TopDownShooter-ToolKit v1.2

It's finally done, the so call progression system for TDS-TK that I've been talking about so long. It turns out better than I expect it to be and I'm really exited about it.

So basically we have the perk system that is more or less resemble the one in TDTK and TBTK. You can create perks item that do various thing. For now in TDS-TK, the options are modify player stats, modify weapon or ability stats/effect, or add new weapon and ability. There is an option to do custom effect but of course that would require additional scripting effort.

Apart from the perk system, there's the leveling system. It's pretty straight-forward. Player can gain experience from various source and level up once they accumulated enough experience point. As they level up, they gain various stat bonus.

Now the beauty is, the two leveling and perk systems can be used along side each other to do all sort of wonderful stuff. A very straight-forward implementation, level up would give the player perk currency which can then be spent on a skill tree (world of warcraft system). Or the perk can be used as attributes that player choose to invest point in upon level up (diablo system). Or a more passive system where certain perk would be unlocked automatically at specific level. All these setup are demonstrated in the demo scene. In theory, they are not mutually exclusive however the default UI can only support one of them at any given time. Anyway, these are how they look like:

On top of that, there's little addition here and there to support the new system like new trigger and new collectible, save system, etc. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. If you are wondering how is the leveling system is configured, here's a screen shot of the editors.

The new update has just been submitted to the AssetStore. There's a chance that it has gone live by the time you are reading this.  :)

TopDownShooter-ToolKit

Apparently I've never make any announcement post for my latest release on AssetStore. To make it up, I hereby announce that TDSTK is now live on AssetStore. And so is the subsequent update v1.1. Now I won't go through what TDSTK can do here. You can simply get that from the TDSTK main page.

Truth be told, TDSTK start from something I work for fun over the weekend. I'm quite happy with the way it turns out. It has a very flexible system that allows a lot of synergy between the weapons, effects, ability and collectibles. Any effects (damage, stun, slow, damage over time, etc) can used for any weapon, ability and collectible. Weapon can fire abilities, abilities usage can be set to behave like collectible or weapons, Collectible can grant weapon or ability or modified weapon behaviour and so on. It's not the same thing but it feels so much more free form and powerful then what I've done in both TDTK or TBTK.

The fact that I spent almost as much time playing the demo as I worked on it is a testament of how fun the mechanic is. Or I'm just so deprived of the simple pleasure of playing a simple top down shooter game that I find a simple demo so fun. I guess the new visual direction that I went for helps too. There's a strange satisfaction when every time when I shoot at something and it shatters into pieces. If you are sold based on what I've described so far, try play the demo yourself. You can find the link at the TDSTK main page.

Some of the behind the scene screen shot for the demo

On a more technical side, the implementation is objectively better. Most of this won't be immediately obvious to the user but it will be a lot more easier for me to maintain, update and expand the toolkit in the long run. For a start, the code for the editors are better organized and it support multiple instance editing when it can. Then the UI is done a lot more efficiently, drastically reduce the amount of code required. I'm planning to apply all this new techniques here to both TDTK and TBTK.

Of course, there's plenty of room for improvement and expansion. I can see myself adding support for some sort of character progression system, or inventory system, taking it very close to being an action rpg framework. A very exciting prospect indeed. What I'm trying to say is I will definitely trying to experimenting and adding new interesting feature in the future. Basically Just like what I did with TDTK and TBTK.

Finally, some shameless self-complimenting. The new tank and turret set I've made for the toolkit, quite nice aren't they?