#summerskate

Even though I got the basic input system working, I quickly realized this game is in desperate want of a physics-ish driven character.  True, there’s probably a version of this game that works on a flat surface, but having to worry about obstacles and hills seems like the more natural fit.  

I started by trying to add physics to my existing controller, which was a huuuuuuuuuge mistake - mainly because there were far too many moving pieces!  Trying to debug what’s wrong with the collisions is already hard enough, but add in a strange locomotion system and it becomes tough to know what’s actually at fault.  And while I’ve done one or two 2D character controllers, this was my first 3D one.  This strategy was biting off too much at once.

I scrapped this version and decided to get a simple character controller working first.  After getting in over my head with the custom raycast solution, I ported over my WIP character controller from my Pushmo cover.  This version uses the built in Unity physics collision, but overrides the velocity information.  That way I get all of the collision detection for free, while retaining the necessary control over movement and physics manipulation.

One change from Pushmo is the addition of hills and ramps.  Previously I was directly setting the X and Z velocity values, but this resulted in the controller walking out into thin air when going down a ramp.  For this, I’m remapping the input along the current surface’s normal.  Now when walking down a hill, the velocity is remapped to match the slope, preventing players from walking into midair.  A nice side effect is that player’s movement is maintained along the surface, rather than some of it being “consumed” by walking into the slope’s collision.

With a character controller in and working, it was time to add the physics component.  Rather than directly applying the velocity, players are inputting forces.  The control is much spongier...but that’s also kind of the point.  Collision remap velocity based once again on the surface’s normals.  Hitting a flat surface will kill the velocity, while hitting a slop will redirect it.  Hills are suddenly much harder to climb, because gravity is overwhelming the player’s input speed.  All of this work was a bit roundabout, but it’s very exciting to see it working!

The last portion I wanted to get working was respecting the direction of the player’s skates.  After all, it seems weird that you would slide down a hill if your skates are perpendicular to the slope.  Right now it’s as simple as remapping the current velocity by the player’s direction - though this results in losing a lot of velocity.  I think this will be resolved with my original input, since players won’t be able to turn on a corner and simply lose their momentum.  Once I merge my original controls, this may need revisited.

Though I never owned one, I imagine I would have adored the Dreamcast.  If nothing else it had such a distinct house style, with every game having an alluring look and feel and world.  Everything is blue, bright, and in the full swing of summer.  And since it’s already summer, what better way to celebrate than to make something embodying the Dreamcast??

The core toy here is the skating mechanics - holding the left or right side of the screen pushes down the respective foot.  Putting down your foot increases your overall velocity, and holding that foot down over time will turn the player.  These two rules offer lots of expression - whether it’s quickly going back and forth between feet to gain speed, or leaning on a foot over and over to curve in that direction.  Something about moving your finger in figure eights seems really satisfying.

While eventually there will be hills and obstacles and that sort of thing, I wanted to get the movement feeling terrific.  As always, I started by driving everything by springs.  Each foot is comprised of two: one for lift, and the other for turns.  While this makes them animate nicely, it’s not really giving me the tight, arcade controls I’m looking for.  I’ll likely end up redoing this part.

Originally I thought left and right movement should be tied to how far you drag your finger away from the center of the screen, but that knocks out two handed play.  Instead this is tied to how long you hold the input.  This works for a first pass, but needs a whole lot of love before feeling just right!

Other than that, I spent a little time doing some silly feedback things:

Making sure the skate wheels rotate properly based on distance covered (Thanks math!)

Adding trails when the feet are along the ground.  This was easy enough with Unity’s Trail Renderers, though getting them to properly “normal” needed a little work (The root transform needed rotated, and then positions needed to be converted from world to local).

Putting lots of little touches on the speedometer UI.  Right now player speed is drastically overturned, so I wanted a quick way to see just how much speed was changing with input.  And if I’m already hooking up a UI, why not add some movement, and a gradient, and text shaking?  Spring cleaning, amirite?