unit of movement made

• Movement is not continued if the input is held down.

• If the player character encounters collision a collider in the projected direction they wish to move: No movement is made.

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Rhythm Timing:

• Like in the game Crypt of the Necrodancer, this game has a rhythm timing aspect to it.

• This means the player doing actions like moving and attacking is checked against the beat of the music playing.

• A “True/False” Bool Check will be done via playmaker and is exposed via a playmaker bool global variable.

However: Our game is going to be more forgiving then Necrodancer from a design sense in that:

• Failing to match the beat to movement input incurs no penalties.

• Successfully match the beat to movement input rewards a bonus.

  • That bonus will be determined through other scripts / playmaker state machines.

Similar Examples from other games

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The player controller for Dungeon Movement in this game is almost identical. The differences lay in what happens when the player moves successfully or fails to move to the beat.

VIdeo Link

Deliverables

Dungeon Movement Component Script:

• This script should work as a “Component” in unity. Meaning it’ll be attached to an Object in the Hierarchy. Most likely somewhere in the player character object.

• Similar to Unity's “Character Controller” Component.

Script Integrations:

• Integration with Playmaker: The Unity Package “Playmaker” has its own “Global Variables” list that’s that can be used across making multiple state machines. These will be used as triggers for matching up the beat of the music to the players input.

  • Example: There may be a global variable bool called “On Beat” Beat?” - If the player moves while the variable is set to true then it’s considered a successful rhythm timing.

• Integration with Unity animator variables: Unity can use “Animation variables” for like: Int, Float, Bool, & Trigger - This player movement script should be able to communicate with them.

How Collision works

• the ones it’s told to.

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What the Playmaker Global Variables Window Looks like.

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What the animator “Parameters” looks like when it has triggers in it.

How Collision works

• The Character, enemies, objects in the dungeon and walls will be assigned Polygon Collider 2Ds.

• The script should check to see if it registers a polygon collider 2D in the square it’s trying to move into.

  • If it does detect one It wont move the character forward into it.

  • If it detects no colliders, it’ll move the player into the square.

Interacting with Objects in the world

The player can interact with objects such as Chests, Enemies and Prisoners.

For the player to interact directly with an object, three things need to be true:

1. They are standing 1 unity unit or less next to it.

2. They are pressing a movement direction button in the correct direction of the object. (They wont move due to the collision rules being abided.)

3. They have also pressed the “Action Button 1” input. (eg: Hitting spacebar.)

When all three conditions are met then the player character will spawn an invisible trigger volume in the space of the object for an amount of time.

This trigger volume will be detected by whatever playmaker state machine or script is attached to the object in that space and count it as a successful interaction.

That objects state machine will then take on the responsibilities for the rest of the interaction. Up until player control is returned to the player.

Some examples:

• If it was a chest. The character would animate opening a chest and collecting loot.

• If it was an enemy. The character would animate attacking it and entering into a battle sequence.

• If it was a doorway. The character would animate entering into the doorway.

On Beat Check:

A “On Beat” Check will also be made to see if the interaction was done to the beat of the music. If it is that triggers a global variable true bool that may incur some bonuses for the player.

Disabled Player Movement Control

There are multiple times when Dungeon Movement needs to be disabled. Such as when the player is in a battle sequence or trying to solve a puzzle on screen. Possibly even cutscenes.

Disabling player movement should be controlled by a Playmaker Global Variable Bool.

The dungeon movement scripts job is to detect the state of the bool and act accordingly:

• Detects False: Player Movement and object interaction is permitted.

• Detects True: Player Movement and object interaction is Disabled.

This does not disable the keyboard inputs from the game as they’ll be used in UI Screens, enemy encounters, and puzzles. It just stops the player character moving or triggering any more interactions from the dungeon until the variable is set to false again.

Exposed Variables

The following variables for the component script should be exposed in the unity Inspector window to allow some customization and design tuning.