Week 9 and 10

 I decide to write the last two weeks together because I want to express my opinions about the A.L.L project. In the tenth week, besides the phase tests, my team presented our "game" which unfortunately was not complete because we had some serious communication issues during this term. From the fifth week, our team communication became increasingly worse so we couldn't define everybody's role in the team properly. I started working for the enemies in the last two weeks of the deadline because I received my "task" later than I was supposed to. In the last week, I and other two of my team members tried to put something together but due to some errors, we could not put all the features of the game together, even if I managed to fix the scripts we didn't have any time to form the final product. Anyway, I know that everyone approached the project in a wrong way and the mistake of not finishing the game does not belong to only some members of the team which I was a part of but with all the inconveniences occurred I am happy that I was able to enhance my knowledge and hopefully, the second term will be better.

 Special thanks to Mr Ian Evans which helped me to solve some compiler issues at the scripts.

Week 8

 In the eighth week, we were introduced in the try-catch-finally in C#, an aspect that we covered in Python as well in week 7. A practical way to use "catch" and "finally" together is to obtain and use resources in a "try block", deal with exceptional circumstances in a "catch block", and release the resources in the "finally block". Also, I continued to work on the ranged enemy. After I imported the sprite sheet for the ranged enemy, I sliced it and I created the prefab, where I added some components like a box collider with the tag "BlockingLayer" in order to prevent the player from passing through the enemy and I added a rigid body where I froze the Z rotation to protect the ranged enemy from falling because by freezing the Z rotation is harder for the main character to get past the enemy, else he could easily push him back, make him fall and prevent the enemy from attacking.

 After I set up all the components of the inspector I focused my attention on the scripts. The thing that I wanted for the ranged enemy to do was to start shooting projectiles as soon as the player finds himself in a certain range. So the first thing which I did was to import a simple bullet from the internet:

After I found it and I imported it in Unity I dragged and dropped it on the game scene and I created a prefab. The first thing I did was to add a box collider (the box collider is triggered) and a rigid body (for the motion) to the bullet. The first I added to the bullet was the "Destroy" script because if the bullet is not hitting the target I wanted to make it disappear after a small amount of time. So I declared a public variable called "lifetime" which was set to 2 seconds, after this, I created an "Awake" method which has "Destroy" function in it which destroys the game object after a certain amount of time.

 The next script which I wrote was the script for the bullet controller. The first things which I did in the script was to declared some variables like: the speed of the bullet, the "playerController" (I need the player controller because I need to access the game object in order for the bullet to find and to give damage to the main character), a public integer for the damage, and finally the rigid body. The first to things declared in the "Start" method are the player because, as I said earlier the bullet needs to find the player, and the rigid body (essential for the motion). The if statement highlights that the speed of the bullet is determined by the position of the player. In the "Update" method, the first function sets the velocity of the bullet, the speed of the bullet and the direction (which is on the Y axis). The if statement underline that the bullet touches the "tag" (player), then the player's health should modify by decreasing it. The final function is for the bullet to get destroyed after it reaches its target. Another import piece of information is to set up the "Layer" of the bullet prefab as a projectile.

  

 The last script I created was for the ranged enemy to be able to shoot at the player when it enters in a certain range. The first thigs that I added to the script were: a "public float playerRange;" because in this way I can in what kind of range the player is, the second variable is the bullet, the third variable is the player's position, the "launchPoint" variable defines the point from where the bullet will launch also I added a child to the "Ranged Enemy" prefab to set the exact lauch location. The last 2 variables are defining the countdown timer which will control how many shots the ranged enemy has. Also, in the "Start" method I set the "shotCounter" equal with "waitBetweenShots", basically enemies will not be able to fire for however you set the "waitBetweenShots". In the "Update" method I will countdown the shots basically when the "shotCounter" will be less than 0 the ranged enemy will be able to fire. Also, what I wanted to do was to reset the "shotCounter" every time the ranged enemy is shooting so I added to "shotCounter = waitBetweenShots;" in both the if statements. In the "Update" method I used the "Debug.DrawLine" function because I wanted to draw a line to see the trajectory of the bullet. The two if statements inside the "Update" method are basically for the enemy to find if the player its either left or right. When the enemy will find the main character he will start shooting. In both of the if statements I have the "Instantiate" function which makes a copy of an object in a similar way to the "Duplicate" command in the editor. If the "GameObject" is cloned the position and the rotation will be specified (these are default from the original GameObject's position and rotation). Also, "Quaternion" is useful to represent rotation.

 What I need to improve at the ranged enemy: I have to work on the exact same feature as the melee enemy, in the original "game plan" the enemy was supposed to crouch when he was shooting. Also, the enemy was supposed to flip as well but I did not have time to finalise the flipping script for the ranged enemy. 

References: 

Try-Catch-Finally: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dszsf989.aspx

Bullet Image: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bullet+2d&safe=active&biw=1536&bih=759&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwidldKoj_DQAhUqBcAKHRaiAQ8Q_AUIBigB#q=bullet+2d&safe=active&tbs=isz:i&tbm=isch&tbas=0&imgrc=adYNsMHqc9zXUM%3A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxjRtaV4N7g&list=PLiyfvmtjWC_Up8XNvM3OSqgbJoMQgHkVz&index=25

Week 7

 In the seventh week, we were taught about the scrolling background and the user interface so I decided to work on these two features of the game even if my job for the game was to create the enemies. I wanted to work on the scrolling background and the user interface because I wanted to develop my knowledge in C# and Unity. 

 Scrolling Background

 I created a simple, easy and fast scrolling background which can be used for any type of 2D, action platformer game. For the background of the game, I chose the one which was used during the lab session in the seventh week.

                                 

 When a picture is imported in Unity the texture type is "Sprite (2D and UI)", if I want to make the picture scroll I have to change the texture type to "Texture". I had to change also the Wrap Mode from "Clamp" to "Repeat" because I want to make the background a repeating one. 

   

 After I finished with the background changes I had to add a "Quad", to add a "Quad" the user need to go to the "GameObject" from there to "3D Object" and then add a "Quad". The next thing I had to do was to scale it, if the "Quad" is too dark for some user it can be changed by adding a "Directional light" (from "Game Object" go to the "Light" section and choose "Directional Light"), the last thing I did was to rename the "Quad" to "background". After I have done all of this I just dragged and dropped the background over the "Quad", if wanted the intensity of the light can be changed. After setting all the features of the background I started working on the script for the scrolling background.

 The first thing I did in the script was to determine a "public float" variable, this variable will determine the speed of the background's movement. In the "Update" method I created a "Vector2 offset" which is equal with a "new Vector2", its components being the multiplication between the current time and the speed of the background and the value of Y. The Y value of the vector is equal with 0 because I wanted for my background to scroll on the X axis. The next thing I did was to write a "render" function which is equal to the "offset". Basically, the "offset" will be changed by the multiplication between the time and speed and in the final in will be added to the "mainTextureOffset" and the backgrounds will keep moving. To make the background move vertically just interchange the values on the "new Vector2" between them. The interesting thing about this method is that the background isn't physically moving, only the texture is wrapping around the background.

User Interface

 For the user interface, I created a simple main menu with 3 buttons: one for playing the game, one for saving the game, and one for loading the last checkpoint reached by the player. For the background of the game, I chose a free asset from the Unity Asset store.

  The first thing I did was to import the background into Unity to create a basic scene, then I started building the UI. The next thing I did was to create a new button, when creating a new button in Unity 4 different elements, including the button, are created: a "Canvas" which emulates the restriction of the user interface (everything which forms the UI needs to be in the "Canvas"), the actual button is created which also has a child (the text of the button), and the last element which is created is the "EventSystem" (the event system being a way of sending events to objects in the application based on input, be it keyboard, mouse, touch, or custom input). The next step was to create a simple menu, so I created 3 buttons, as I said in the beginning of the paragraph. The size, position and colour of the button can be changed in the Inspector window. To make the buttons look sharper, I "ticked" a feature in the "Canvas" window called "Pixel Perfect". For every button of the main menu, I did the same thing .

 The font, font style, font size or any other characteristics of the text can be changed in the "Text" window.

 The next thing I did was to make the buttons from the main menu work and by "work" I meant that I wanted for my buttons to change between some scenes. To do this I created other 3 different scenes for every button of the main menu. To change between scenes, I created a really easy script  that has a function which changes the scene. This script can be placed either on the "Main Camera" or on the button itself but I chose to create an empty game object called "_Manager". In the script, the "Start" function is not needed and I renamed the "Update" function in "ChangeToScene" and I gave it a string value. Inside the function, I declared a variable which changes the scene. Basically, Unity is expecting a string value in order to change the scene. In order to call the function form, the button the function needs to be s public one. 

 The following step is to find the button and add the "_Manager" game object to the button in order to make it work. After I dragged and dropped the game object I had to choose from a list of different functions. I selected the "ChangeScene" then the "ChangeToScene". After I selected this I had to introduce the "string" which is the name of the scene.

 Whenever I want to change between scenes I need to add them in the build window. So I went to "File" window I chose the "Build Settings" window (this window can be accessed with the Ctrl+Shift+B shortcut) and I need to add all the scenes, they can be added by dragging and dropping them into the window.

 The final thing which I did for the main menu was to add an exit button in every scene in order to be able to return to the main menu, by using the same process. 

 References: 

 Scrolling Background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrDxnMI7pCc

 User Interface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsZM3q74Q2k&t=569s
                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2Qc_0MIyI
                         

Weeks 5 and 6

 The fifth week of this term was assigned for revisions and phase tests, so our work for the game took a break and all of our attention was directed towards the evaluations. This means that no important features were added to the game or no important updates were made.

 If in the fifth week I have not worked as much at the game, in the sixth week I have started to direct, slowly, all of my interest towards the game, so I was assigned by my team to the enemies of the game (two types of enemies to be more specific, a melee one and a ranged one). The sixth week's lecture influenced my work because we were taught how to create, animate and code a character for our game, we were taught how to use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Animate and we learned new features in Unity and C#. 

 With all of this new information acquired I have started to work on the enemies, so I took the sketches done by me in the first week and scanned them. The next step was to draw them in Adobe Illustrator, I chose Adobe Illustrator because my team and I wanted to create a vector graphic (vector graphics is the creation of digital images through a sequence of commands or mathematical statements that place lines and shapes in a given two-dimensional or three-dimensional space) type enemy, in this way our enemies will look round and realistic. The second reason for choosing Illustrator over Photoshop is that Illustrator is better for creating images than Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop is used mainly for modifying already created images or graphics and in Adobe Photoshop, bitmap graphics (a bitmap graphic is composed of many pixels, being possible to edit each individual pixel ) are created, but this type of graphics can look a bit unsmooth, feature that I want to avoid in order to create the enemies as perfect as I can.


 Here you can see the enemies: 

The Melee one:

The Ranged one:

 After I drew the enemies in Adobe Illustrator, I had to import them in Adobe Animate to create the sprite sheet. To import them in Animate I had to create for every part of the body a symbol. Here you can find the sprite sheets of the enemies:

 After I drew the enemies and created the enemy sprite sheets, I had to start coding them. Firstly I imported the sprite sheets in Unity and I sliced them. After I have done that I created a prefab for each enemy and I started coding. The first script I wrote is the one for the health of the enemies, In the start of the script I declared a public variable Animator in order to access the death animation of the enemies, and then I declared two floats variables for the "enemyMaxHealth" (this is one is public because I want to be able to modify it) and for the "currentHealth". In the Start method, I set the currentHealth to be equal with "enemyMaxHealth". In the Update method, I declared a public Void function which basically is supposed to affect the enemy's health when the player attacks him. The "Debug.Log" function messages the Unity Console, where you can see and select the error message. This is useful for locating the object where the error occurs nad solve it. Inside the Void function, I declared an if statement which accesses the makeDead function if the "currentHealth" of the enemy if lower or equal with 0. In the "makeDead" function, I declared a "Destroy(this.gameObject)" because I want to remove and destroy the enemy after he dies.

 The following script is for the movement of the Melee enemy. This script is supposed to make the enemy flip and follow the main character when the player enters the box collider. In the beginning of the script, I declared two public variables one to determine the speed of the enemy and one to access the animation of it. I want to be able to adjust the direction that the enemy is facing, so I added a "public GameObject", in order to be able to make the melee enemy flip and follow the main character, after this I want to know if the enemy is able to flip, so I added a bool which is set to true. The next bool highlights the facing of the character, it is false because the Melee enemy is facing left. The next two variables instantiate how often can the enemy flip back and forth when the enemy is idle. For attacking, I added the following variables: I declared the "attackTime" variable because I don't want for my enemy to starting running to the player as soon as the character enters the box collider, I want to give a chance to the player to dodge the enemy as good as he can. The "startAttackTime" variable determines how much time does the enemy needs to wait until it will start to attack. The last bool emphasises is the player is attacking or not. The "enemyRB" is a reference to my rigid body and this will allow me to manipulate the velocity that this rigid body is acting at. In my Start method, I need to set up the rigid body and the animator basically, they are the initializations. In Update method I will determine of the enemy can flip or not. The first if statement in the Update method flips the character if the current time is greater than "nextFlipChance". If this happens I made the enemy to possibly flip by writing into an if statement a "Random.Range" which takes numbers from 0 to 10, and if the random function is greater than 5 (it can be any number because it is a percent chance) I want ti flip the facing of the melee enemy and then I write the flipFacinf function. The "nextFlipChance" sets the next flip time. Basically every 5 seconds there is a possibility for our enemy to flip. The next thing I did was to start working on the actual code for flipping, so I declared a new method called "void flipFacing()". The first thing that I want to do in this method is to see if the enemy can flip because I do not want him to flip while he is running to the player, that is why I wrote the if statement. If the melee enemy is able to flip, the game object will access the "float facingX" variable which flips the enemy on the X axis,  "facingX *= -1f;" means that whatever the local scale for the X is, it flips in the negative form, after declaring the flipping variables I want to apply all of them to the graphic itself. The last thong I did in this method was to change the original bool. This is basically all the flip function.

 After I was done with the flip function, I started coding the following function, basically what I wanted was to create a certain function which influences the enemy in a certain way as long as the player is in the enemy's box collider. The first thing which I have done was to make the melee enemy to flipping and face the main character, so I created a new method called "void OnTriggerEnter2D" in which I determined, with the help of an if statement, if the game object which entered the collider is whether the enemy or something else. Is the game object is our player and if the enemy is facing the player I want for the enemy to keep its idle state, if the melee enemy is not facing the player I wanted to make him flip. So in the if statement I am searching for the player's position. Basically, the if statement is affirming that if the player's X position is less than the enemy's X position the game object needs to flip towards the position of the main character, for the "else if" statement is the same methodology, the only thing which is changed is the facing of the enemy. As soon as the player entered the danger zone the enemy will not be able to flip anymore and I want to determine when the enemy will be able to run towards the player. For the player staying in the "zone", I declared another method called "void OnTriggerStay2D" in which, if the player stays in the box collider the enemy will start running towards him. First of all, I wanted to check if the game object is still the player and if it is the program will check if the attack time is less than the actual time. If it is the enemy will start running to the player, if the enemy is facing left I wanted to increase the velocity in one way and if it is facing right I increased the velocity in the other way. The last thing I wanted to do on this method was to update the bool which starts the animation of running.  In the "void OnTriggerExit2D" method, I coded what happens if the player exits the box collider. The first thing I have done was to check, once again, if the game object is the same. If the player left the box collider means that the enemy will enter the idle state, it means that the game object can flip, "canFlip = true;", and it can't run towards the enemy anymore, "attacking = false;". Once the player left the "danger zone", I changed the velocity to zero. The last thing I wanted to do was to change the animation of the character back to the idle.

 Features that I need to work on: One of the only features that I did not manage to make it work was the attack animation. The rest of the code block is working properly but when the player enters the box collider and the enemy is running towards the main character, the melee enemy is supposed to play an animation and give damage to the player. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to solve it and instead of trying to fix the code for animation I programmed the enemy to start giving damage to the player as soon as the enemy touches the main character.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I_XHcsO3Oc&list=PL2cNFQAw_ndyKRiobQ2WqVBBBSbAYBobf&index=22

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/2d-roguelike-tutorial/player-and-enemy-animations?playlist=17150