First Unity Game - Spinster (The Crazy Cat Lady Game)

So, for my very first Unity game attempt, I thought I'd try to make a 2.5D "Snake"-style game.

You control the titular character, an elderly Spinster whose "family" of cats have been taken away from her. Some have been successfully re-homed, others have escaped and are now living as strays. You must venture around the small town, collecting all 101 of your cats back.

Link: SPINSTER


(Four cats look on with concern, and possibly hunger, after a tumble)

Controls:

A/D to turn Left/Right
S to swap the order of cats (no effect until the cats all have individual textures and abilities)


Progress:

I have a skeleton avatar filling in for the main character, and a few scattered cats. There are a few physics objects(so I can add pizza boxes, etc. to the environment) that aren't obstacles, and a solid wall which is. Cats are picked up on first contact, then obstacles thereafter...once you have four, you can pull a fast turn and trip over the last.

As the player moves on a grid, I have a buffer for movement commands, and a separate buffer for cat-switching("S" key).

Ragdoll seems to be working great on accidents now, though that took some fine-tuning.

Next steps:

A model for the main character, to replace the skeleton.

If the skeleton falls "off" the world by travelling beyond the floor mesh then tripping over a cat, it can sometimes result in an invisible avatar, which I'm looking into. May be fixed once the level has sufficient boundaries.

The "wall" is currently a trigger, and not a solid object. When the character enters it, they are repelled back and fall over. This works great, except the physics objects can slide right through it. I'll need to change to a solid immovable physics object, and learn how to raycast for collisions instead.

Cats need to be randomly distributed, and each to have their own texture/markings. An individual name and ability for each will follow.

Level design. Need to start making some rudimentary shapes/textures for houses, fences, hedges, etc. as a placeholder, or looking in the Asset Store for a package of Sims-like neighbourhood props.

GUI. Something to represent the number of Hips("lives") remaining and Cats found. A pause/menu/etc.



Comments and critiques welcome!

 

Still tinkering away, and made some progress.

Walls are now solid objects, and I'm properly parsing them as two types of collisions(trip over / bounce off).

Reinserted the skeleton avatar from scratch. This time I properly implemented a separate Prefab for the ragdoll, which swaps in and out seamlessly when colliding.

Collisions now react properly. No more getting stuck in the walls, or collapsing in a heap.

Been teaching myself Blender. Have a large inflatable die that you can push around. Also the test framework of the Spinster's house to the northwest.

Next up, need a cat controller to instantiate cats randomly on the map, avoiding solid objects. Also continuing with Blender to make a cartoon-style home that the player can start in, with a yard outside. Sweep out all the test level and start the game world proper.

 

it will be a very good game for mobile platform, is it for pc or mobile?

 

It's a very casual "pick up and play" game, so once I get it working on PC, I'll then try and convert it over to play on my iPad and our android/iPhone phones. Not planning on using high-poly models for anything, so hopefully that will be rather painless.

Mostly looking at this as my "apprenticeship" game, that teaches me how to do various things that I have no idea about(Blender, shaders, etc.). If I have a nice little game at the end of it, even better.

 

Update!

Webplayer

• Sandbox removed. First area of game world begun.
• My first ever model, a 1950s style house with UV mapped texture. Quality is pretty terrible, but for a first attempt, I'm pretty happy.
• There's now 8 cats to collect, 2 of each breed. Will work on some more textures for ginger/etc. cats.
• Basic yard, pavement, and road added. Fencing and Road markings to be added.
• Added a tree, and borrowed some assets from the DarkUnity project to flesh out the world a little.

Pretty happy with my physics settings, the way the character collapses over the car's hood, or trips over the hydrant, or kicks a ball in the back yard. Still a lot of neighborhood to add.

And obviously, need to find a proper Crazy Cat Lady model to substitute the skeleton. I'll keep working with Blender, then decide if I want to try making her myself once I've gotten some practice with a buildings/props/furniture/etc.

 

Your casual game is looking interesting so far.

 

Thanks. I'm doing my best not to "feature creep" and throw in too many ideas.

Meanwhile, another Update!



Webplayer (A - Turn Left, D - Turn Right, S - Camera Zoom for debugging)

• Ginger cats added, now 5 breeds to collect
• Created grid-based street system
• New blender model (picket fence) = good
• New blender model (hedge) = pretty bad
• Moving vehicles (just along one road to test physics)
• Realistic collisions with vehicles (solid walls are probably a little too bouncy still)
• Ball physics improved
• Camera now follows ragdoll after falling over
• Slow motion falling over implemented, but disabled while I test
• Found a couple more free/cheap assets, like the wooden fence.

There's a stack of boxes on the closest road that gets hit by the first car, that's just a regular test that I haven't broken the physics engine. As well as finding the cats strewn randomly across the neighborhood, there'll be a number of unique cats that you'll have to perform "quests" to achieve. The first example is the neighbor's ball that's found its way into your back yard. Getting it over your back fence back into their property will earn you a hidden cat. (if you lose it, i.e. it gets stuck under a car, etc. then you'll have to get them another ball from the neighborhood)

There'll eventually be quest triggers/markers to explain these when you get close enough, as well as messages when you've collected every regular cat in each neighborhood.

If anyone wants to take the time, I'm curious how difficult the above quest is. (the ball in your back yard, not the one next to the road) Bear in mind that there's no Quest Complete trigger yet.

 

Webplayer

Keys are A D to turn Left and Right.

Update!

• Secret Golden Cat added...return the ball in the backyard over the back fence to unlock.
• New "Sims"-style housing pieces to construct future homes with. (see property to south)
• Houses will now all be able to be entered, though some will require unlocking.
• Breakable Windows (kick a soccer ball through them, headbutt them, go flying through them after tripping over a cat, etc.)
• On/off switches for lights, garage doors, etc.(examples in Garage)
• Transparent shadow-casting objects when above the player (example, garage door when raised)
• Various prop/environment additions

Tinkering away, working on whichever part of the game takes my fancy. This is why the house is only partially built but the electrics are functional. I'm particularly proud of my solution for the garage door, which turns semi-transparent when raised but still casts a shadow, using only basic shaders(and cheating). The front door in the above picture is currently locked...I wanted to hide the key under the welcome mat, but the proximity to the door makes everything trigger in rapid succession...it might have to go under a pot plant instead.

Comments/critiques/suggestions welcome as always.

 

Very nice project!!
Please tell me if there's anything I can help with.

 

Webplayer

Keys are A D to turn Left and Right.

Update!

• Doors in test house(to south) now work.
• Windows now break properly if they are north/south facing.
• GUI added: Dynamic cat counter. Counts the total cats per game and displays a You Win message when you have them all.
• GUI added: Hips remaining counter. Displays game over when you fall and you've already broken both hips.
  
• GUI added: Generic Message Display for Game Over, You Win, Quest Complete, etc.
  
• GUI added: Quest display. Head into back yard to see the first quest.
  
• GUI added: Cat name display.
  
• Cats now have individual name/sizes.
• GUI scales to screen size.

To do:

• A proper old lady model/ragdoll for the player.
• A dog model to guard certain properties.
• A few basic models for pedestrians/homeowners.
• Build the game world/neighborhood.
• Sound effects and Music
• Voice actor to voice our player.
• Main Menu with difficulty settings, High Score, etc.
• More cats, and randomize cat starting locations.

Comments/critiques/suggestions welcome as always.

Also thanks tokidoki4747 for the purrfect cat model.