August was a busy month for updates. The first batch of changes were setting up the itch page. Create a YouTube account and then editing a short video. 

  Once the social media side of the house was in order, I returned my focus back to the game.  Below is a summary of these changes. 

Boom:

  We'll start off with a simple change. Explosions have been added when an enemy is destroyed. 

onTrigger bug fixed: 

  In order for the grid generator to work, I had setup a box mesh attached to the grid above the floor. When the player passed through the mesh This would trigger the generator to spawn a new grid ahead of the player and delete a grid behind the player.  This is to save on system resources since I want the grid to generate endlessly until the stage objectives have been completed. This ensures that the stage is not limited by a traditional Start and end of the play field. 

  While play testing I noticed that my projectiles were getting destroyed before hitting a target.  As the player traveled the distance of the projectile would get shorter and shorter then it would go back to normal. After some testing I found that on one side of the mesh, the enemy was able to pass through the mesh, but the player projectile was being destroyed once it hit the mesh. However, the player model was able to pass through with no issue. The player bullets were also not triggering an explosion, so the mesh was not being registered as an enemy and destroying the bullet. 

  I found some theories of what this could be but after thinking about this some more, I decided rather than fight it I could just move the grid trigger to take place below the grid floor. I added a sphere mesh below the floor that follows the player and is the object that triggers the grid generation.   This works great and now my bullets are no longer being destroyed prematurely. 

Stage0: 

  The first stage is starting to take shape and moving out of a concept to it's final form. Still have changes planned but I'm happy with how it's turning out. I found a way to create a wireframe affect over rocky objects that is now being used for the side boundaries of the level. Gives a really cool feeling of passing through a trench at high speed. 

Lighting has also been reworked since the stage is much darker it needed to have highlights in the right places so you can still track everything. 

Title Screen: 

For the full demo, below is the final render of what I plan to use for the title screen and menu.

The right feel: 

  Lastly, I've been working on the movement and shooting mechanics and getting things tightened up. Playing with the speed of everything to ensure the control of the player feels good. This is one of those things that takes time to get right. This is a foundation piece of the game and before I start to add on top of it, I need to player to feel like they're in control with a fast and responsive controle scheme. 

  I had originally planned to allow the player to move up, down and left and right. The hover bike was feeling more like a rocket. I'm now play testing with the player grounded but have the ability to jump over obstacles. So far, I like how this plays and makes you feel like you're actually riding a bike rather than flying a plane that you can't maneuver like a plane. 

What's next? 

  My goals for September are shown below. 

• Add a auto targeting system to make shooting enemies more about reaction time rather than precision aiming.
• Create obstacles.
• Add enemy AI and get a few working enemy patterns in place.
• Add basic power ups like health. 
• Create 1 alternative shooting type. Shotgun or Lazer.