Got a message from steam review about my demo and there was a problem with how I uploaded the build. Apparently I left a variable on that put it on a local server instead of uploading it to steam. Once I made sure it uploaded properly I checked that I could actually download it on steam. I was able to play the demo from steam itself, very exciting stuff.
Then I got back to the grind. Still can’t package with the loading screen plugin. But I won’t give up so easily. I changed the names of certain options to make it more accurate. I started to prepare for the crosshair settings I was going to implement. What was previously just brightness will now be visuals to cover any visual settings that can be changed.
It took awhile for me to find the most efficient way to load and save the crosshair. What I ended up doing was saving an integer that is fed into a function that will set the color and style whenever the game loads or when the player changes the setting in the menu. I had a bad habit of calling too many unnecessary functions at a time. I am working on making something as simple as possible while being efficient. The player can now change colors and styles. Each color and style is tied to an integer. So instead of going through the trouble of naming the colors I just put the number. The final output of the function makes sure it always loops back and sets the style and color properly.
After that I had the idea of having the lock-on widget have the same appearance as the crosshair. That way it tells the player the same thing about being in range for the whip or too far. I made the image way too large at first, and it was quite funny. Once I got it right it looked and felt very nice. My issue is that the crosshair might not be seen well in some stages. Like a red crosshair in the first stage can be troublesome. I tested some shadows but it didn’t look right. I will come back to this again soon.
I made a lot of other small changes here and there. Some bugs and issues I found with old objects I made and functions within the player character’s blueprint. I keep getting distracted and I really need to crack down on why I can’t package my game with plugins. Deep dive on that coming next.
GoldenGratus Games 