Day 3

I had neglected to create a Git repo yesterday so I decided to do it now. Somewhere along the way, I was met with various errors that resulted with the scene being corrupted.

The map that I had made was replaced with broken pink textures. I fiddled with the sprite sheet and configured tilemaps but to no avail, so I made a placeholder map using only 2 tiles for rapid development as I focus on interactable mechanics.

First priority is for the player to be able to move. I reused an existing movement script for grid-like movement. I added a modification to the script so that it communicates to a GameManager which would handle combat logic: when a player detects a Monster game object (they have a script that identifies them as a MonsterClass, they would exchange hits and deal damage to each other. But it feels off as the player is currently visually blocked from interacting with a monster, as the game does not differentiate between a monster and a wall. I added a "bumping" animation using coroutines to get the desired effect.

This animation also  has its own fair share of issues. Because movement is called on Update, the game is constantly checking for directional input every frame. So if the player holds down the movement button (very common and expected), the coroutine may struggle to move the player due to the conflicting directional input, allowing the player to get stuck on a Monster. This also causes the colliders to endlessly trigger the combat function, as it was made with the intention that they would only start when the player first collides with a monster.

To stop this, I tried to disable inputs while the coroutines for the bumping animation are running, but if the player was holding down a directional button, that movement is technically stored and will remain to be called. After modifying the placeholder rat enemies to their intended 1 HP value, the problem went away as the rats immediately despawned, which also stopped combat, so I decided to focus on implementing other features while placing this bug on hold.

I then added an ATK and DEF shop so the players can improve their combat abilities. Due to the minimalistic nature of movement and object interaction, reusing the code block for colliding with monsters worked.  The shop was very basic and crude, but otherwise functional. I then added an ascending shop cost system, so that players will be incentivised to hunt for stronger, more rewarding monsters as they level up.

The shop, however, suffered from the same clipping bug if the player holds down a movement button. Now that it has started to affect multiple features, including future planned ones, I could no longer ignore it and have to provide an elegant fix before it introduces more problems to more features down the line. Several features needed to be implemented for the MVP, including more monsters and map zones, so issues should be tackled from an urgency basis. 

The list of priorities is now as follows:

1. More enemies.
2. Functional game loop (hunt monstes -> upgrade -> repeat).
3. More zones, including zone transitions.
4. Fix buggy movement.

Buggy movement is low on the list as it can be temporarily rectified by smart map design and object placement, and some emergency fixes such as a cooldown on combat encounter or moving it from Update to OnTrigger is viable, but required further exploration and testing. Other features were still missing and more important to make a final proof of concept, so I prioritised those features instead.

A lot of this day was spent debugging and finding solutions to the movement script, so instead of being stuck on one problem, I decided it was best to move on and start new features as the deadline approaches.