Reflection done by Gaming Scientist
Introduction
After spending a year on Mistephone and Muzz' fights, and the full Chaos Kingdom and Garish Gorge levels, I challenged myself to revamp Mugo's boss mechanics and implement the basics of the Sheep Mage's Z and X attacks before I went to bed on 31 December 2022. I then left it until the middle of January 2022, when I would implement the rest of the Sheep Mage and Bad Karma's abilities and make Sheepapalooza proper. My work finished on 28 February 2023.
Seeing as my first published reflection was overly technical, this reflection will be put into slightly simpler terms while maintaining the formal tone.
What I Have Learned
Before I get ahead of myself, I should list everything that I have learned over the past year.
Explosions and related area of effect (AoE) attacks like Rotter's body slam in the Garish Gorge came from MetalStorm Games. The game checks for the targets' colliders in a certain radius and performs an action (usually dealing damage) to all targets in range.
GameGrind, JesseEtzler, and BurgZerg Arcade made melee attacks and complex enemy behavior (AI) possible. GameGrind provided the guide for weapon animations, JesseEtzler the barebones script for chasing down the player that was perfected in the Chaos Kingdom, and BurgZerg Arcade the line of sight mechanic that serves as an additional flag for when enemies can attack. Every enemy has a float timer that is reduced every frame that they are not triggering their attack animation. If they come into range of the player and the float value is negative, it resets and they trigger their attack animation. This usually means that they can attack as soon as they return to their idle animation.
Shockwaves, according to Unity Forum, are an ugly amalgamation of colliders on the perimeter of an expanding circle. I have only used them once, for the Quake Fairy in Mistephone's boss fight.
The random number generator came from Code Monkey (Brackeys is another person that people recommend, but I find following him difficult). This is one of the most versatile gameplay tools, covering everything from random attacks to food drops to spawning enemies in the Chaos Kingdom and Garish Gorge's arenas.
samyam killed three birds with one video in Muzz' boss fight by explaining how the 3D Cinemachine camera, Unity's Input System, and the new Character Controller physics system work. The arrow keys control the camera, WASD the Skylanders, and the W key always moves the Skylander in the direction that the camera is facing. I also referenced her for adding a character swap mechanic that needed a lot of refining between the Rolling Dunes Resort and Garish Gorge. Adding two different bodies that the player switches between with Q and E like in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance was too complex because the inactive/defeated characters had to be locked down, the enemies had to focus on the active character, and the cameras had to not drift regardless of how many times the player switches characters. The Garish Gorge solved every scripting and camera problem by making all characters share one body. This may also be similar to how the official Skylanders games handle switching characters on the Portal of Power.
Switching characters has the previously controlled character call to the newly controlled character like in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Most of them refer to their allies by their casual name ("Karma!"). The general exception is if the newly controlled character is a former villain ("Sheep Mage!"), especially if their name can be mistaken for another's ("Dreamcatcher!"). Some character-specific exceptions include Crimson Tide, whose tagging quotes in Misty Mayhem Isle will be screamed ("CAVE!"), and Silhouette, whose tagging quote in the Lowlands will be identical to Link's in the aforementioned game regardless of who the newly controlled character is ("Ha!").
Joke Master's (Chaos Kingdom) and Gunker's (Garish Gorge) parabolic attacks cited Zolran. They spawn a telegraph at the Skylander's location and the hazard at their own locations. The hazard calculates the arc needed to reach the telegraph. If it takes too long to reach the telegraph because it is too far away, both will harmlessly despawn.
All enemies and bosses have a 50% chance of dropping food that adds a charge to the healing counter. The player begins with five charges at the start of each level. Consuming a charge with H heals each Skylander for 29% of their maximum health. I first modified the healing system in the Garish Gorge so people who struggle with computer games, including our leader, can stand a chance against the tougher encounters in Shrink Squad. People with more experience in computer games, myself included, can save the charges for each level's finale and stand in the boss' face while unloading the active character's strongest attacks.
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