Fly Flying Flies


This update includes a few different things, but the most obvious is the addition of flying insect prey: flies. The flies are based on my basic invert/insect controller, with the addition of wings and flight. Getting the basic insect movements working was pretty straight-forward, but flight did present some interesting challenges, especially take-off and landing. The AI for the flies still needs some work, but I need to plan some more game aspects out before I spend a lot of time there.

I've also added speech bubbles, so the spider and prey can "talk" to the player. The exact images/reasons for these may change, but hopefully the basic system will prove useful. For now, this system does help communicate the preys awareness of the spider, as well as a better indicator for when the spider catches something.

The last big change here is that I'm experimenting with a time-slowing effect when in the jump-targeting mode. This isn't super obvious when you're playing (it will probably need some sort of visual effect) but it does make it easier to target moving prey. I'm not sure if I will keep this, and/or the exact use for it. Should it be limited to a short time? Should you have a way of doing targeting at normal speed as well as slow? How much slower than normal should it be? But, the best way to answer these questions is to try it out and see.