Update time again friends. I’ve been working on some of the most commonly requested features this week; achievements and controller support. Both are currently experimental, I’m mainly just playing with things right now, but let’s take a look at how they’re coming along.
Achievements are probably the single most requested feature I see so I figured it was about time I turned my attention to them. I have a first test achievement planned and here it is:
Don’t worry if you see this achievement in your Steam client already, it looks messed up or you’ve already unlocked it. I’m not done implementing it yet so it’s all messed up. The code to unlock it isn’t even in the game yet, so if you already have it just ignore it, it’ll be taken away soon! I’m experimenting and getting a feel for the API at the moment and it seems nice, so I should be able to get this first achievement live for the next update.
That leaves us with 2 questions:
- Do you like the design of the achievement icons?
- Do you have any achievement suggestions?
For any design feedback and/or suggestions just drop them in a comment on this post. :) Achievements are coming!
Samphi has always contained code for controller support, I’ve just always had it turned off. For simple things like character movement the controller works well and is easy to implement. When we start looking at the item system however, and moving items between the many in-game menus, things become much jankier.
Without the fidelity of a mouse, moving icons is just cumbersome. I didn’t play much of Minecraft on console because of this, and I want to ensure that I get it right on Samphi. Currently I have no idea what the right solution looks like, but I’ve re-enabled and worked on the old code.
You can use the d-pad or left analogue stick to move, A to jump, and start to pause. I’m going to play with some kind of radial cursor to aim your spade/axe etc. next and will give some thought to the best way to handle items. If you have any suggestions let me know!
Animal farming is one of the areas I want to next visit with Samphi. We have a few crops now, and you can find their seeds and plant them through to harvest. Animal farming however is woefully lacking. The only animal farming-related item in the game is fences and they don’t actually work right now!
You may be unaware that there is a fence item in the game. I don’t believe I’ve gone over these in detail before, so here’s a quick overview:
When placed next to each other like in the image above, fences SHOULD act as a boundary to keep pigs and sheep inside. To lure them in you right click on them with a rope and they are tethered to you until you right click them again.
For starters, I want to get this system solid once more, and then I’d like to start expanding and making farming useful. We need animals to re-produce, and have harvestable items so creating farms will bring benefits to your work. I think I’ll do some work here next!
So, over the next week I’ll be finalizing this stuff for a build. I hope to get the achievement plugged in and fully working, explore some options with the gamepad, and spend some time fixing the existing farming mechanics before they’re expanded on.
Hope the achievements and pad control are going to be useful! When they’re in the game we can build upon them as we go, so it’s about time we get them in the game. Enjoy your weekend friends and I’ll see you back here same time next week! Ciao!
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