Making Progress and Scaling Flag Poles

This week we started getting work done in our game. We decided to have a power that 'heals' the world immediately around the player. For now, this reveals platforms that the player can use to reach new areas, but we plan to expand it as we continue developing. It also shows a brighter, more colorful backdrop for the player. Mike and I were able to get the power working using a render texture, complete with a toggle button to activate and deactivate it.

I failed to mention this earlier but we are using the Unity game engine to create our games. I have used Unity for some other courses and it's a fantastic tool. I'm currently working on trying to make the power circular, but haven't quite figured out the best way to do it. I'm close to a solution though.

The project is coming along great. It's feeling more and more like a game instead of an exercise.

In other news, on September 15th my roommates and I beat Super 3D World on the Wii U. And I don't mean we just completed the basic levels. As my roommate, Matt Mortensen, wrote on his facebook status:

• "Super Mario 3D World has been beaten 100% with all characters, stars and stamps. I'm putting this on my résumé."

It is quite an accomplishment. Especially when everyone is killing each other to get to the top of the flag pole first, and when you have a roommate named Matt Clark who likes to throw people off the edge of platforms for no reason. :D

My review: The game was fantastic. I give it three Mario gold stars (no ztars). Playing multiplayer in a 3D world was always entertaining. Sometimes depth perception got the best of me, but it kept the game fresh. As great as the game was, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get a single player Mario game for the Wii U. Super Mario Galaxy 3 maybe?

As always, thanks for reading. Happy gaming!