in the deep end.. (Patreon)

check it out! I've just finished animating Lani in aseprite. She's looking pretty good, if I do say so myself...

After I had her sprites ready, I took them over to Gamemaker and got a test room going. yaaay, time to program, FINALLY!

The very first step was to get Lani swimming around in a natural manner. I had her interpolate between wherever the player clicked and her current position. I also figured out how to get her to slide to a stop, so everything looks nice and smooth.

I also experimented a bit with particles to give her some bubbles while she floats around and swims. I like particle systems, but they do terrify me a little bit because if you don't forget to clean them up, they cause memory leaks. But it looks like these bubbles haven't broken the game!

ready for the results?

...okay yeah the gif compression is pretty crunchy, but running live, it really looks like she's swimming around!!! I'm so excited! It's truly amazing how much a little lerping and smoothing achieves a natural floaty/swimming affect. With this, the player will be able to swim around the levels. I still have to add some camera limits when she reaches the edge of the map, but this is a GREAT stopping point. Tomorrow, I'm going to work on the UI and some basic interactions!

by the way, I listen to a LOT of music mixes on youtube when I'm working, and I found the perfect y2k/chill/fruitiger mix that I just loved and kinda wanted to share. This is me, if you even care ohohoho

That's all for today! here's your sign-off joke:

Q: Why is the ocean made of saltwater?

A: Because fish are sensitive to pepperwater