Added some post-jam clean-up and additions to Skate -N- Score.

Scoreboard

Scoreboard is officially added to the game! While the jam version technically kept track of your score, I didn’t have time to implement a UI to view it. With this new version, the scoreboard UI has been added.

The Scoreboard can be viewed from the main menu by pressing the new “Scoreboard” button. Additionally, the scoreboard will display itself after a level ends.

The Scoreboard will store the top ten scores earned.

Improved Movement

During the jam, many players said the movement felt unresponsive, I apologize for this.

Technically speaking, the movement wasn’t really unresponsive. Under the hood, Bean kept track of the direction the player was “facing” with smooth, angular values. However, I had thought it would be cool (and more fitting for a pixel game) to lock actual movement to the 8 cardinal directions. So, while internally, rotation was moving smoothly (at the rate of 180 degrees per second), what I did was lock the resulting forward direction for every 35 degree arc. If that makes sense.

None-the-less I was wrong in this design choice.

In version 0.2.0 I have switched back to a smooth rotation mechanic for turning. The indicator circle at Bean’s feet has also been updated to show a smooth rotation. I also concede that, yes indeed, the player movement feels a lot more responsive with this change. I hope anyone who tries the game now will have a much better time with it!

What’s Planned

To be perfectly honest, I rarely return to my jam games post jam. I really liked how this game turned out, which is why I came back for some clean-up.

While I actually intend to move on to another project soon, I would like to add more levels to the game. While the one level currently in the game pretty much shows all that’s available, I still think it would be nice to put in at least two additional levels, for those players that might want a little variety.

Adding levels is relatively easy, but this would also mean fleshing out a UI for level selection. Not a difficult addition, but something that may take me a couple weeks to get to… also, assuming anyone is even interested in seeing new levels at this point. :)

Conclusion

If you’ve read this far down my ramblings, I thank you very much. If you’ve played or plan to play Skate -N- Score, then I’m doubly thankful!

As I am writing this a couple days before the new year… HAPPY NEW YEARS to everyone!!