[LD35] The Cell Stage
Call all artists, please help!
In the screenshot below you can see gear wheels which are acting as my obstacles for my swimming friends but they look like they're floating on top of the background. Any ideas how I can get them more "grounded" with the background?
Trying to duplicate the Cell Stage from Spore by Maxis but in 2D.
Swaying background could make you squeezy if you're the sensitive type?
Instructions:
=============
Click anywhere to move there.
Press 'M' to see the whole map.
Press Escape to pause and quit the game.
You can play or download the game and source on itch.io
Compared to the original - Spore by Maxis
In the screenshot below you can see gear wheels which are acting as my obstacles for my swimming friends but they look like they're floating on top of the background. Any ideas how I can get them more "grounded" with the background?
Trying to duplicate the Cell Stage from Spore by Maxis but in 2D.
Swaying background could make you squeezy if you're the sensitive type?
Instructions:
=============
Click anywhere to move there.
Press 'M' to see the whole map.
Press Escape to pause and quit the game.
You can play or download the game and source on itch.io
Compared to the original - Spore by Maxis
Comments
less like they're part of the foreground layer if that's what you're aiming for.
or try play around with the colour combinations, or actually give the cells a nice bright border to better indicate where
they are as opposed to making the obstacles seem more background. Perhaps there is theory to making it work but I tend to just trial and error until it looks more or less how I want.
Disclaimer: not an artist
Check out the "Order in Layer" property on the Sprite Renderer which starts/defaults at 0.
So your background is perhaps set to 0, then your gears should be set to 1 and those swimming buddies are set to maybe 2? That might set the precedence correctly for the rendering order?
Disclaimer: Definitely not an artist.
Do you want them to look like they're part of the black background, or do you want them to be distinct? Because they look distinct, and that seems fine, especially since it seems like you got all those particles which add up to an effect like Flow's? Floating in some kind of suspension liquid?
I've updated the OP with the latest builds before the final push to the finish. Let me know what you think!
@Tuism, yes everything is supposed to be suspended in liquid. It's the Petri dish of life!
I want to continue working on this to get it to some sort of proper completion. It's admittedly a toy rather than a game at the moment.
I don't know why, but I always get a kick out of "life" simulations like these. I think it's the unexpected, the "Wow, check out the eyes on that one!" type of reactions. Those buttons in the evolve menu intrigued me, what are you planning on having them do?
I think it needs better movement for sure and something to do. I would have liked to eat the other fish and use their parts to evolve :P
As you said on the itch page. There's not much gameplay but for what's there. I feel like the movement could be a lot smoother. I think it's the quick rotation. If you're slowly gliding you should rotate a lot slower than quickly shoot to the direction the mouse was clicked.
I like how you've been able to replicate the shape shifting in 2d. Nice. :)
I don't think I could have asked for better. It was my first proper entry and I didn't finish. However I'm quite proud of this little gem and I want to return to it some day.