Bud the Spud with Baked Potatos

Here we can see "Bud the Spud" safely standing on a tin foil wrapped Potato baking on the Hibachi. This is the ONLY safe way to cross the BB Q's one step on those hot grills and it's one big burn out for "Bud the Spud." Just like his Mud bog death I'll have to make a nice "Burning Death" for when he ends up on a hot grill. Maybe something like he runs around in a frantic circle until he busts into flame and then turns into a pile of ash lol :)

You can see a little more of the yard in this screen capture. Also note the Soccer ball on the grass in the background. Bud will need this ball in order to get on top of the next wall. ;)

Bud the Spud and Tin Foil Box

As "Bud the Spud" navigates his way across the top of the garden wall he'll not only come across the Hibachi BB Q's but also boxes of tin foil, a grim reminder that his fellow Potato people are being turned into Baked Potatoes. He'll even have to jump on Baked Potatoes in order to safely get across each BBQ. I still have to make the tin foil wrapped Baked Potatoes, but when I do and add them into the game scene they will cry out in pain each time Bud jumps on one. It's a little twisted I know but then again I like things with a little twisted humor ;)

The Hibachi WIP

A sneak peek at one of the Hibachi's that "Bud the Spud" will have to deal with in level 02. I have not yet created the tinfoil wrapped Potato's that he will have to jump onto in order to safely cross the tops of each Hibachi BBQ. The plan is to have each tinfoil wrapped Potato shout "Ouch" each time Bud jumps on one in order to cross. There is still a lot to do and workout in level 02 like the Soccer ball he will need to get up on top of the far wall. Placement of enemy worms, Placement of the Keys, Extra Health and Life pick ups and placement of a few good old Mud Bogs. I also need to create his new enemy "The Potato Beetle" as they will be introduced in this level as well.

New Training Ground Level

I made a new beginning to the game level where "Bud the Spud" now starts off inside of a small training level just to introduce players to some of the things they will need to know in order to better understand the game. You can still go inside of Bud's house only now its just a silly game extra, but there and can be explored never the less ;)

There is a slight bug though because if you have collected game objects like Fertilizer Pellets and Keys and lets say you have even killed the occasional worm or two. If you go into Bud's House or the training level and then return to the game's main level 01 you loose all of your collected items, this is because the level re sets itself. I think I know how to fix this. With that "Do not destroy on load." code. ??

Optimization & Tips

I managed reduce the file size from just over 40 MB down to 33.6 MB by reducing a lot of the texture maps from 1024 down to 512, the quality still looks pretty good even when viewed at full screen in the web player so I'm pretty happy with that.

TIPS

Making it across the 2nd or middle deadly mud bog

OK now I know there are some people who have been having a difficult time trying to figure that one out. It's actually pretty simple. The normal instinct I guess would be to try and jump to the broken dock on the other side of the mud bog and although it can be done it is a difficult jump. The easy way is to jump to the right towards the glowing mushrooms with the Fire flies flying around above. Much safer and easier jump. I was originally going to remove that little patch of land so you HAD to jump to the other dock but I thought that might make it too difficult for a first game level. I dunno though, what do you think?

Extra Life Heart & Fertilizer Pellets

There is a large broken pipe located at the 3rd deadly mud bog, inside are extra Fertilizer Pellets and an Extra Life Heart. You can always tell when an extra life heart is near by by the "Beating Heart" sound. Climb up to the floating platform and jump onto the 2nd platform, from there jump onto or into the pipe to collect your rewards.

The First Key

This one I notice some people miss when playing the game as they make there way down the path towards the middle deadly mud bog. Be sure to look for the first deadly mud bog to your right as you head towards the middle bog. It can be easy to miss if you are not looking out for it. In the middle of that bog on a rock is the first key needed to unlock the door to the surface way above. jump from the glowing mushrooms onto the rocks to get to the key. Remember "Fire flies" often give important clues, be sure to look for them in the game.

Mud Bog Drowning

Took me a little while to finally work out a good way to do a better death scene for when "Bud the Spud" falls into a "Deadly Toxic Mud Bog". But I managed to cobble together something that works pretty good. If he falls into a Mud Bog there is a splash, he sinks and can't move except play his drowning animation while a nice drowning sound plays, and after a few seconds he explodes and looses one life.

Bud's House Model

Bud's House model renders

i've been busy all day rendering the interior of Bud's house to upload to Turbosquid. The renders took a long time in 3DS Max using Mental ray, one omni light for the candle beside his bed and settings for soft shadows. I'm very pleased with how the samples turned out but they sure took a while to render.

This morning in Unity 3D I was working on a particle effects for the little candle beside Bud's bed. Lots of tweaking and a while later I was starting to get something "Candle Flame like." I still want to tweak it a bit as I feel it could be better but I think it's getting there.

I feel the 000Webhost that I have my game currently on is not very reliable of friendly with Unity 3D's Web Player as I keep getting a "Bad File Length" error message. Seems sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't and I still can't tell if my load bar is quite behaving the way it should. It seems to move very slowly and then does not completely finish and then suddenly the game level loads which does not seem right to me, but unless I can find another more reliable web host I can't really tell what the problem is.