Over the past two weeks I have been working on the new Chat system for Rivalry which will allow players to communicate with each other both in the lobby and during fights.
I have decided to add a physics based chat system into Rivalry that keeps in theme with the games very physics based feel. Each character you type will be created from your cursor and proceed to float around in the air. As you type more characters these physics based characters will string together to form words with each new word becoming a new line.
I have a very simple version of this working in the video below. Note that I am still tweaking the physics values of the letters and the colourful blue, yellow and red backgrounds are only present for debugging purposes
https://youtu.be/sKHTeUrMQdc
I am still not sure if this system will work and be satisfying to use or merely become too convoluted and end up create sentences that become too hard to read, but I may as well try :).
Currently the blue boxes are the characters that are being typed into the yellow boxes which are words. If you either press “enter” or “space” a new line and therefore word will be created. The red caret or “cursor” will be the visual indicator that will display where the user will be typing.
Last week I worked on the network protocol and character commands that will send the typed characters to other players either in the lobby or in the game. As this chat system is based on stringing characters together it would make sense for the network commands be based on sending single unicode characters. These character commands will then be sent to all available players where they will be displayed locally. I am reusing the same structure that the mouse cursors use in terms of the visibility of the chat and who is allowed to see it. For example mouse cursors in games shouldn’t be seen in the lobby, likewise, conversations happening in games, shouldn’t be shared in the lobby. This Chat system will also feature normal operations such as backspace, delete, enter, home, end and left and right arrow keys which will allow the player to maneuver around their text to edit.
Currently I am working on finishing the structure of the chat physics and working out how it can be easily edited through sending operations like backspace and the arrow keys. Then I will begin to wire up the network protocol to the display system.
Pending tasks are now
- Chat System (Create chat physics structure).
- Steam workshop for player skins.
- Complete network game lobby UI (make pretty and complete all network game modes).
- Complete network game restart UI (make pretty).
- Research different arenas and backgrounds.
- General bug fixing, tidy up and enhancement of look and feel..