It has been three weeks since group 12 started working on developing a 2D side scroller with the name Heartbeat bat, this title is still on the work due to not using some of the original features. The game is going to be a mix between speed runners adm super mario kart, the player is in a flying state. To progress through the level the player needs to avoid multiple objects at a high speed and to reach the end of the level in a short time. Adding multiplayer is a secondary goal that will only be worked on if enough time is available. At the moment we have a working engine and a very respectable collection of art assets. My work consisted of building the foundation of our game, like structuring our engine to our needs and creating an easy to edit level system.
Today I’m going further into details about one of the artifacts that I worked on during the past three weeks and that is Level structure. I will explain what is it and why was it used.
What is it ?
It’s a text based system that contain numbers from 0 to 9. The zero represents an empty space, while the other numbers represent a different sprite of an entity. Alongside with the numbers, special symbols are placed at the end of each line, their use is to differentiate between entities, for example ‘#’ would represent an ice shard while ‘$’ represents a stalactite.
How was it done ?
In the image below, you can see the information that is being extracted from the text file, any line of numbers that ends with the symbol ‘#’ will represent an ice shard. All the information that has been extracted will be added to a dynamically sized container called a vector. This vector will be used multiple times to build the level as desired, this is done by going through every element in the vector extracting the numbers and the symbols inside.
What was the purpose behind it ?
Since our game is consisted of a lot of objects, I wanted to create an easy way to design the level without rewriting/editing big chunks of code. Changing the level structure now can be easily done by tweaking the numbers inside the text file, this applies for the position of the entity, the sprite and the type of the entity.
Are these my thoughts ? 
It is great that you explained what your project is about so that the reader gets an overview of the overall concept. There could have been a somewhat explanation of scrum and how it works, in that way we know your work process and your methods when planning the work.
Otherwise you explained the asset you are working on well and what you have planned to do so that the rest of the post makes sense. The post is also somewhat easy to comprehend even if the reader is not a programmer which is also good. I am not a programmer but I sort of understand how you built your text based system and what you like about it in that particular system. On the other hand I´m not familiar with other systems so I can´t do any compares. I don´t know how much it matters but if the post is for “regular” people not in the business, the use of terms can be a little confusing. But all together good job and I look forward to see your finished work. Seems like you managed to get quite a bit of work done already! And good luck with the rest 🙂
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