Plans for my Endless Runner
I recently discussed my idea (to be able to control movement in a 2D plane while "flying" in the endless runner instead of having to jump) with my teacher. Unfortunately, creating my own first person character controls from scratch is outside the scope of the project. Instead, I am expected to use the prototype which I made by following the tutorial to build off from. This means that I should use what I have already done, which makes my initial idea complex to complete, since it would need to be made slightly differently from what I actually made.
I intend to make the most out of what I have made, and to simply add to it to make it more complex and more interesting, as well as less buggy.
My first priority will be to remove all of the possible bugs.
These bugs include:
Character disappearing when they go below a certain height (and possibly run too fast, although this could still be due to height).
Coin collection noise stopping after picking up 16.
Character not being destroyed upon running into a wall.
The score will increase faster the faster the player is moving. It will also increase upon picking up powerups and coins. I will attempt to find a good balance which makes gameplay fun.
There will be different powerups which will activate a particle effect on the player and also a HUD element. One will slow the player down a little by subtracting a specified value from the time every time it is picked up. This means that the player will have a small period where they are a little slower than they were for the amount of time which is moved back. Another powerup will grant the player immunity for a single hit once they pick it up. They will not be immune from corners. The third powerup will automatically collect any coins within a certain radius of the player.
There will need to be more obstacles and the terrain will have to be more interesting. I think I should include some platforms which the player must jump up to, as well as ledges on the side which they need to walk on, and platforms connected somewhat on the side, so that players must have to strafe around a wall to get onto the platform. I will also add some more obstacles if I can think of anything interesting enough.
There will be another collectible, a "golden nugget", which will be worth a large amount of coins and points. This is the only collectible that must be collected by jumping.
All coins will be laid out in a line whenever they appear. This is so that it is possible to collect all coins that players pass. I want to do this so that players will deliberately try to collect coins, instead of chaotically walking over as many as they can that are scattered around. I will probably also make coins somewhat rarer to appear, which will happen anyway when I add more tiles.
I will include assets from outside of the beginner assets included in Unreal if necessary, but this is a desirable. I will only do this if I have enough time spare upon completing all of the other aspects which I must complete.