Overview

  • Attendance
  • General Discussion
  • Playdate Project
  • Next Week

Attendance

  • Abu Shettima
  • Jonathan Buckel
  • Lavender Wilson
  • Matthew Williams
  • Paul Shriner

General Discussion

Unix Timestamps

Discord can format unix timestamps in a variety of ways, which can be helpful for announcements about time-sensitive events (such as club meetings).

Also, a fun fact: the current unix timestamp system will be overflowing (relatively) soon, on January 19, 2038, at 03:14 am. The results will be essentially the same as the Y2K phenomenon.

Playdate Project

Ideas

As was discussed last meeting, we thought an endless runner-type game would be a good start to a club project. We definitely want to keep the scope small (at least until we meet any development goals).

A Temple Run style game was brought up as an option, though its graphics would have to be much simpler (a 2D top-down was suggested).

The dungeon crawler idea is a little too big to choose as a first project, since even a basic version would probably be pretty difficult to make.

A 2D platformer could work, but being that we don’t have that much time, we think that starting very simple is for the best (and we decided the same for any non-trivial game remakes).

Club Fair

Since we want to have something cool to show at the club fair, it doesn’t have to be the most impressive or perfected game, since it’s possible someone may want to contribute to the project.

Another reason that we’re not going to make a port/recreation of an existing game is because it wouldn’t be very interesting to other people.

For putting our game on display, we’re probably gonna use the emulator. If the fair is outside, we would need to bring something for shade so that the laptop screen doesn’t get blown out.

Fleshing out the Runner

General Details

  • It should be 2D side-view sidescroller (similar to the chrome dinosaur game)
  • We’d like to incorporate the crank, if possible

Brainstorming

Some of the ideas that were discussed:

  • Having the ground break down behind the character
  • Using the crank to control the player’s speed / change in speed
  • Using the crank to aim some kind of projectile
  • Using the crank to regenerate a stamina that constantly depletes
  • We’d like to include some kind of reference to the club (ex: main screen splash text)
  • Having a life system (allowing the player to continue after hitting something)

Obstacles

  • If the player hits an obstacle, their run ends
  • For now, just two kinds of obstacle:
    • One that forces the player to duck
    • One that forces the player to jump

Other Mechanics

We’ve decided to go with the projectile aiming idea for the use of the crank. Here are some of the details we decided on:

  • Aiming/shooting should be optional
  • Hitting targets onscreen (staying still relative to the player) grants point bonuses
  • There should be a limited range of motion of aiming (some area in front of the player)
  • Spinning the crank should adjust the aim
  • Using the A or B button should shoot a projectile (keeps all the shooting-related things on the right hand)

Theming

  • The main character will be Blaze (PW Cal’s mascot)

Name Suggestions

  • Blaze’s Fury
  • Blaze’s Flamin’ Hot Escape
  • Blaze 2rs

Next Week

We’ll be planning out more details about the game, and we want to have a more solid plan by next meeting (perhaps even a mockup).

We’ll have our next official meeting on July 1st at 7 PM.