Prototyping Best Practice Method?? 2d point and click.

smokeincaves

I have my story, I have a prototype puzzle dependency chart, I've got my scene set up with most of the rooms that I want to use and the character can walk between them (yoohoo!)

Well, he glides, because I haven't done his animations yet. This is the point...

I'm planning to start buliding in gameplay, also without fiddling around with the animations. My reasoning is, I want functioning gameplay before it looks all spiffy. Of course I am imagining all sorts of animations, from simple ones like 'climb a ladder' to complex ones like 'hypnotizing an npc', 'cutting a hole in the floor with a special machine', 'launch the rocket', etc etc.

So my question is, what is the best methodology for starting out on the gameply without having animations to show the player (i.e. me at this point) what is happening? What are other users doing to stand-in for animations, so that what is happening is still clear and it is easy to implement the animations later.

A related question is: how does one build gameplay so that the player can test out a small part of it without having to run through the whole thing? I am working on the main scene of the game, where multiple puzzle can be worked on simultaneously.

Thanks. AC remains FAB

ChrisIceBox

what is the best methodology for starting out on the gameply without having animations to show the player (i.e. me at this point) what is happening?

As this question is more geared to other users, you may like to ask this on the Community Discord channel.

One suggestion that I would make is that you can attach comments to Actions (or use the dedicated ActionList: Comment Action), and then print those comments to the Console via the bottom of the Settings Manager. That's useful for displaying what's intended to be going on to the developer. Personally, I prefer to just use a Dialogue: Play speech Action to have the narrator just say some stand in text (e.g. "An animation goes here").

how does one build gameplay so that the player can test out a small part of it without having to run through the whole thing?

Again, this may be better suited to those also making their own games, so have adopted their own workflow - but a couple of ways you can quickly get things running to a particular state:

1. In the Inventory Manager, click the cog beside Create new item at runtime, and you'll be able to give all items to the Player at once.
2. Variables can be assigned preset values, so that you can bulk-assign them to states that reflect the progress the player has made. E.g. a preset named "Act 2" could set all variables to the state that they should be in when Act 2 begins. You can read more about this in the Manual's "Variable presets" chapter.

smokeincaves

Thanks, I'll bear your tips in mind, thanks. Dischord check.